Chapter 42: Taylor Pearson

After our June escapades with my sister and her friends in Austin, we settled in at home for a sticky and hot summer. Columbus saw record temperatures and an odd drought that affected all the farming in the state. Storms went north of us or south of us, but seemed to avoid the middle of the state.

Katie and Tracy both started summer classes at OSU, aiming towards their master’s degrees. I was certain that Katie swelled more with our baby every day. She was taking two classes, and both of her professors asked whether they needed to take a refresher course on obstetrics.

Tracy had the same concern and put together a ‘Delivery Kit’ that she kept in her backpack. She had space blankets, surgical gloves, sterile scissors, clamps, and a few other items to facilitate a delivery on campus, should Katie start to do something.

Both women had a class together on Artificial Intelligence. They probably could have taught their own version of the class, but insisted that they were learning things they needed for the software improvement projects they were doing on the design and decorating package.

The had different second classes in a summer ‘semester’ that ended on the last day of July. A second semester would begin a week later, but Katie was not going to be involved in that. Her due date was August 15th.

I joined Devon and Mel in redesigning parts of the Westfield Mall. The mall had been built in the 1970s with few improvements since, except for maintenance when something broke. If we wanted to keep traffic coming to the place and tenants, then we needed a serious effort on renovation.

In general, I followed the recommendations that Mel and Devon came up with. Some new major signs for the entire mall were the first order of business. One of those was visible from the Interstate, and contained a large LED screen that showed some of the wares various tenants were selling or announcing a sale.

The next project was to refinish the terrazzo floors throughout the mall. The existing floor was stained and seemed to permanently hold onto dirt and grime. Thus, at night after the mall closed, a team of cleaners would come in and do a section of the flooring with a stain remover, and then some diamond grinding and honing. Cracks and imperfections were remediated too. The floors were then recolored a darker hue that was considered more modern, and then sealed. We did the long hallways about 4,000 square feet at a time. The corridors were 40 feet wide, so we only got a hundred feet or so completed every few nights.

We’d left the storefront designs up to each tenant, and we continued that policy. With the makeover of the flooring, about half the tenants revamped their ‘look’ and style. As hallways were finished, we added new seating, a few new fountains, a water fall from the second level to the first, and a display area for new cars by local dealerships.

While that was going on, every restroom in the place got a teardown and rebuilt with new appliances and fixtures. The janitorial crew that maintained their cleanliness made some great recommendations about our improvements there.

As we got into the fall, we also had electricians all over the place doing some rewiring, but also installing new light fixtures around the outside and inside of the mall.

Devon was getting baptism under fire. She was up on scaffolding checking on work, sometimes at four a.m. when some of the crews worked so they wouldn’t have to content with patrons to the mall stores. She came to me every few days with something she thought wasn’t right and we’d check it out. She was right almost every time, and we had to request a re-do of whatever had been done.

Devon was having fits trying to get another general contractor to start work on the outside facades, especially around the main entrances to the mall interior. She at least got a commitment to show up in January regardless of the weather. That would make the work doubly tough, since temperatures that time of year were often below zero with ice and snow around.

Around the house, there was heightened sense of excitement as Katie’s due date approached. Ashely, Meghan, and Catrice were well informed and educated about the new baby, even a simplistic description – in answer to questions – about where the baby was coming from (Katie’s tummy) and how it got there (daddy and Katie made love in a special adult way). There was a point where I heard Mel tell the girls that they’d get more information and details when they were older.

Katie went into labor one morning shortly after we were all up and moving around the house. Her water broke in the kitchen, fortunately; making the fluid easy to mop up. The labor pains were only about eight to ten minutes apart then, so we called to alert the doctor and hospital, and then waited for things to speed up.