Chapter 2

Sitting in the bedroom eating a sandwich was fun. Ashley's eyes traveled to the ceiling every few minutes. "What have you planned for the living room? Something spectacular, I'll wager."

"Yes, I'm hoping so. You gave me the idea that night on the mountain when you stayed out to watch the moon come up and see the stars pop out. It is only fitting that you be here to help me implement it. This room is big enough to make it work, but then again the whole idea may crash. We will see."

"What are you going to do about that wire hanging down in the middle? Won't that take away from your design?"

"Maybe, but I need electricity in that place. Tomorrow is just the beginning of what I have planned. The reason I haven't finished the other ceilings is because the plaster has to be perfectly dry before it is coated. I want to do the bedrooms before the girls come, but I may wait until after they leave to finish this. I'll be about two days short, time-wise."

"You all could stay at the big house with me."

"The kids maybe, but not me."

"Why not?"

"I just don't think it would be right, that's all."

"Okay, if you say so. Hey I have to do hard labor tomorrow. I'm going home to bed. When are you going to start sleeping here?"

"Tomorrow night if I have time to get new bedclothes and linen."

"Well we will try to find time so you can."

Again those awkward moments came when it was time for me to leave. "Do you want me to walk you across the lot and home?"

"Don't be ridiculous, it is barely dark. I'll see you in the morning."

"Have you eaten?" I asked when Ashley arrived on time in the morning. We both had, so I started right in putting up the screen to hold the plaster. It didn't take long. Ashley was quiet while I worked, not wanting to distract me, I suppose. In the center, I put up my base of plaster.

Then I said, "This is where it gets tricky. Too much or too wet plaster will come peeling off and fall. I'm going to make more depth to this and then start putting in the design. If you can keep the pallet loaded with plaster, this will go along very well and quickly." God did we ever make a team. Never again would I attempt this without a helper.

"Okay, now I am going to make a circle. The wire you spoke about last night is in the exact center. Would you hold this end of a string that has a loop in it and goes over that wire. I'll measure out two and a half feet. That is the radius of the circle. Okay now let the loop turn as I inscribe it. A perfect circle should result. Beautiful. I want two more so I will make the next radius six inches longer than the previous one. And one more which will give the larger circle seven feet.

"Hey Ash Baby, can you see me doing this alone? Okay, now for the star. I figured this out before. I want five points equidistant on the circumference of the smaller circle. It should be thirty-one and a half inches from one point to another. Let's try it. Beautiful. Almost there, I only have to adjust a little. Would you hold the straight edge steady while I inscribe in the five points? See now we have a star. Good, now I have to work quickly to get the depth I want. This is where I worry about getting all the way around the circle with my design before it sets up and I can't work it."

I barely made it. When I finished this part of the ceiling, I had a star that appeared to be floating in the center and two rings further out that I had inscribed a design of five of the zodiac signs. I just picked five at random, but I guess someone above me helped decide. Calvin and Ashley had the same sign. The sign for the baby was one I had inadvertently picked of the month he/she would be born in. I picked my own unconsciously and did the same for each of my daughters.

Ashley and I plopped down on the floor and stared up at what we had accomplished. "Looks pretty damned good don't you think, Buddy?"

"What happened to Ash Baby?"

"Do you like that?"

"I think I do, but only coming from you. You know you are an amazing person. It was just a week ago I was ready to pick up Calvin's gun and shoot myself. Today I'm enjoying life more than I have since I was with Calvin. How about you? Are you having fun?"

"You know it, Ash Baby."

We went back to work as there was a long way to go. I did the corners, drawing a quarter circle out two feet. "Do you want to try your hand at putting something in the space between here and the corner?"

"I couldn't! I'd spoil your work."

"Nah, you wouldn't. It is such a small space, if it doesn't come out, we'll just trowel it over and do it again."

"All right, but you do the first corner. What would you suggest?"

"I was thinking of staying with a sky motif. A quarter moon and an almost full moon on one end and a third moon and a half moon on the other end."

"Okay, you do the third moon so I can watch."

"First I put up the compound and then I do the outline. Look how I make it thicker nearest the corner so from every angle it doesn't look flat. Bevel the inside of the moon for the same reason. Now take this little tool I made and scrape away everything down to the base, leaving a third moon. It is the different shadows and angles that trick the eyes into giving you the perception of depth. Remember how I cut the edges of the star in deeper on one side than the other? Same principle here."

"Don't watch me. You'll make me nervous." She looked at me as if I should say something. It came to me.

"Just as you say, Ash Baby."

