Chapter 4

The next day, I was on pins and needles whenever I had a minute I wasn't concentrating on my work. Getting the presentation ready for our client was going well. Although I was inexperienced, many of my ideas were being incorporated. More than a normal person as young as I was could expect. When it was near the end of the day, rather than start on building a new visual, I headed for home.

I parked my car and slowly made my way into the house. Mom and Ginger were in the kitchen preparing supper and didn't hear me come in. Ginger saw me first and gave me an okay sign before Mom was aware.

"Pete, my Lord you are early today." She wiped her hands and came at me with her arms wide open. "I understand I have a granddaughter?"

"Ginger told you?"

"She did. She asked me if I had ever wanted grandkids and I said at one time I did and then I asked her if she was pregnant. I shouldn't have doubted either one of you, living as sister and brother as you have. Ginger told me that you found Roberta and she has a three-year-old daughter. I can't wait to see her."

"Mom, it was Roberta who found me. I have pictures of her and her family on a thumb drive, if you would like to see your granddaughter and Roberta. Robin, her husband, is a great guy too. He is a little older than she is, but a good solid person and totally dedicated to his family."

"She would go for an older man. She went after her father."

"Mom, there are a whole lot of facts that made you disbelieve Roberta. She has explained everything and I believe she is innocent of what you accused her of. Now I wish you would look at these pictures. Roberta is a beautiful mature woman now. The ten years she has been gone has really been kind to her."

"Yes, but she started out rotten."

I will lay out what I was told and it is verified by the man who made her his wife. Come look at the pictures." I plugged in the drive with the images. The first image was of my three-year-old niece, Amy, who was looking directly into the camera.

The next two were of Amy in a different pose, cute as any little girl could be. I had no doubt that Roberta looked like this at that age. I started to click on the next thumbnail. Mom stopped me by putting her hand on mine. "Go back. I want to see her again."

This time Mom studied not only the subject, but I could see her gazing at the furniture, the curtains and how clean she thought the house was kept. Finally she said okay to continue. This image was of Roberta and me standing talking earnestly about something. Amy was standing sideways and looking up at me.

Mom sucked her in breath. Roberta was a beautiful mature mother and it had been ten years since her own mother had looked at her. Maybe she had disliked her daughter when she was younger, but she couldn't alter the fact that she was a beautiful woman now. I started to advance to the next image, but again Mom put her hand on mine to halt me. I smiled to myself thinking it was going to take a long while to get through all the pictures that been snapped.

We did move along a little faster. When I showed a picture of Robin, Mom asked me, "Is that Roberta's husband?"

"Yes that is Robin Whitmore. He has a brother here in town and was a great friend of Dad's. Roberta knew him and he is the person that looked after her when she left home."

"Don't tell me they were close like she and her father were?"

"No Mom. How close they all were will be explained to you eventually. You will have to trust me that there was nothing inappropriate between Roberta and Mr. Whitmore. He made arrangements for Roberta to live with his Aunt Mary. Robin was living there with his aunt and treated Roberta with respect, helping her with her lessons in school when she went on to higher education.

"She went to college?"

"Yes, and graduated with a 3.6 GPA." When she completed her education, she confessed her love for Robin. He felt the same way and the started a relationship. Six months later they married and a year later they had Amy. They make a great couple. I am hoping someday I will be so fortunate."

My glance passed over Ginger as I said this and the thought crossed my mind that Ginger was in the same situation as my sister was at one time. Could she make me as happy as my sister had made Robin? It was too early yet to find out.

We continued to look at the pictures of Amy, Robin and Roberta. It was at this time I shared with Mom that Roberta was using her middle name of Emily, and was just using the initial "R" in front.

"She did want to keep hidden if I searched for her, didn't she?"

"Maybe. She didn't give me a reason. She asked me to call her Emily, but I refused. She didn't object so I still think of her as Roberta."

"Well I don't know. I picked out the name of Emily and William insisted on calling our first born Roberta. That was his mother's name and she died just before Roberta was born."

When I had been through all of the images once, I sat Mom down and told her to look at the images as much as she liked. Ginger stayed with her and talked about her family when they showed again while mom was going through them, I was looking at my notes.

