I'm humming, cutting my vegetables and tossing them into my stew pot. I glance at the clock and see it is now eight in the evening. I eat my dinner and take a bath and ready for bed, sitting up reading a book. It is almost midnight when I begin to nod off and Bav has still not arrived. I set my book down and go ahead and go to sleep.
I'm dreaming, I know I am. I'm in a red satin and black lace evening gown, my gloved hand holds a drink as I flutter across a ballroom. It's full of faces familiar to me, but no one stands out to me that I could name. I'm searching for somebody but not one of those faces is who I am looking for. Next thing I know, I am in my childhood home.
I can feel the rough, aged wood of the floorboards, the chill of the wind that breezes through the cracks in the walls. Teddy is in my hands, still looking new, as I back up from the scene of my father yelling and slapping my mother around. Crying, I call out for my momma.
"Momma!"
My father punches momma, she hits the floor hard.
"Momma!" I scream running to my father and begin pounding my little fists against him. My attacks are futile as he just laughs and back hands me, I go flying and there is a 'thunk' as I hit the stove.
"MOMMA!" I scream out as the pain in my lower back comes to life.
My eyes open and I sit up, a cold sweat over my body, and warm tears are flowing down my face. Sobbing, I quickly glance around looking for Momma, when it all sinks in.
Momma and Father are dead. I'm a grown woman, living in my own apartment above my shop. It was just a bad dream.
I get up and wash my face, once I have calmed down. I go to my dresser and pull out the top drawer, taking Teddy out of his cloth bag I keep him in. He is still dirty looking and worn, but I clutch him to my chest as he comforts me, silently. I put him away in the bag with a kiss after I'm ready to go back to sleep. Looking at the clock it was three in the morning.
'Bav must have not wanted to wake me up if he came back at a late time.' I shrug off the disappointment and climb into bed.
I am awaken to my alarm clock and the sun barely peeking through the curtains. Stretching like a cat, I get up and start getting ready for work. I pick out one of my favorite yellow chiffon with white trim. It only requires a small bustle support and is much more comfortable to wear and sit down in. The pastel color like snapdragons or daffodils, compliments my skin color, making my skin glow.
I don my apron in the kitchen and start pulling out the ingredients from the ice box and setting everything up for the girls to arrive. The oven is getting hot, while I start rolling and layering my pastry dough, when the girls finally arrive, giggling.
"Good morning, ladies. What is so humorous?" I ask them, desperate for something to take my mind off Bav not showing up last night.
Elaine in her sing song voice informs me, "Mr. Chambers is an awfully sweet man. Etty likes his company very much. Is that right, Etty?" Elaine bats her eyes at Etty as she pulls on an apron as well.
Blushing, Etty replies, "Yes, he seems quite pleasant."
Elaine scoffs, "And? ... Tell her!"
I look between the two a brow raised urging Etty silently to explain with my hands.
Quiet as a church mouse, Etty squeaks out, "He asked if I would go to dinner with him sometime."
I squeal in delight and Elaine joins me as we each take a hand from Etty, jumping slightly like we were still school girls.
"How lovely!" I exclaim, excited for her. I have to stay focused though and get back to business. "I'm happy for you, Etty. We have work to do though. I have to go and hire the men to start the clean up and work on the new shop and then go buy our supply for next week. I'll be gone for most of the day. I will try not to leave you to yourselves with the afternoon rush, but I can not promise at this moment."
"It's fine love, so when did Mr. Fairchild show up?" Etty asks me.
My silence makes them both stop and look worried at me.
"I'm sure he got back late last night and didn't want to wake me. We shall see each other today." I force a smile and even though they give me a nod, they glance at me every now and then, doubtful I am not bothered.
I hurry up and ready myself to go hire the crew and rent a motor carriage for the supplies. I'm out the door before we are even open for business, noticing a few people already sitting outside, waiting for eight to strike. Glancing at the time from my pocket watch, I stick my head in the door again.
"Elaine, do you both need ten more minutes?" Elaine who just walked behind the counter shakes her head no.
"Send them in, we can handle it." Etty smiles, putting on her servers apron.
"Alright, tea is served." I tell the group outside, leaving the door open for them. Some nod to thank me, others bid me good morning. I smile recognizing most of them, happy to have had their patronage over the years.
I continue on my way, going to Eric Milton's office, the contractor who was part of the Cogs. Every person who owned a business that was part of the Cogs, had to hire people who lived in poverty in the undercarriage. It was how we helped to better the lives of some, while still working towards our end goal to improve everyone's lives. We helped our fellow Cog members by using their services first.
Eric Milton had a respectable reputation even among those that would shy away from using workers from the undercarriage. He has become very successful here in the works.
The little bell rings on the door as I walk through into the reception area of the office. The receptionist's blonde hair and crystal blue eyes pounce on me as she is talking on the tube. I remain quiet until she hangs the tubes ear piece up and writes some note down.
"Good morning, how may I help you?" She says politely.