I could see that was what she was waiting for. I didn't go near Ashley as she worked on the half moon in the corner. I started filling in everything but the design figures. I used a stiff vegetable brush and an orderly design to break up the broad flat expanses. I had the opposite half of the room done before Ashley had finished her moon. I switched sides with her and she soon finished the quarter moon in the third corner. I walked over and examined her effort. It was excellent and it was just the correct size. I worked like the devil to finish the rest of the ceiling.

"Milo, I'm having trouble getting this one right. It looks too chunky or something."

I walked over and I agreed that it did. "Try making the front a little less wide. Remember how the first TVs had a problem with close-ups. The front of an object looked bigger than the back. Matter of perception. Maybe that will help." Ashley tried it and her problem disappeared.

We lay down on the floor and admired our work again. "God it is beautiful and so symmetrical." We stared at it some more. She was quiet.

"You're thinking it needs something more, aren't you?" I asked this because it was what I was thinking.

"Maybe, but what? We were lying there and then suddenly she bounced up and went down the stairs. She was gone more than twenty minutes. She came back and handed me a star shaped cookie cutter. "How about making some stars at random all over the biggest expanses?"

When we finished the ceiling it looked like it had star appliqués here and there on it. It was just what was needed and I said so. Ashley was so proud of her contribution. Just then there was a knock on the door. "Good, lunch is here--I ordered it when I was hunting for the cookie cutter. You go get washed up and I will lay it out."

I laughed. I knew I was covered with plaster, but I bet I had a lot less on me than Ashley did. "No you wash first." She didn't object and gave a little scream when she looked in the bathroom mirror.

After working on the ceiling, papering the walls was a snap and we finished with time to spare. I cut the paper, pasted it, positioned it and let Ashley brush out the wrinkles. We rolled the rug up and struggled with it down the stairs. Just as we reached the bottom, the new rug for the girls' bedroom was delivered. An extra ten bucks to the driver helped put it in the room so I could lay it tomorrow.

"Milo, we have been working twelve hours. Do you have more planned for tonight? To be honest, I'm tired and you must be exhausted."

"Nope, nothing more. I'm going to walk you home and then I'm going to crash. I see you supplied linen and blankets for my bed. You must have been up half the night."

"I wanted to go to bed tonight knowing you had a home of your own. It was worth being up a little later."

"I appreciate everything you are doing for me."

"Good, I feel the same way about what you are doing for me too."

I walked Ashley home and when we got there, she hesitantly asked, "Would you like to come in for a few minutes?"

"No, I don't think I had better. Someday I might, but not yet. We both are vulnerable right now. Wait until we know each other better. Besides you only asked me because you felt you should. It would be boorish of me if I accepted."

"You are a very perceptive person, Milo Burns. Let me ask you to give me a friendly kiss and hug goodnight, knowing it won't lead to anything."

Ashley was the first woman I had kissed since Jean had asked for a divorce. I did just as she asked--maybe holding the hug just a little longer than I should have. I pulled away and said, "Goodnight, Ash Baby." I didn't remember walking back to my apartment.

I didn't see Ashley again for four days. I had finished the apartment, except for the treatments on the ceiling I had planned. Sunday morning about a quarter to ten, I was looking over the items stored in the different bays. I looked towards Ashley's house and saw her and my ex strolling towards me. Jean was dressed conservatively in Sunday clothes. Still she was made up and was as beautiful as only she knew how to be. In contrast, Ashley was in jeans and a loose white shirt. Her hair looked as if the wind had been blowing it and she was without makeup.

"Milo, Mrs. Burgess is here to make sure the apartment is suitable for your children to stay in. I'll leave her with you as I have something that needs doing. Excuse me Mrs. Burgess, and I do thank you for expressing your concern for me over my husband's death." Ashley turned and went back across the lot leaving me with Jean.

"Hi Milo, how have you been?" I didn't answer. I couldn't until the anger I felt for this woman died down. "Yes, well I can see you still have some resentment for my leaving you for someone else. I can understand that. I'm not here about us though. Let me see where the kids are going to be living."

I went ahead of her up the stairs and let her into the kitchen. Her mouth opened in awe. There had been enough furniture and appliances that still worked in the garage to make a retro kitchen of the 1950's. I didn't let her stop to admire it, although I was pretty damned proud of what I had done. I walked into and across the living room. Again I had salvaged antiques, some nearly two hundred years old. The only exception was a modern sectional collection that divided the room and made it more comfortable and intimate.

"This is where Lindsey and Marie will be sleeping. There is only one bathroom so we will all have to share, but that won't be a problem."

