Serendipity - Version Alpha
by Lubrican
Chapters : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Epilogue
Epilogue
It
should have taken two years to design and build
the structure Caitlin and I drew the plans for, for the new company, as
yet
un-named, that would come into existence.
But two things sped that process up.
The first was that the funding was already there, and
contractors could
be told to begin work as soon as possible.
The second was that, until that structure was completed, all of
us were
crammed in what had seemed like a fairly large house, before Kat and I
got
married. Now, with four adults, a child
in his terrible twos, and a brand new baby in the house, the pressure
to make
progress was always there.
In
some ways, though, it was easier, with all of us
there. I had adapted to being the
primary caregiver to Stephen, while Caitlin finished school.
But she'd always wanted to spend more
time
with her child, and now she got to do that with Miranda.
Stephen took a different kind of time and
care by then. At that point, what was
critical was just watching him more or less constantly to make sure he
didn't
get into mischief, or trouble of some kind.
And now there were two more adults to supervise him, and change
Miranda's diapers, and just do things that needed to be done.
Ashley,
who had been the most frivolous of the three
in the past, was very serious about the baby that kept stretching her
belly
further and further. She was assiduous
in her attention to Caitlin, asking questions and learning as much as
she could
before she had her own baby. That
included being with me during Kat's labor with Miranda, and
watching the
delivery.
The
foundation was laid and the walls were going up
when Emma, who had avoided watching Kat during labor and delivery,
became
Ashley's coach and stood by her all the way through the birth of
Justin, a
bouncing baby boy who came out at nine pounds, two ounces, and was
twenty-one
inches long. He looked like the baby
Hulk, except he was pink instead of green.
The
urgency to get our new abode complete only grew,
now, with two babies and a two year old to care for in cramped
conditions. Not to mention that Emma and
Ashley had
entertained some unreasonable expectations about how often they would
get to
relive those lusty days of my last summer in Oklahoma.
But
we managed, in this odd and unusual situation.
Which
is why, after five years, Full Circle Architecture and Design is getting a reputation for being the go to
place
if you want something edgy and exciting when you need a new home or
business
building. We're only as busy as we
want
to be, because none of the partners in the company are willing to get
into an
all work and no play mode.
That
might explain why the brood that runs and plays
in the common area where three private residences open onto, is noisy.
It looks a little like a day care center,
these days. There's Stephen and
Miranda,
who reign supreme as "the oldest". Then
there is Justin, Stephanie and Curtis, all of whom bear the Paddington
maiden
name of their mother, Ashley. And,
thrown into the mix are Emma's children, Paul, Eric and Franklin.
They bear her maiden name, Wilkinson too.
As
to who fathers are of all these children?
Well
... we don't talk about that outside the house.
The End
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