"Good morning, my name is Ms. Langridge. I am here to speak to Mr. Milton about getting started on cleaning out and repairing the shop I just bought."
"One moment, Ms. Langridge, I make sure he's ready for you." She goes to the back and into a door, and comes back a moment later. "Right this way, Ms. Langridge." She motions me to follow her and leads me to his personal office.
"Hello, Rakara! Come take a seat." Eric motions for me to sit.
Eric and I have known each other since I first moved out of the undercarriage. He was one of my tutors, who taught me science and history. He is thirty eight years old and is in great shape for his age, his black hair is starting to get lighter, with wisps of gray above his ears and in his short kept beard. He is a nice man with a good work and social ethics. One would say he might be arrogant, but in truth he was really confidant, intelligent, and a bit competitive.
"Hello Eric. How are you this morning?" I inquire as I take my seat, smiling.
"Oh, I can not complain. Business is good, my workers have been doing good. How about you?" He asks stretching and relaxing back into his chair, his hands resting on the arms of the seat.
"I'm doing just fine. I came by to see about getting a crew to begin their cleanup and repair on the building I recently purchased?"
"Oh yes, I still need to do my inspection of the place too. Are you busy? We could go there now and get that out of the way. Once I know what exactly needs to be done first, I know which crews I need for the place." He suggests.
"That sounds wonderful." I feel myself getting excited as another step in making the new place my own is about to be accomplished.
Two hours later, Eric is whistling as he checks the fire rotted supports from the basement. "Wow, yeah, Rakara... I need you to walk back to the front of the shop, I don't like the way some of these beams look that you are around. How much was this place again?"
"Thirty thousand."
"I can see why." He grunts as pulls himself up through a hole in the floor. "You've got a ton of support beams to replace, not just around the boiler. The ones here in the basement are all charred about twenty feet out from the boilers area. I counted 40 major supports between the basement and to the roof. Those are not cheap, so it's a good thing you already purchased those over there." He directs his head towards the beams that Bav had purchased for me.
"Now the planking and other lumber that needs to be replaced..." He grabs a notepad and a pencil from his pocket and starts writing down some numbers and listing the materials needed. He worked on it for a few minutes asking some questions here and there, mainly about keeping the layouts of the three apartments upstairs. I expressed my desire to move the boiler away from under the stairs so a repeat like before would not happen.
"Yes, I believe I can move it to the north east corner of the building, but what do you want to do with all that unused space that will be left over under the stairs?"
"IS there enough room for two bathrooms? Very simple, just a toilet and sink for each." I ask hopeful.
"Uh.... Give me a minute." He walks carefully over to the charred area of the stairs where the boiler is and then walks around and comes back. He sketches a crude drawing of the layout as it is.
"As is... No, you can not fit two powder rooms. However, if you use this hall that is on the other side of the stair, enclose the area and add a door, We can split the area under the stair to give more room to the hall's toilet. They should both be comfortable to use for either parties. We have to replace that whole area, so other than the plumbing, toilets, sinks and door there should not be too many other add-ons that will bump the budget price up." He is excited and I have to admit that it is the perfect solution. Reality of life though comes to mind.
"How much of a budget are we looking at as of now?" I hesitate to ask.
"You're looking at about twenty five to thirty thousand gold. That's labor, lumber, nails, the bathrooms downstairs, kitchen, boiler, the full studios up stairs and the kitchen. I can save you whatever I can, if the quality is up to par, but I won't settle for a poorer quality just because the price is cheaper."
"Yes, I understand Eric. Why don't you take care of the clean up and rebuild with these designs first. I have twenty thousand I can pay to do the majority of the work, but I have not got paid from my last job yet, so I can not commit to the entirety until I get my cut. Will that be alright?"
"Yes, of course. Did you do the big job night before last? With Leo?"
I nod, looking over the itemized list with the estimated amounts needed. I see he marked down tiles for the kitchen and bathrooms and a lot of them.
"Ummm, do we really need that much tile in every bathroom? I would think downstairs just the area around the toilets and sinks would be fine."
We sit there for another hour discussing the details a little bit more to give me some wiggle room with the budget.
It's lunch time and both of our stomachs are rumbling at each other.
"Ha ha ha! Shall we go get lunch before our stomachs attack one another?" Eric laughs as our stomachs growl at each other.
Locking up the building behind us, I shake my head. "I'm sorry, another time Eric. I need to go and purchase supplies for my shop and get back to help the girls with tea time, it is my busiest time of day." I reject his kind offer.
"That's fine, I understand. Oh one more thing, is this property going to be 'organized'?" He emphasizes organize and know he's talking about it being a cog location. The cogs had a specific amount that they would pay to have business retrofitted with hidden rooms, door ways, and anything else one could possibly utilize when doing work.
"That would still be covered by them right?" I make sure that the allotment has not been reached for the year, since fall is descending upon us.
"Do not fret, I'll come up with some ideas and see what we can do depending on how much is left. I know it was not all gone. I'll get in touch when those plans are ready." He gives me a quick brotherly hug around my shoulders and we part ways.