In three days I would be flying to California and meeting with our client. The company was working for him and we would be making the presentation at that time. Jack Gibbons, who was my partner in this, would be speaking at first and I would be taking notes. Then when we got to the point where I was showing the images of different buildings and how they were laid out, it would be I who was speaking, while Jack took notes.

Then we would return here and try to incorporate this into a design of what the client wanted. If and when he agreed to these, then we would start putting together the plans. When that was completed and approved it would be time to start implementing them. It looked like it would be more than a year before ground was broken. Maybe not even then, if the necessary permits were held up.

Mom was still looking at the images when I went to bed. She looked tired in the morning. "Mom, why don't you call Roberta and talk about how wonderful you think your granddaughter is?"

"I couldn't do that. We never got along."

"Well, get Ginger to call Roberta. They became friends while we were there. First though, do you want to smooth over the trouble you two had twelve years ago? Roberta really is the person who has all of the answers. I have been told all about it, but you should hear it from her."

"If there are more facts that I'm not aware of, I should hear them."

"I must warn you that she may ask you to keep some secrets because there is still someone who could be hurt if the truth is broadcast. Dad has been dead for twelve years. We have moved on and now that his remaining family members are together again, I feel we should draw together and see if we can't find some happiness."

"You want me to overlook what she was doing with your father?"

"Mom if you listen to Roberta, you will find out the truth about Dad. It won't make you feel better about him. Keep in mind that Roberta was very young and had several misplaced loyalties. You will determine that father was the root of all of this trouble and everyone else got caught up in it."

"You don't sound as if you loved your father at all."

"I did love Dad. You did at one time too. Roberta did as well and Dad played on that fact."

"You say a lot but you don't tell me much."

"That is because it is for my sister to clear up why she did what she did back then. She still claims you wouldn't listen to her. Now after all this time you should."

"I will listen. I have seen pictures of my granddaughter and I want her to know me. Maybe this time I can have the child's love even if I can't have Roberta's"

"Mom, I have faith you will have both."

I was too busy to talk with Mom again before I flew to California. Jack and I were busy the next day and the day following we met with our client. I had learned our client's name was Fernando Callas Lopez. He was short of forty by a few years and seemed impatient most of the time. I began to worry that I wasn't up to presenting the ideas the firm had come up with.

Jack was pretty general in his part of the presentation. We had little background on this person who didn't have much of an idea of what he really wanted.

Finally he exploded. "Damnit, I'll I admit what I want isn't too clear in my mind yet, but I will know it when I see it. You guys are smart. Get creative. Give me something."

Jake turned to me and whispered, "Do your stuff kid. It is your baby."

I gave the client the picture of what was left of the monastery he had requested. I also gave him the history including the bombing by the Germans during the Second World War that had leveled the major portion of the building. Then I showed him a picture of the building taken a few years before in the year 1938.

From there I went on with sketches of the floor plans up to and including some of the Priors who had inhabited it back when the building housed a working monastery. This was before Henry V111 had himself declared head of the Church of England in the 1500's and took the church's riches for the state

I moved on when Senor Lopez seemed uninterested in the history. I had him refresh what I had been told he desired to incorporate into the building. "Senor Lopez, tell me what you need? I know you are going to process your own grapes that you grow and make them into wine. Is your vineyard going to be larger than it is now? Why I ask is, if that is all you are looking to do, this building will not have to be very large.

"You have also indicated that you might want to sell your wine right here. There again what you produce won't be enough for a very large clientele for consumption. Are you going to use wine from other vineyards?"

"I haven't got that far in my plans yet. What I'm still looking for are ideas."

It seemed as if the load was getting heavier for me. I glanced at Jack. He slightly shrugged, sympathizing with me. I ploughed on, "I was told you had a vision and that is why I traveled all over the United Kingdom looking for ideas to present at this meeting. I even went to France for a short time.

"The firm said to look for a building that you could put an image of on your wine bottles. That speaks of a private label. In France I met some vintners whose family have their own private label. Their label hasn't been changed for centuries. Is that what you want?"

"That's interesting. I hadn't planned that far ahead, but I have siblings even if I never marry and the business would pass down to them."

"Senor Lopez, I also delved into some other products that could be produced under a private label. There all kinds of beer that could be brewed. Micro Breweries are quit popular now all over our country. Samuel Adams of New England for one and it is now quite famous. You could create one showing a monastic image incorporated under your name.

