Chapter 392: Reconstruction

Uh oh. Now you’ve done it.

When I saw Molly standing at the front of her car with plans, I knew that someone was a pain in the ass.

“David?” an older man in a suit asked. “I’m told that you own this and all the land around it now.”

“That is correct. A guy I met a few times died, and he decided to give all his wealth to me. The neighborhood is one of those things he owned or someone managing all that stuff bought for him,” I told him.

He got on his pompous ass hat and said, “There is some girl over here who is only saying short, choppy sentences as she is trying to make us believe that she is the architect of the plans for the redevelopment of this lot. She won’t leave, and I frankly find her a bit intimidating. I feel like a kid going to tell his mom that she screwed up, and I caught her at it.”

“Oh, you must mean Molly,” I told him. “Yes, those are the plans she drew up for the house rebuilding after talking to the new residents to meet their needs. If you take a look at it, you will find one, if not all three, top architecture and engineering firms in the world have signed off on them over the weekend. Want to see something even crazier?”

I went over to take the pencil from her hand and erased a small around the perimeter. I also removed the label for the garage on her plans. When I gave her the pencil back, Molly quickly put them back, freehand.

I went to the guy in the suit to say, “Those aren’t from a cad program. These are all drawn by hand from what she had in her mind. Her handwriting is so precise and quick that she can write out a detailed note, with illustrations, in under a minute. It will look like it came from a laser printer.”

She waited for me to finish before asking me for my cellphone. Her fingers flew over the screen. Everyone here had soft copies of the plans signed off by the big three firms in a few minutes.

“Any more questions? Can we proceed?” Molly asked.

One of the other people brought up the biohazard situation, as it was the main reason she had the whole place torn down and was rebuilding it. Molly, of course, had a stack of paperwork from the people she had come out from the various agencies, voluntarily, on Saturday and Sunday, to supervise the cleanup or test the soil afterward. Only the cement had was contaminated. It never got into the ground, and liquids got pumped into the sewer by the crazy lady.

Every possible question popped up, and with each, Molly flipped to the page in the plans to tap the spots that answered their questions.

One guy asked, “Why use solar roof tiles? It won’t generate enough power to make it worth the costs of the batteries, inverters, and associated maintenance. Do you know that you can get pre-made mosaic floor tiles instead of having a custom one made? You won’t be making a dime on this house when you sell it, so why bother?”

Molly pointed to me, so I said, “With a few exceptions, these homes are leased, not sold. That wouldn’t matter in this case. Molly designed it precisely per the new resident’s specifications. I want it built correctly and with the best materials. Unlike the cookie-cutter, cheapest material, and immigrant labor-built homes with only profit in mind, I don’t want to have to go rip out walls and ceilings because some moron half-assed soldered a copper pipe or used crappy PEX fittings. If we have the money to build it correctly to exceed code requirements, why not do it?”

“He has a valid point,” one of the women there, who was one of the building inspector’s office managers, said, “I’ve never seen anyone freehand draw building plans as if they were computer-generated. Now before any of you think you are going to get one past this young woman, she is the one that found the precision error in the architectural software used by the top firms. I’m sure that if you were to measure any of the lines, they would all be accurate down to the millimeter. I can’t tell you how she does it, but the final plans she created were scanned and validated. If you didn’t notice, all the wiring is one gauge higher than code requires.”

“Miss? Cost aside, why would you specify a higher gauge?” an electrical engineer asked Molly.

She smiled and then said, “Heat displacement due to overloading.”

Molly then pointed out that she doubled the usual number of outlets in each room to reduce the risk of further overloading. All bedroom outlets were even connected to ground-fault circuit breakers to be overly cautious. Places where one board would meet code, she doubled them because she planned the possibilities of loads not yet anticipated. Long spans had steel I-beams versus just layers of wood and posts.

No one questioned the elevator, at least.

When the people there signed off on the plans, the builder got things rolling.

Molly wasn’t done.

She went to her car and pulled out multiple tubes of plans. These blueprints also bore the signatures of the three top architectural firm’s senior partners. Unlike the ones for Camden’s mansion, these had been scanned and copied to get these same people to check them over. Each was for one twelve different home styles for the land adjoining this neighborhood’s wall.

“An additional thirty designs will get completed within the next two weeks,” she told the people there.

I bet you are shocked. Molly is a machine. If her doctor feels this is helping her, then I am all for it.

All the city’s various inspectors and engineers left quickly after that.

“Yes, David, this is a form of therapy. My eyes, pencils, mind, rulers, and hand only,” Molly told me as she came over to get a hug.

Slipping off between the home’s reconstruction fence and bushes got her a thirty-minute-long therapy session. She didn’t seem to mind my treatment methods.

Once she had lunch at my house, she went back to wherever the doctor kept her sequestered and worked on more plans.

I found out later that test excavations confirmed that all the land was prepared for building. Some places did already have a foundation, foundation wall, and slab poured. Molly used them to create her blueprints. Some plans would need additional foundation work.

