Prelude

Prelude

The Cable family moved from a small country town of about 2,000 people where Henry Cable managed a local company for a national corporation. Though the business was the main employer of the town and essential to the town’s survival it wasn’t the biggest paying job. Henry did so well they promoted him to manager of another company in a city of about 60,000 people. His wife, Lucy, and children, Lee (eighteen year old daughter), Ernie (nearly sixteen year old son), and Tom (twelve year old son) moved with him. The city is the same one Lucy’s sister, Mary, moved to a few years earlier with her three daughters when she was offered a good job in the city soon after her husband died.

Henry is able to find a house in the same suburb as Mary, but the suburb is a collection of cul-de-sac streets, so any trip in the suburb is a twisted and winding affair through several streets. By accident Ernie finds out the house directly behind his new home is his Aunt Mary’s, and he has a good laugh at her not just climbing the fence, because she didn’t know this. Lee and Tom aren’t happy with the shift and leaving their friends behind, neither is Ernie but he’s more resigned to it and he helps his siblings settle in.

In his first week at school he meets Melissa Watson and falls in love. Over the following months they both become devoted to each other as they grow in their love, but he has a dark secret which he’s keeping from her and his family. The next year they get engaged and plan to marry at the end of the year. A few months after they become engaged they’re at a bank when it’s held up. The large group of robbers decide to take Melissa and her sister, Emily, as sexual entertainment while hiding out. Ernie registers his objection by killing them. While doing this he’s mortally wounded and his dying wish is to marry Melissa, which he does because he has the papers on him and one of the local ministers is in the bank. Melissa becomes a wife and a widow within a few minutes.

In the flow on effects of his death his dark secret comes out, he was dying of cancer and he knew it. He kept it secret from all except his cousin Margaret because there was nothing the family could do except worry, and he didn’t want them to worry about something they couldn’t affect.

During his short time at the school Ernie and Melissa brought about many changes in the student population, and his death shocks their community. The manner of his death devastates the community, but knowing it was to protect Melissa makes it very understandable at the same time.

One of the biggest changes they made was the creation of a multi-year student school group with the aims of friendliness and improving themselves and the community. The group has a very strong sense of unity and ethics. It’s called The Cable Company, and this group sets out to continue in the way it was created by Ernie.

The Cable Company is the rally point for the community to come together and help Ernie’s extended family through this trying time, and to move on with life. It’s during this period Melissa lets it be known she’s pregnant with Ernie’s child and he has a lot of sperm in storage for later use. Plus she intends to use it as well as allowing Emily and others to use it to have his children.

His funeral becomes a celebration of his life and his aims. Life for everyone moves on, taking Melissa and Emily along with it, regardless of their wishes on the matter.

Moving On

Following Ernie’s funeral all of the members of his family and the Cable Company have to move on with life and prepare for the exams. All are determined to prove his spirit is still with them when they study hard to show how well he’d inspired them. They all pass their exams well, and many improve their grades by very noticeable margins. After the end of year exams are over Melissa takes time out to be with Emily and other members of the Cable Company on a long holiday.

In the new year Melissa has her solicitor, Ernie’s old one, establish a non-profit charity: The Cable Foundation. Its charter is to raise funds for research and to distribute them to researchers based on a wide set of criteria. The main aim is to encourage requests from researchers who’re good and not likely to receive funding from the regular funding sources due to them being too much like Ernie; with poor qualifications, no connections, outside regular research areas, or areas others believe invalid and not seriously looked at, etc. They need to prove the research is serious and may provide useful results. She also has the solicitor establish a company to manage her wealth, it’s called EC Investments after Ernie. The company also accepts deposits from other investors for profitable investment in projects, most investments are for improvements to community services and improving the way of life for everyone.

The Cable Company continues and expands while it sets about making itself a more permanent and self-perpetuating group within the school community by recruiting from each year’s new students to pass on the attitudes and behaviours with which it started. They prove very able to do this. The newly built Cable Company Sports Stand helps in this as well as the stand was built with a donation from Ernie’s will.

Each year the Year Twelve students get involved in a community project of some sort. The project is decided as a group at the start of the year and fund raising or help activities are organised during the year. The year following Ernie’s death the Year Twelve students elect to raise funds for the Cable Foundation. The Cable Company helps with this as well.

One event that grows out of this is a special end of year fund raising dinner organised by the Cable Company, it’s called the Cable Company Charity Dinner Dance, with all of the proceeds from it going to the Cable Foundation. This becomes an annual event with many local people and businesses donating services to help run the event and reduce the costs. Within a few years all of the function costs are met by the many businesses making donations of services or individuals and businesses donating cash toward the costs of the dance. Much money is raised to be used in many areas of the foundation’s work.

New Lives

In the new year Melissa enrols in a part-time university course on business and financial management. She only does part-time studies because she expects to need time to care for her child due near the middle of the year. Many people expected her to move back to live with her parents, but she stays in the attic at the Cable house. As she told Lucy, it was to be their home, and so it still is their home.

Chapter 1 »