"Monks for century's baked bread, made wine, and brewed beer to feed the populace that came to worship and the Lords did the same to pay their vassals. All of these could be incorporated into one business. Bread was important back then. If someone stole a loaf of bread and was caught, the thief could lose a hand or even hung for thievery. Some of Australia was populated by these vassals because of just such crimes.

"Okay, say you have your label and you have your product. How are you going to market these products? Are you going to go big and get bigger or are you going to look for patrons that will keep coming back week after week because it is exclusive and highly sought after? Something of a brand you can take pride in and pass on to your next of kin.

"You could consider selling to two different clienteles. If you set up a bistro, how many seats do you want? Now is the time to decide before we start drawing plans. Beer drinkers tend to be loud and boisterous. You would want a small stage for live music for them. Wine aficionados tend to be more refined, older, and better off financially. This would draw in more of the female gender. You would want a fine dining room with maybe a dance floor for the after dinner crowd.

"I have a slide show of what I ran onto in different pubs with dining rooms in England. All were located in former monasteries. I have pictures of breweries and some small intimate dining rooms. One is of a ballroom next to an exclusive dining room. I went to wine tasting establishments in France. They were there to make the patrons comfortable. Not one of these was ostentatious. Someday I hope to return and follow the same path. I would almost guarantee that the same places will still be there twenty-five years from now."

I began the show with a picture of the ruin Lopez had seen from the air and requested. I had taken the image from several angles. Then I moved on to images of different monasteries or abbeys. In some, space had been found for pubs or restaurants. I had notes and gave a brief history of when the original building was constructed. I also included the date when the pub opened for business. Some had been in place for more than a century and occasionally more than one century. Occasionally I would show a slide of a dining room with a band and room to dance.

In my own mind, I thought a brewery would go well with his wine, so I showed several places that had micro breweries. One that I gave more time to was where Meade was fermented. This was a drink made from honey and could have been the first beverage where something sweet was turned into an alcoholic beverage. Meade was a long known beverage, and was brewed well before Christ walked on earth.

When I got to the slides I took in France, Lopez perked up, for I showed cellars containing wine racks and stored casks of wine. Some of these were right in the same room where patrons drank. "Many and probably most are just for ambiance because of the temperature and light consideration. I suspect the casks in some of these pubs were empty. I was in one establishment where there was fake dust and cobwebs hanging everywhere. Needless to say it was a tourist attraction."

Senor Lopez had a notebook and I noticed he was listing the number on the slides if they interested him. When I finished my presentation, he said, "Brown, let's go through these again. We'll take out the slides I'm not interested in looking at, or I can just give you the numbers I took note of."

"It would be better if you saw them all again. I can give you a little more information in depth about what each place was like and why I included it for you to see."

"Okay, if you have the time?"

"All the time you want." It took four hours to pare down the number of images that interested Lopez to something that he was definitely excited about. Jack had dozed off after the first hour, but now that we had narrowed it to just a few, it was him that was taking notes. The number one slide was of the façade of the Monastery I had been sent to England to look for. We also came to an agreement on what the rest of the building that backed up to it might look like.

Senor Lopez didn't know yet what he was going to have included in his new Abbey-like building, so decisions would have to be made. In one way I had complicated this for him, for I gave him so much to think about. Fernando Lopez would get back to us in a few days.

We closed down our presentation. I was wrung out. I had talked for five hours. Jack had his say. "Jesus Christ kid, the firm was looking to make a million dollars on this. If Lopez goes for all that you suggested it will be three times that. I don't know if you are an architect or a salesman. You got him right in your hands. We'll be meeting him soon and when we do, he'll be asking more questions.

"You and I are going down to San Francisco and visit all the restaurants and bars we can in the time we have. We'll need to look at them and how many people can be seated in what size room. We need sizes for different pubs, dance floors, and dining room. We'll find some breweries and see what they look like and how much space they will need.

"We should go up to Napa Valley where his vineyard is located and look at where and how wine is produced. When we find out what he wants, we can then determine the overall size of the building."

"Jack, I've done a little of this already and have a lot of information on my laptop. Sketches and stuff that I thought might be of use and things that were attractive which caught my eye. I even noted what the interiors were like. If we get the contract, I'll hand what I have over to whoever will be doing the designing. For right now, though, I need a beer and a steak to go with it, topping it all with about ten hours of sleep.

