A Child's Haven - 41. Chapter 41

Every day for a week, I’d go to the hospital right after the kids had breakfast. The plastic lion was mounted on the wall over the buffet. For the kids, things were getting back to normal. The boy in the hospital was healing but still had not gain consciousness. Dr. Franks indicated that it would take time for his body to heal, but he expected him to reach consciousness at any time.

The next morning, Aaron Burton had called and wanted to talk. Abe said that 3B was finished and I should check it out. 3A was ready for the furniture, and he needed Mrs. Chester’s list. Being involved in visiting the hospital, I was glad that I had friends who were able to keep their focus on the activities of Sanctuary. Today, I was going to devote some time to Sanctuary.

I called Tony to invite him to a working lunch. I wanted to get caught up on the happenings at Sanctuary and the planned outing to the zoo.

Tony arrived at noon, and after we filled our tray, I saw Tony leave the dining hall. “Where are you going?”

“To your office, you said you wanted to have a business meeting over lunch.”

“Yes, but I thought we’d sit here. Where are we going to sit in the office, on the floor?”

“You haven’t checked the offices lately, have you? The office furniture has arrived and has been placed in all of the offices, and the elevator was tested yesterday and is operational. Come on and see how it turned out.”

I was surprised to see the elevator operational and the office furniture installed. Walking into my office on the second floor, I was amazed. Tony had selected the carpet, and all the furniture was in place. Tony set his tray on the small conference table.

“Are you going to sit down or just stand there?”

“This is great. The office looks wonderful. I can’t thank you enough. Let’s eat; I want to see all of the offices.”

Tony chuckled as I placed my tray down and began to eat. I was really happy, and I wanted to check out all of the construction. “Tony, you have done an incredible job picking up the pieces. I know you didn’t ask for this added burden, but I’m glad you stepped up to do my job. The kid in the hospital has been on my mind to the exclusion of everything. I’ll be so glad when he’s able to come home. Although you may not want to be my partner, you are, in effect, my partner.”

“I’m glad to be doing what I can to help you. I think you know how I feel about you.”

I smiled while I nodded my head, yes. “If you’re finished, let’s do a tour.”

Before leaving the second floor, Tony showed me the induction room. There was a small desk, several file cabinets, a printer, a laptop, and a desk with two chairs. It was perfect for Beth to keep the records and to enroll new kids. “We need to have nameplates for the doors.” I saw Tony take a small notebook and jot that down. As we checked each office, we commented about who would occupy the office and if they needed any more accessories. “I’m not sure if we should move Mrs. Chester’s office here or leave it at the school. What do you think?”

“If you move it here, she’d be running back and forth. Leave her office in the school.”

I nodded in agreement as we entered the conference room. “Wow, this looks like a room in a multimillion-dollar company. It must have cost a fortune.”

“No, it was rather cheap. Your dad’s legal firm wanted to update their conference room and donated this to us, a 501c donation.”

“I want to see dad’s face when he walks in. Which reminds me, when should we schedule a Board meeting?”

“Why don’t we wait until the main building is complete?”

“Sounds good. Let’s get our empty trays and then take a look at the construction.”

As we left the office building, I saw Beth. “Beth, your office is ready. You may want to move your files there.”

She looked puzzled. Tony pointed out the second floor; as we took our trays back to the cook shack.

“Mrs. Jenkins, are you happy here with your office, or would you rather have one in the new office building?

“No, I need to be here. I can keep my eye on the kitchen, monitor the stock, and be available for any questions. More important, I have a weekly staff meeting with Mario and Adam to set the menus for the coming week. If we expand this area, then I’ll consider a larger office, but I still want it to be a part of the cook shack.”

“Tony, we should think about expanding the cook shack. With the number of kids increasing, we’ll need a larger cooking area. Put that as a note in your pad and remind me to talk to Abe about it.”

Leaving the cook shack, we headed to the dining hall to reach the third floor. As we began to walk up the stairs, our group kept getting larger. What started as Tony and I soon had Jeff, Pat, Billy, Ronnie, Leon, and Bubba. Bubba came to my side and took my hand. I smiled down at him and received a big grin back.

Arriving at 3A, I was amazed at the layout of the school rooms. There was no indication of grade; the doors were identified as 3A-1, 3A-2, which continued until all of the rooms were identified. Looking into a room, one would know where the whiteboard would be and the teacher’s desk. There was a closet that would hold the teacher’s supplies. The teacher’s lounge was furnished. “It was all purchased at the same time we purchased the office furniture.”

If the teachers didn’t like this lounge, they weren’t going to work for us. “Has Mrs. Chester seen this room?”

“Yes, she has made one trip here, but we need that elevator. She took a while walking up the stairs, and when she got here, she had to rest. She was amazed at the lounge, made herself a cup of tea, and sat in one of the chairs while she drank her tea.”

“Remind me to have her make a presentation to the Board.” Out came the notebook.

Floor 3B was complete, and Andy had moved into his apartment. All of the quads were finished and ready for occupancy. While I was inspecting the quads, Andy came.

“Well, Andy, how do you like the set-up?”

“It turned out great. I had a friend over, and he wanted to know if you would allow him to stay here.”

I knew who his friend was, but he wasn’t the type of person who would typically be a Sanctuary member. He came from a loving home and was supported by his family. “Andy, we’ll talk about your friend later, ok. You should get ready to receive your new house guests.”

On 3C, I expected the floor to be completed as well. But there still was about a week’s work left. I was a little disappointed, but all in all, Abe and his crews did a great job. “Tony, get your notebook, and let’s go to the roof.” I noticed all of the kids left except Bubba. Putting my arm around Bubba’s shoulder, we walked to the roof.

“Tony, I was thinking of putting a hanging garden here. I want to hang baskets around the walls, large enough that there is only a 6-inch clearance between the bottom of the basket and the floor. In each basket, we could plant flowers or vegetables. We could let the kids plant anything they wanted and let them have fun growing plants, vegetables, or flowers. What do you think?”

“Where would you get these baskets?”

“Maybe we can buy them. We should take a ride to a nursery and see what they have.”

“I like that idea, Dad. I could sell my vegetables to you.”

I chased him, caught him, tickled him, and then hugged him, always ending with a head kiss.

Going back to the third floor, I checked out my bedroom. It was done, and I could move the furniture there and start sleeping there. There were a few more rooms completed, but not all. “Tony, are you going to have a sleeping room here?”

“As much time as I spend here, I may as well move here.”

“Partner”

He made to hit me on my shoulder, but I moved away from him.

“Let’s go and check on Amir, and I want to talk to Adam and Jeff. Did Abe mentioned when the elevator would be ready?”

“He thought another three weeks. They could put a construction elevator in, but that is only temporary.”

“No, I can wait until the unit is fully installed.”