Laura's Big Win by Michelle Tschantre' Read Free Book Online Page A

left in the kitchen to tide them
over, but she had to point out the building problem they had just
encountered.
    “Our central air never did work very
well, and this afternoon during this heat wave it just stopped
working entirely. I’m sorry; I know you’ve had a tough day already,
but we just do not have the funds to get it fixed right now. The
best I can do is get you cots and you can stay in the day room on
this floor. At least there’s a little breeze through the windows.
It’s taking its toll on all of us. Can you live with the cots for
at least tonight?”
    “Sure, we’ll make do. I’m sorry to be
such a bother; things have just not gone well for us the past day
or so, and to tell the truth, I really don’t know what to do next.
Maybe a night’s rest will bring some new idea. Thanks so much for
what you’ve already done. I didn’t relish the thought of sleeping
in the street with two little kids.”
    “Not a problem. Here, there’s some room
here you can settle into for now. Grab a couple of chairs over
there to mark your space.....that sounded bad didn’t it.....and
we’ll bring the cots as soon as we can uncover them in the storage
room. It’s strange it being this hot so early in the summer, but I
guess stranger things have happened. Like that camera crew over
there filming our problem. Must be a slow news day for them to come
in here.” Unbeknownst to the night super, stranger things indeed
were about to happen.
    Laura got some chairs to, as the super
said, “mark their spot”, and settled in to maybe read the now tired
and restless kids a story to entertain them for another night until
they could drift off to sleep in the stifling heat; surely the cots
would arrive soon. Amanda was comfortable on the duffle bag for
now, and Jack was sitting on the floor; Laura was a little
concerned about the floor part of it, but reconciled herself with
the thought they had just spent an entire day breathing other
people’s exhaled air on the bus; could the floor be any worse than
that? Some time later, just as she was getting well into reading
the book, she noticed a small entourage coming through the door to
the rec room: the night super, a tall well appointed woman probably
in her early sixties, and a man so big he literally filled the
doorway when he came through. And they were clearly headed right
for her small assemblage. ‘Oh, hell’ she though to herself, ‘now
what’s wrong?’ and just as quickly chided herself for even thinking
language she did not want the children to hear. Things just
couldn’t get worse could they? And the answer was, no, things
weren’t going to get worse. In fact, they were going to get a whole
lot better, even though it would take Laura a little time to get
past her recently well developed wariness of new situations. She
and her children were about to be rescued by persons who knew what
they were doing, but not why; it would be some time before all
would understand.

Chapter 5 – Channel
15
     
    The eight day business trip had gone
well for Ryan. He had signed supervisory management contracts with
several new clients, and a couple more intended to present his
proposals to their board of directors. His reputation preceded him,
or at least that of Windmere. Success begat success, and his plan
to grow Windmere into a national firm, maybe even an international
firm, was coming along nicely. Still, living out of a suitcase,
however experienced he was at the task, could not take the place of
being home. At that thought, the sadness returned as his memory
recalled happier days with his beloved Mary at his side; she had
been gone nearly two years now, and while the grief had subsided,
he believed it would never go away entirely, nor did he want it to.
Without the memory, however painful, he would have no memory of
Mary; that was unacceptable. ‘Better to have loved and lost…..’ he
thought to himself, but that hardly filled the hole in his spirit.
He worked nearly non-stop