"You got it kid. You've done a fine day's work"

Three days later after meeting with Senor Lopez again we had some semblance of an idea of what he wanted. I had moved all the facts I had collected in England and France over to the design department. This was going to be done right here in the California office. Whether the building they came up with would withstand a thousand years of earthquakes was debatable. Even the German bombing hadn't been able to completely take down the one this one was patterned after.

I had put all this in the hands of the design department and thought this would be the end of it for me. It wasn't. I was charged with advising the drawing up some of the blueprints. I had copied some sketches that were in the library of when the Priory was constructed. The engineers in the design department were somewhat concerned whether the foundation walls would support the weight of the massive roof. This was more because of the threat from the earthquakes that happen every few years here in Napa Valley.

This wasn't touring the UK, but it was what I had gone to college for and it held a lot of interest for me. It was six weeks before I had a long enough break to get a week to go home to Minneapolis. I had been in contact of course, but it wasn't like being there.

I decided I wouldn't tell anyone I was arriving. I knew Ginger had started school for the year. I was wondering how my mother was doing and how much contact she had had with Roberta. I was the one surprised. Roberta and Amy were here staying in my room. I hit the timing just right as we were going to have all week together. I was happy about this, but there was one other I was just as happy to see and that was ... Ginger.

I opened the door on arrival and walked into the kitchen. I startled everyone sitting at supper. Mom rose and hugged me with Roberta waiting for me when I released her. Ginger hung back until Roberta let me go. I spoke to Amy and she shyly ran to her mother. I turned to Ginger and opened my arms.

She came and clung to me. "Pete."

"Hi Ginger. How are you? Did you miss me?" Ginger didn't answer, just nodded her head. Not wanting to keep me from my family, she went about setting another plate and moved a chair into place. I was tired from the flight, so I didn't ask too many questions about how Roberta and Mom were getting along. Everything seemed fine, so I didn't worry.

Mom spoke, "Pete, we have a problem. There is no place for you to sleep except on the couch. Can you handle that?"

"I guess so." I wasn't too thrilled with this, but hey, I was home.

"Pete doesn't have to sleep on the couch. I will. It is only right. This is his home."

A thought struck me and I said, "I still have the blow-up mattress in the garage. I'll bring that in. I'm not getting into Ginger's bed." But then I thought, "I would like to." My eyes found Ginger's. Nothing at first and then she blushed. Hell, we didn't have to speak out loud. It was as if we were reading from the same book. I smiled.

Roberta put Amy to bed. I had kissed the child good night because she missed her daddy and I was her uncle. It was as if I was okay until daddy was there again to say good night. Roberta said, "Pete, I'll come down after you go to bed and we'll talk. I'm glad you are home. I'll tell you why when we talk. It will be after Mom goes to bed."

"Okay. I'll stay awake."

"Pete, there is one other thing you should know. Ginger loves you. I don't think it is just a dream either. She really loves you."

"I know, and I love her too. I'm just waiting for her to get a little older. Trust me that I believe we were meant for each other. I've thought that someday I might need you to talk to Ginger's father. I really have the best intentions toward Ginger, but you never know when I need someone to intercede for me. I also know you don't know me that well, but I would never hurt someone I love."

"Relax, Pete, I'm on your side. I married a man who is older than I am and it is best for the man to be older than the woman. It has been in my case anyway. It will be in your case as well. I warn you, us younger women will catch up to you. You'll find that very enjoyable. See you later when Mom goes to bed."

I was asleep when I was bounced into the air. I had positioned myself in the middle on the air mattress. I went straight up. Roberta and Ginger had both landed, one on each side of me. They were giggling. "Pete, Ginger wanted to see you so I'm here as chaperone."

"What about our talk?"

"Ginger knows it all. I've been here a week and rather than keep things from her, I've had her with me when I talked to Mother. We are like two sisters. Ginger considers Mom her mother in fact if not by blood. She is also here to hold your hand while I tell you how Mom has reacted."

"Pete, please let me under the covers? I have P J's on. That way I can hold your hand while Roberta talks to you." She got up and I peeled back the covers so she could get under the cover. I was in boxers and had on a tee. Ginger slid in next to me and grasped my hand hugging it to her. My arm did brush over her breasts as she raised my hand to kiss it. I was so aware. She then relaxed and I turned to Roberta.