I went next door to get Tee and Dee to take them to get registered at school. According to the school website, we would get there right before the end of the day, which is the best time. They weren’t very excited.

“Oh, come on already. It isn’t like I remember much from elementary school, but it is a friendly school. Molly’s siblings go there, too. You don’t have long before school is out anyway,” I told them. “I’m pretty sure you will make friends pretty quickly. Just don’t tell them you live in a mansion, or they just might want to have a lot of playdates.”

Dee laughed and said, “I doubt any of them are about to strip and swim with us.”

“Why not? You’re ten. Sure your bodies will start to change soon enough, but right now, you’re still little kids. Who knows, maybe it can be something you use to see if they can keep a secret,” I suggested. “I’m pretty sure Molly had a ten-year-old sibling. I know that all Molly’s younger siblings have friends over, and they swim naked in her pool.”

Now that got your wheels turning, didn’t it?

When we got to the elementary school, the kids didn’t want to get out of the car. At least not until a herd of fourth-graders ran across the play area chasing the Frisbees that their gym teacher was flinging way out there. Girls and boys were all wearing shorts with t-shirts going all out. You couldn’t even guess sex by hair length because some boys had hair down past their shoulders while a few girls were very short.

We headed into the office, and the woman at the desk already had everything she needed.

“David,” she told me. “You know where everything is here. The fourth grade is out in the play area for gym class. Why don’t you take them on back there to get a chance to meet the other kids? Watch out for Carl, Reba, Lisa, and Zeke. They have had a pretty bad day.”

She gave the kids their bus number, and the driver already knew they were new kids getting off at the mansion gates.

We headed on out toward the gym class.

“You have some new students,” I told the gym teacher. “These are the twins, Dee and Tee. They are staying with my neighbor Chrissy while their house is under construction. The office said to bring them on out.”

The gym coach got down at eye level the said hello, and introduced herself.

Before they could chase the Frisbees that the gym teacher threw out, Carl, Reba, Lisa, and Zeke noticed me standing over here. They came running right for me. When they got to Tee and Dee, all four stopped to tell the twins their names and give them hugs. I was quickly forgotten. The four kids pulled the twins off into the play area to find Frisbees to toss around.

The coach shook her head and then said, “Damn. Sorry. Dang! If I hadn’t seen that, I wouldn’t believe it. All four were heading right at you. Those two must be something special to get that kind of reaction. I didn’t know those four were able to hug anyone, much less hold someone’s hand.”

“Yes, they are something special,” I replied. “Smart too. Both are great kids, as far as I know. I’ve not seen them have any problems with behavior any of the times they have been around me.”

“Look at that! Ok, now I don’t doubt that they have some sort of vibe they are giving off. Those four are dragging Dee and Tee around to introduce them to everyone. From the looks I see on the other children’s faces, they haven’t heard any of those four say anything except when they are having a meltdown. Even that isn’t much. If they were older, I would say Tee just got two girlfriends, and Dee got two boyfriends.”

I laughed and said, “Maybe they did. It wouldn’t hurt to have four friends that aren’t fake and full of crap like kids get sometimes. I know you can’t have missed how I got some stuff when this guy I met a few times died. I found one thing was that whole mansion neighborhood. I lease out those mansions. My parents told me that we had too many babies and people over to fit our old house, so we moved to one of the mansions. Not sure why Chrissy’s mom moved to one or Becky to another. The two kids are staying with Chrissy for now while their house is under construction. I gave one that became vacant to their family, but it was a biohazard from the crazy woman that used to live there. It had to have the foundation torn out.”

“Got any more of them to give away?” The gym teacher asked.

“Want to have a pair of triplets?” I joked.

She gave me a nasty look.

“Didn’t think so,” I said. “The twins older sister Camden had Gabriella last year. A few weeks ago, she had triplets. All four are mine, even if I have no idea how that happened.”

Damn, I set myself up for this one.

“Well, David, you see. When a mommy and daddy...” She joked back.

I just shook my head.

We enjoyed watching the four special-needs kids going around to introduce Tee and Dee. The six kids had a blast and joined in with the other kids instead of going off into their isolated little pod.

The gym teacher said, “That is the first time I’ve seen those four children smiling and having fun.”

I headed back to my car. Lenny still had a few more weeks before graduation, so I headed over to check on Paula. It had been a while since I’ve seen her. At her house, she ran excitedly to me from the gym to hug me.

“I’m glad you’re back. I’ve had so much happen in the last few weeks,” Paula explained. “I don’t know what triggered it, but right after you left with April, I read something that threw me into a two-day coma-like state. So much came back over those two days. Some I wish I never remembered. I’ve gotten to the point where I know the areas I need to focus on remembering. There are gaps in my legal and computer knowledge that I remember knowing but can’t remember the specific details. I can go on for hours, but right now, can you pound my therapists? Both have been extremely bitchy lately. I know they are both into women, but something is up, and they won’t tell me. I’ve heard them talking, so I know they will be very interested in your dick. You need to do at least something to help them because they are trying to kill me with all the added workouts.”