"Where are you sleeping?"

"In the other bedroom and the bathroom is through this door here." I pointed to each. Brassy and nosy, Jean walked into the bathroom and opened all of the storage and medicine cabinets. She then went into my room and opened my armoire and bedside stand, closing them and opened the bureau drawers.

"It looks like you are still sleeping alone, so I don't have to worry about that. Haven't you made a move on your landlady yet? As ugly as she is, she must be dying to get you into her bed. What did Calvin see in her? Oh yes, she has money. Men always go for money." I was fast getting fed up with Jean and her remarks.

"You never used to make comments like that, Jean. Not everyone goes around cheating on their husband," I paused, "like you did."

She looked at me. "You are right Milo, I did do that to you, didn't I? It looks as if you have come out of this okay though. Christ I would kill to be able to live in a place like this and with this address."

"Maybe you sold yourself too cheap. You never did tell me why you wanted a divorce."

"It was the smell. Every day, seven days a week, you came home smelling of food. I couldn't stand it any longer. I met James and wanted some of the good life so I went for it."

"Is it worth it? Are our children happier? Are you having that much better a life?"

"Not yet, but James promises it will get better."

"What's the problem?"

"The kids. His three are older and won't have anything to do with Lindsey and Marie. They don't have much to do with me either. It is the typical divorced family situation."

"Why haven't you let me see the girls all of this time?"

"Because if you had them, they wouldn't want to come back to live with me. I thought by this time they would forget you. I don't know what is going to happen after you have them for a month."

"You could give me custody, or even joint custody. Have you got a job yet?"

"No, but I am looking. James is finding it difficult to support five kids, so I do need to find some work."

"Is what I am paying for support going for Lindsey and Marie? I don't want any of it used for you or his family."

"Of course it is, all of it."

I doubted it, but didn't challenge her.

Jean changed the subject. "So, how did you end up here with Mrs. Winslip?"

"She came to me and told me about Calvin dying and saw what dire straits I was in from the divorce settlement. She offered this place if I would do some handywork for her. I'm paying a pretty high rent, because she is pretty tight with her money. But with the kids coming for a month and needing a place for them, it will be fine for the short-term. People here in this neighborhood are a lot different than I am used to. I met a nice old lady from across the street and both she and Ashley have lived here for a long time. The most they have ever spoken was to say hi."

"So this beautiful apartment is just temporary?"

"I would say yes."

"You can't really want custody of the girls then?"

"Yes I do. I have made a lot of friends since you walked out on me, and my prospects aren't all that bad. I have had an offer of $10,000 for the camp. As far as the girls are concerned, if I had full custody, I could give that amount to you."

"That would be like buying your kids."

"No, that would be like solving your problem and gaining custody for me. That way you could concentrate on making your new marriage work."

"It is something to think about. Do you ever see Linda and Patrick? She cut me dead the last time I saw her."

"I lived in their basement until four days ago. I just moved in here myself. You know Linda, she is either hot or cold. I imagine the next time she sees you, she will be all over you. If not because she still likes you, but to find out how your new man is, so she can spread the gossip."

"Maybe I better make sure I don't see her. I don't see why everyone is down on me. I just wanted to have a better life for myself."

"No one can blame you for wanting a better life. It is how you went out to get it that bothers people. Tell me, is it that much better?"

Jean looked at me. "Milo I have to be going. Thanks for talking to me. I'll bring the kids over early this Wednesday. I'm sure they will enjoy their stay with you. I envy them."

She didn't answer my question and I think I saw a little regret at how her life was turning out.

I went over to the big house to see if Ashley would pay me for six days work. I was flat broke and needed money for food. Per our agreement, I had my figures in hand when I knocked on her back door. She was a little pale.

"Hi Ashley, not feeling well? I can come back later if you prefer."

"No, come in. I was coming over to see you. You must want your pay for this week."

"Yes, that is why I'm here. I have the figures with me. First of all, I have written checks for $2,337.54 for supplies and material from the account you set up for me to draw against." I handed her an itemized list. "You worked for me one day and I decided you were worth $20 an hour and we worked twelve hours, so if you would pay yourself $240.00 that would take care of that item. When Pat and Linda came over to help, she noticed a hall tree in the garage. I would like to buy it from you and the middle ground estimate is $125.00. I would like to have that deducted from my pay, if you are agreeable." I waited for an answer.

"Why something for Linda?"

"She took me into their home and made me welcome when I had no place to go. I would like to give her a gift and I know she would like that."

