I have been waiting sometime now hoping to find an editor for this story.
It seems like so many of the editors I try to contact do not respond or cannot get to it within a reasonable time.
So, I'm going to submit the story without editing.
My readers can be my editors.
I would appreciate any comments on spelling, punctuation (especially the use of quotation marks), grammar, plot, story flow, character development, etc.
I like dialogue in a story and I like confrontation.
The first part of the story is all descriptive -- setting the stage for confrontation that takes place later.
Thank you for reading.
I hope you enjoy the story.
THE ARCITECT
Characters
Bill Reardon: The architect
Joan Reardon: Wife of Bill Reardon, Real Estate Broker
Joyce Reardon: Daughter of Joan Reardon and adopted daughter of Bill Reardon
Beverly DuMont Wilson: Owner of DuMont Furniture Rental and Staging Company
Lennard Wilson: Beverly's husband and director of marketing for Beverly's company
FRIDAY AFTERNNON
Bill Reardon is an architect and a very good one. Since he was a junior in high school, he knew what he wanted to do, unlike many of his friends who didn't decide on a career until they were halfway through college.
Bill received his bachelor of science in architecture from the University of Maryland. He wasn't able to continue on to his master's degree right away because the family still needed to put his younger sister and brother through college.
Rather, Bill was able to get a good job at a well-known architectural firm in Northern Virginia. He started at the bottom doing not much more than draftsman work. Afterall, you don't start off right away designing skyscrapers. Nevertheless, Bill was comfortable in his job and was totally familiar with the computer-aided design software being used.
By being careful with his income, Bill was able to save what he needed for his master's degree education. He was fortunate to be admitted into the MS program at Purdue University. His company was sorry to see him go because they were well-pleased with his work.
Bill's savings were not enough to cover all of his expenses so he still had to work. He found employment as a draftsman for a local civil engineering firm that did a lot of contract work for the city. He was on a flexible schedule as far as his job was concerned but still, most of his classes were at night.
Since he often had hours of computer work to do both for his employer and homework for his classes, he often found himself in cafeteria late at night. He would find a quiet corner somewhere and settle in with his computer until it was time to go to class or go home.
It was while he was in the cafeteria one night when he met Joan. At times, in the evenings, the cafeteria is so empty that there are often more workers than customers. Joan was one of the workers. Bill noticed her the first night she came to work. Although Joan wore clothes befitting a waitress, little makeup and her hair put up in an unfashionable manner, he recognized her as a very beautiful woman in both face and body.
As time went on, they became more and more sociable with one another. She would often bring him coffee without being asked. Then, she would sometimes stay and chat with him for a few minutes being careful not to take up too much of his time if he was hard at work on some project.
Bill learned, among other things, that she was a single mom with a one-year-old baby at home. Although the county social services helped her out with some income, she still had to work two jobs to make ends meet.
Bill recognized that there was a mutual attraction between the two of them and eventually asked her out on a Saturday night date. Joan told him that she wanted to go out with him very badly but she didn't have any friends or relatives that could watch the baby for her and baby-sitting costs were very high.
Bill wasn't going to let the cost of a baby-sitter deter him and told her he would take care of those expenses. She felt genuinely bad and embarrassed at being so indigent that she had to rely on Bill's good nature in order to spend time with her. It was more than worth it to Bill.
Bill went over to Joan's small apartment on Friday after classes. Joan was there and dressed for their dinner date. Her dinner attire confirmed Bill's earlier assessments of her beautiful face and almost voluptuous figure. Joan's babysitter, a pretty young high school senior, was there too. Joan was eager for Bill to see her baby daughter and carried her into the living room to introduce the two. Bill thought it was the most beautiful baby he had ever seen. Her name was Joyce.
That was the start of Bill and Joan's relationship. Bill fell in love with Joan and her baby within the next few months. He was not at all uncomfortable with the fact that Joan was a single mother with a baby. Joan fell in love with Bill and was ever so grateful for the fact that he seemed to accept the baby so readily as part of their relationship.
Joan admitted to having had the baby out of wedlock. She said she was in a long-term relationship with her high school boyfriend. While they were both going to community college, she became pregnant. Her boyfriend wanted her to have an abortion but she refused. He deserted her soon after and went to college in another state. She had been struggling with the baby and living expenses ever since. Social services were helpful and provided her with part of her income. Her family also helped out from time-to-time but were not all that well off themselves. She worked two jobs to augment her income even more.
After several months of dating, they slept together.
As Bill neared the end of his master's program, he asked Joan to marry him. Joan was beside herself with happiness. She found a man she loved and a man who very much wanted to be the father of her baby and, in fact, loved the baby as much as she did.
Upon graduation, Bill, Joan and Joyce moved back to Northern Virginia where Bill found a job with his old employer. This time, because of his advanced education and experience, he was hired at a much higher level than before and at a much-enhanced salary.
Bill and Joan rented a three-bedroom townhouse with a two-car garage. It was more than adequate for their small family. A year or so after they settled into their home, Joan became pregnant. They had a baby boy that they named Richard but who picked up the nickname of Ritchie.
Bill continued to do well as an architect but he was not happy designing large buildings, shopping malls and apartment complexes. Part of this dissatisfaction was due to the fact that he still only did a small part of the design. Further, he seldom was able to see the results of his efforts because it usually took years before a project was completed and the projects were often out-of-state.
His real interest was in designing houses.
When Joyce was seven and Ritchie was five, Bill found a house for them to buy. It was ideal from his point of view: It was on a cul-de-sac in a nice neighborhood and the school district was highly rated. Although the house might have appeared ordinary in many ways to many people, but not to Bill. His trained architect's eye saw the perfect home where he could both raise his children and conduct his business.
The house was a four-bedroom three and a half bath rambler with a large living room, large family room and large dining room. It also had a two-car garage. But what really sold bill on the house was the fact that it had a full, walkout basement where he could set up his home-based architecture business. Although the basement was currently unfinished, Bill's eye could see it was laid out in such a way that he could entertain clients, draft his designs and make his models when required. Further, the walkout basement had French doors that opened onto a small, private, landscaped patio.
The asking price was seven-hundred thousand dollars and Bill quickly offered to buy it for that amount. He knew it was going to cost at least another one-hundred thousand dollars to renovate it throughout as well as finish off the basement to his specifications. Even so, he thought it was well worth the price. Joan also thought it was ideal and the kids loved the idea that each of them would have their own bedroom.
Twelve years later, Bill had a thriving home design business. In addition to earning a good reputation as an architect capable of designing everything from mansions to quadraplexes, he held a number of patents on home design ideas. He had designed a series of extremely low-cost homes suitable for people who, essentially, could not afford a normal bread-and-butter home. Also, he invented foldout homes for people in lesser-developed countries that allowed them most of the comforts and protection of a home, including water, gas and electrical hookups without the necessity of expensive and extensive foundations and site work. He also had designs that could be added onto from time to time without the home looking as if unsightly appendages had been added to the original design. A family could start out with a one-story, two-bedroom home and end up years later with a large, beautiful four- or five-bedroom home that has grown up along with the family and the family finances.
