Chapter 9

To say that things were a little different that year at college would be an understatement. Peggy moved into my bed and we became inseparable at college and after. I convinced her to go jogging with me. I think that she decided to take up jogging when she saw some girls jogging with me. I hadn't asked them to jog with me, they just did.

Three days before the Christmas break my whole world crashed around me. Abby called and told us that Dan had passed away in his sleep. Peggy and I immediately jumped in my car and rushed to be at her side. Dan had known that he didn't have much longer and had planned his funeral and had most of his affairs in order. Abby closed the company until after the internment.

The funeral went as all funerals do; everyone wished that Dan was still with us and that we were somewhere having a drink with him. Abby crashed and burned. Dan was everything to her and she couldn't envision life without him. Peggy never left her side and I'm not sure that Abby would have made it without Peggy. Peggy watched over her like a mother hen.

After the funeral we went back to the house with Abby. She was pretty much out of touch with the world. Peggy shooed me and everyone else out so that Abby could get some rest. I kissed Peggy and told her that I was going to the office.

I went back to Dan's office and sat in his chair, staring at everything and nothing. The company had to go on. For some insane reason I had felt that as long as the company was here Dan would be here. I called Peggy and talked to her for a while. I let her know that I was going to stay at my parent's house so that she and Abby could have some quiet time. I told her to let Abby know, after a couple of days, that I was going to watch out for the company for a while.

The next day I was at the office at five thirty. I knew that the only way that anyone would take me serious was to be firm and to take charge right away. Surprisingly, no one attempted to buck me and by the end of the day the company was back on track. I worked until midnight trying to get a handle on all of the projects that were going on and finally realized that I couldn't do it alone. I made a ton of notes with questions for everybody, suggestions for everybody and comments for everybody. I put notes on each project manager's desk that I wanted to meet with them individually the next day. I fell asleep at the desk and woke up when the first person arrived for work.

The next couple of days were hectic. I got the impression that some of the project managers were testing me with the tons of questions that they kept asking me. I later found out that construction is always that way; there's a crisis every minute. I have to give everyone credit; everyone pitched in and did they're share. At nine o'clock at night you could always find someone in the office working. I had no idea how to do the payroll so I called Peggy in a panic. She came into the office after Abby went to sleep and by morning we had all of the checks cut. We didn't have time to make the direct deposit, which is the way the people are usually paid. I sent every manager in the company an email that they would have to hand-deliver the checks.

It was four days before Abby attempted to come into the office. When I saw her face I almost cried. It looked like she had aged ten years in the past four days. The fire was gone out of her. After sitting in her office for about an hour she came into Dan's office and closed the door. She sat down in the chair like she hadn't enough strength to hold herself up.

She smiled weakly, "We have to talk. I really hate to ask this of you but I need you. Do you think that it would be possible for you to help run the company for a while? I know that you would miss a year of college but I'd make it up to you."

I started to protest that there were other qualified people in the company but she was having none of it. She said that if I didn't want to run it, she would lock the door and sell it. I agreed. She told me that she'd give me all the help she could.

After we had spent the better part of the day going over everything she new had to be done quickly, she began to talk about the life that she and Dan had. I let her talk without interruption. I knew that this was an important part of her grieving process.

When she had talked herself out she asked me, "What are your plans for Peggy? You know that she's waiting for you to ask her to marry you, don't you? Please don't wait until it's too late. Life's awfully short. You'll find that a hundred years is too short if you're with the one you love."

Abby made me go home. She told me that I'd better think about what she had said. Peggy wouldn't wait forever. As she put it; some slicker will come along and steal her away from me.

After a long discussion with Peggy, we decided that I would take the year off and help Abby keep the company going. Peggy would continue college and with the money that I would be making her finances wouldn't be a problem anymore. We would still stay at the apartment. Tempe is only about twenty miles, as the crow flies, from Glendale.

So I began my career as a construction executive. After two weeks Abby found out about our living arraignments and she insisted that Peggy and I move into a home that Dan had just completed in Scottsdale. She sold it to us for seventy thousand dollars and financed it herself at no interest. Seventy thousand dollars was about one quarter of what it was worth.

I talked with Mr. Cannon and he wasn't too put out that we were leaving. I had the apartments in pretty good shape and Mr. Cannon had another apartment that he could rent. I left the Ikea furniture there so the apartment would be able to be rented as furnished.

I asked Peggy to marry me and she agreed and we got married one weekend with Abby and my parents, brothers and sister as witnesses. We only took three days off because of college and me working at the office. To say that we were both extremely happy would be an understatement.

I dove into the work at the company. I made some mistakes, some big mistakes, but I had Abby there to pull me out of trouble. Peggy continued to do her usual best at college. Abby was our biggest worry. She seemed to have lost her drive. She was competent and did her job as well as she ever had; but it seemed that when we buried Dan we buried half of Abby too. She was pleasant to be around but you had the feeling that she was waiting for Dan to come back and take his place at the company and in her life.

We tried to make Abby come over for dinner as much as we could but she usually had something important that she claimed had to be done right away. I often had laborers over to take care of things at her house and the grounds. Usually I discovered things that had to be done before Abby mentioned them.