"Okay, that seems a fair price. Now how many hours have you worked? We agreed you would work for carpenters' rates, right?"

"That's right. They make about $25.00 an hour give or take a little. That is fine with me."

"Well I don't know where you got that figure. It is not high enough. Union scale is over $40.00 an hour. You aren't union so I'm going to split the difference. I'm paying you $32.50 an hour." I started to object.

"Don't say it Milo. Before we go any further, I want to confess I snuck into your apartment and took pictures. I took them to an appraiser and described what you had done to redo the apartment. He says the job done by professionals would have cost over $35,000. Workers would also have wanted it tied up for at least a month. He also said if I paid a renovator that, I would still be ahead because I increased the value of my property close to $50,000. So, we won't argue about what I am paying you will we?" Her reasoning was unrefutable.

So if we start with 77 hours at $32.50, that comes out to $2,502.50. We deduct $500.00 for rent and deduct $125.00 for the hall tree, I can make out a check for $1,877.50. Does that sound about right?"

"No, first of all, I agreed to pay you half of what I earned for rent. So we are starting from $1,251.25 and deduct $125.00, I will let you make out a check for $1,126.25."

"Milo listen, some weeks you won't be working 77 hours. What happens if you only work 32 hours? I will still want my rent. $500.00 a week for this apartment in this area is good rent. That is $26,000 a year for something that I wasn't using. Please don't argue and hurt my feelings."

"Can't you work up a few tears? I'm a sucker for tears."

"Did I win?"

"Yes, damn it, you win and I lov--" I didn't finish my thought.

"You almost said something you didn't mean."

"Ash Baby, I love what you are doing for me. That is what I meant. If I ever tell someone I love them, I want it understood it isn't that they are doing something for me, it will be because I truly love them."

"So it was just an expression?"

"For now it is. Before we get done here, I have a confession to make. I didn't want Jean to know much about our relationship. I didn't tell her that you and I worked on the apartment together. In fact I said you were charging very high rent and that you were tight with your money. Also I said this was just temporary until the girls leave. Another thing, she asked if there was anything sexual going on between us. I changed the subject and had a conversation about the girls and custody. I made her an offer. I said I would sell my camp as I already had an offer of $10,000. I would turn that over to her if she would give me custody. She didn't turn it down, so I'm hoping maybe I'll get my kids back.

"I don't know this husband of hers, but I suspect the shine has worn off and my two girls are much of the problem."

"I know her husband. He is on the low end of the food chain as far as lawyers are concerned. He doesn't have too big a practice and he isn't too well thought of in court. He was suspected of manufacturing some evidence once, but it couldn't be proven so he got away with it. The stigma remains. She must have seen the title of Attorney and not the man behind it to take up with him. I can almost feel sorry for her."

"I don't. I can almost feel sorry for him. If he doesn't pan out, I know she will dump him just like she did me. That is why I want custody of Lindsey and Marie so strongly. I want them to grow up in a strong and stable home."

"I'll help in any way I can."

"Good. Now I know you just gave me a check, but may I borrow a couple hundred dollars? I'd like to take you out to dinner tonight. This isn't a date, date. This would be two people going out to eat. You know to kind of cement our friendship."

"I'd love to."

Over dinner I told Ashley I had questioned Jean about why she had left me. She said it was because I smelled of food. Of course I smelled of food, I owned a fast food establishment. For some reason this hit Ashley as being humorous. "She left you because of that? Wow, she is a shallow person. She is extraordinarily beautiful though."

"Yes she is. Since she left I've thought about that. She is like a beautifully wrapped package. The thing is, when you take the wrapping off and open the package, it is half empty and what is left is rotten."

"That is quite an analogy. I'm curious, how do you see me?"

"Hmmmm, let me think a minute how to put this. Promise you won't take it the wrong way if I tell you?"

"No. You tell me what you think. I'm sure whatever it is will be the truth. Not many tell the truth because they are afraid of hurting the other person."

"Ashley, why do you think what I'm going to say will hurt? Trust me, I wouldn't hurt you for the world."

"Okay, I trust you."

"Good. Using the same analogy as I did with Jean, I see you as a much bigger package. You are wrapped in many layers of paper. The outside is plain, but the paper is of a fine quality. That is the first wrapping. The next one has some design to it, paisley, I think. I like paisley and the paper is of a still finer quality. Oops, this one isn't so good and it is very fragile. We will have to discard that one because it is too dark. Ah, the next one. I love this one for this one isn't paper at all. This is of the finest wool cloth--soft and flexible and warm.