Earthquake
Ch. 01
Lisa Does the Unthinkable
I first met Lisa after I first arrived in Wellington, New Zealand. I am a seismic engineer which means I have a specialty in designing structures to resist earthquakes. At the time, I had just completed a doctorate in Engineering and been lured from an intended academic career into a major international corporation with an interest in the subject of my research.
Having just moved into a new apartment, I checked in to sign up with a local gym. Lisa was at the desk when I arrived. She was working part time at the Gym as a fitness trainer supporting herself through a fine arts degree at university.
When I rolled up to the desk she had her head down. Her head popped up as I arrived and gave me an absolutely dazzling smile. I was rendered speechless for a few seconds, before finally stuttering my request. From there began the pattern of our relationship, we began to chat. Chatting turned to flirting and before long I was treated to her other most endearing feature, her giggle. Casual meetings at the gym rapidly turned into dating, and then we were an item and eventually marriage.
Lisa was highly intelligent and came from a high achieving family. In fact her father was a well-known philanthropist, senior academic and head of a ground breaking research Institution, his name was Edward Dawson. There had been a recent controversy in the media when he had been presented with a minor 'gong' by the Governor General. Some thought he should have been knighted and he had been short changed because of his politics. 'Sir Edward' would have been nice, but Ed was nothing but gracious about it and it would have been beneath him to display any form of resentment.
A feature of Lisa and my relationship was our intense discussions on just about any subject we chose, be it culture, engineering, philosophy or politics. The amazing thing is that I do not recall ever having a serous argument about anything. Sure, we would earnestly debate our opinions on various issues but we would always discuss our personal issues with respect. I don't remember Lisa ever raising her voice to me, nor I her. I loved and trusted Lisa without reservation. She was the love of my life. Sexually our libidos matched, love making was frequent, tender and extended with little inhibition.
We both came from sporty backgrounds and were quite active. At school I was an accomplished Rugby player. My speciality was wing. I had a good turn of speed and was aggressive and determined. The pinnacle came when I scored four sequential tries against a visiting South African school boy rugby side. After the game our guys asked here I got the gas from. A South African Guy said, "Man, you run like a gazelle, they should call you Gaz."
The nickname stuck. In those days people reckoned I would end up in the All Blacks. Although I had a turn of speed in my high school days I bulked out and slowed down a bit. I ended up playing centre at varsity and was actually captain of our team in the second year. That didn't last long as I buggered my knee. I was going to be out for months so I gave it away. All I have left to remind me of this period is Maori tattoo over my left shoulder in honour of the big Polynesian boys I played alongside. I also dabbled in martial arts and was competitive for a time but I eventually gave that away as well although that was a while later.
My first love ever since I played in the sand pit was engineering. Sport as a career was never a realistic option, besides as well as my interest in engineering, university was broadening my horizons and I was finding myself mixing with a different culture than the old rugger bugger one.
Lisa was sporty for a time as well and had been a representative hockey player but both of us had become less involved in our sports but kept up our fitness at the gym. Lisa was very tall at 183cm and of slender build with largish bust. We were well matched as I was 188 cm so we must have been an imposing couple. Lisa's legs were long and shapely with a slightly chubby butt that would draw the gaze of any red blooded male.
Before me Lisa had only one steady boyfriend who she first met in her last year at high school. He was a university graduate and therefore a bit older than her. He received a scholarship to study at Cambridge, England. Lisa took a gap year before starting University to join him in England and to travel around Europe. Her boyfriend was engrossed in the demands of researching for his PHD so could not travel extensively with her. There were apparently some tensions but they nominally stayed together. They continued to keep in touch with Skype and phone after Lisa returned to New Zealand. He did come back twice to visit her. Lisa had plans to go back for an extended visit when he announced that he had become engaged to an Englishwoman. Lisa was devastated, especially since he had been seeing this woman when Lisa was in the UK. This had ended not long before I met her.
We both got on well with our respective families. Her Mother, Pandora, was an academic as well and Lisa had two older sisters, Beth and Helen. I had a younger sister Georgia, and a much younger brother, Mason. Georgia particularly loved Lisa. My parents thought her stunning and she was welcome addition to the family from the start.
Lisa finished her degree and looked around for work. At this stage she was uncertain about what she wanted to commit to in her future and I got her work as a receptionist at my firm. While there, she was taken with the work that our architectural department did. As a result she came to ponder Architecture as a career choice.
Freshly married we travelled overseas. It was a first time for me as my only overseas experience had been family holidays nearby in the South Pacific. Lisa had travelled extensively with her family but in particular her gap year travels, which had not only taken her to the UK but the US and Europe.
Our own overseas adventure started in Indonesia where Lisa and I lived for a time. I was providing specialist expertise on engineering projects for my firm. Following that we travelled and worked extensively elsewhere overseas and on the birth of our first child eventually arrived back in New Zealand. By this time we had a life plan. Despite the romance of large international complex engineering practice I set my sights more modestly. I would go with a smaller practice for a while to hone my skills to the smaller level of projects then to go out on my own. Lisa was inspired by the architecture of Europe and we decided that we would have just two children and when she was able she would return to University to attend architectural school.
Eventually I went into practice with two others. At this stage we had our two children Sarah and Hugo. We moved from our apartment and set up practice in an outer suburb. I had an anchor client there who was developing projects nationwide. Initially we struggled as the client almost ceased operation and was taken over by a larger organisation. We thought we had lost our core work and would have to survive with small sporadic commissions.
At this time we had moved into a two storied house adjacent a reserve. The house was an older cedar weatherboard house, not remarkable but it had some style with a large expanse of glass overlooking the reserve. Our drive led off a cul-de-sac and the house was not visible from the road. There was one house next door which overlooked ours. A retired couple lived there, Carolyn and Dave.
This was our period of struggle and with two young children Lisa and I could not afford a huge social life but we did both join a local gym to keep trim. The gym was a franchise and was run by an American husband and wife team. As the couple generally managed the gym on a night on and night off basis in the evening, I got to know the wife, Hera Cohen but not her husband. They had two daughters about our own children's age. Although the children were often at the gym they never really had any opportunity to play with Sarah and Hugo.
At the time I did not know Hera's husbands name, He was a stocky guy with a shaven head, he sported a well-trimmed beard, tattoos and piercings. He appeared to me as a bit of a try hard hipster, not quite achieving the cool.
Hera was short and dark with long black hair. She looked as though she had some Latin blood. She was friendly but never had a lot to say.