Blown Away

by K'Anne Meinel

  “I’ll see you in a couple of weeks. They’ll give me progress reports,” she indicated the card.

  Di nodded numbly and looked up at the shelter. It was clean at least and no one was standing about. She took one last look at the expensive sports car with the unusual woman inside and bravely headed in.

  Ellen knew that Di would be safe there, they’d give her two weeks to find a place and by then the job should pay enough that she could be on her feet, running if she took it seriously. It was up to the teen and she hoped she’d make it. She’d known if she took her home that would create another set of problems for them both. She wasn’t sure the teen wouldn’t or hadn’t figured out who she was but she wasn’t taking that chance.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  HOME

  “And here we have the sun room,” Judy, the real estate agent was showing her the house she had bought, sight unseen. Judy was impressed, but then, Ellen Christenson was a catch. She’d made the mistake once before of undervaluing this client, she wouldn’t again. The commission from this sale alone would be nice, very nice. She’d basically used her own name to take this sale, she normally only sold in the City, but for this client, this ‘special’ client, she had used every trick she could to make it happen. The salespeople that sold in this area weren’t exactly pleased with her, but it was a cutthroat business.

  So far Ellen was pleased with her ‘impulsive’ purchase. She knew, had Ryan been alive that he would have been pleased with her. It was a home, not just a house to live in. It felt warm and cozy and the furnishings that would be arriving soon would go into this modern version of an antique house perfectly. She loved it already. She would have to buy some furnishings but she wasn’t in a hurry. The things she had at her other house wouldn’t fit in here and she wondered what she would do with them. Maybe donate them to the shelter, maybe to some other charity.

  The sun room was rounded with beveled windows that allowed sunlight to refract as it came through their slanted edges, dark wood edged around each of the beautiful windows. The effect was stunning with rainbows abounding in the ornately appointed room. Whoever had built the house had loved rich woods and they glowed with a cornice on each corner and matching molding leading up to them. Wide bases meant that plants could be placed on the shelves that stuck out under the windows; antique latches gave the windows a finished look as their brass was already molded in a way to make them ageless.

  Each room in the house had ornate touches, crown molding, and gorgeous woods that despite being crafted in the last few years made the new house old and settled. The wall to wall wood floors did not creak but the walker would listen for that, expecting it in this house. The banisters glowed in the sunlight that streamed through the various windows strategically placed throughout to bring in the Northern California rays. A switch and the windows would be covered in blinds, curtains, or shutters depending on their location. The whole house glowed like it had just been polished and yet the beams of light had dust floating in them; it was warm, rich, and opulent.

  It was touches like this throughout the house that pleased Ellen beyond measure. Despite being an impulse it was fate that had led her to this purchase. This was the first house since her mother was alive that felt like a home and it was hers.

  “What would you like to do with your other house?” Judy asked astutely. Almost as though she was reading Ellen’s mind. She had watched her client fall in love with this house, she too would have loved to buy it but it was well beyond her means. The builder had several houses in this section, all different, and yet his eye for detail had allowed him to employ the best craftsmen and women. People who knew how to build to last. This house should last hundreds of years with all its modern conveniences including a state of the art security system, and yet it would always feel like an antique.

  “I’m not sure yet if I should rent it out or sell it,” Ellen admitted honestly. She’d thought it over on the trip back. It was the first place she had bought and even though Ryan had sold his identical one next door, it had a certain nostalgic value to her. She’d lived in it for years and yet it didn’t feel like home. This house, this modern Victorian, this felt like home and it didn’t even have any furnishings in it.

  Knowing where Ellen lived exactly, Judy knew the value of the house. While that builder hadn’t been too imaginative in his style choices, she thought this house that Ellen had purchased in the Rolling Hills Estates was much better for her image as a techie in the Valley. It wasn’t a mini-mansion and she knew that Ellen could afford one of those, but being a single woman, she thought this an excellent choice. It was still a gated community and would afford her some privacy; it was situated on a couple of acres of land so she didn’t have neighbors looking through her windows. The landscaping was extensive and finished exquisitely; the overall look of the house was complete. Ellen hadn’t quibbled on the price either, and although she could afford it, it showed how much she had wanted this place. Judy wondered if perhaps she was settling down, this house was built for a family.

  Given the keys to her new house, the pass cards to the estate gate which was also manned part of the time; Ellen was ready to move in since the house had been vacant. Ellen called the moving company to arrange delivery of her belongings as soon as they arrived in California. She smiled into the phone, delighted to hear they could be there the following day. Knowing what her work schedule would have been had she not had to go to Oklahoma, she sighed thinking about the hours she would have to devote just to catch up. She started to pack the things in her old house she would be taking with her to the new house, leaving most of her furnishings at the old house intact. She took great joy in the few hours she took to shop for furnishings; she started hitting up antique stores. Normally a workaholic she now began making herself take time off and enjoyed every moment of it.

  “Hello Ellen,” a surprised Rae said when they ran into each other up in Napa. Seeing the well-dressed Ellen Christenson in of all places a dusty old antique store was not something she would ever have thought to see.

  Ellen looked back at her in equal surprise. Her single forays into these places had become her special indulgence. Nancy had been surprised at the change that took over her patient and that included taking time off to get away from her office now and again. She was pleased though, very pleased with Ellen’s progress after her trip. She hadn’t been pleased at Ellen’s vengeance on the people of that small town but Ellen’s attitude over it all, even her tiny bit of regret over the lawsuits showed how much she had been growing as a person. “Rae, how nice to see you again,” Ellen answered and truly meant it. The woman she had apologized to months ago was a delight to the senses. Her well-kept appearance, the rich chestnut hair that begged to have fingers comb through it, even her mode of dress, casual but elegant, bespoke class. She had actually meant the apology she had tendered to this woman. She thought of it as an almost twelve-step program that had garnered her peace in her world.

  “What in the world are you doing in an antique shop up here in Napa?” Rae couldn’t help asking. She looked at the redhead seeing her looking relaxed, something she couldn’t remember EVER saying about Ellen before. She was one of the most intense women she had ever met, part of the attraction she once had for the executive. Dressed in jeans, albeit designer jeans, a checkered shirt, and boots, high heeled ones at that, she look chic and dressed down instead of the business suits that were so common in her wardrobe.

  “Oh, I’m furnishing a house I purchased down in the Valley,” Ellen told her truthfully. She was looking for a bedroom set for the place, she was sleeping on mattresses and that wasn’t acceptable. She could find a new bed set but preferred the idea of an antique one if she could find the right one. She’d already found two unacceptable ones that she put into the extra bedrooms she had upstairs in the house. They just weren’t right for the master suite.

  Rae was shocked. Everything she had ever seen in Ellen’s apartment in the city was modern. Even the furnishings in that
house she had owned next to Ryan Mahoney’s had been functional, nothing dusty or old or antiquish in sight. Other than a few trinkets she had from her mother, nothing was personal in that place. “What did you buy?” she asked curious.

  “I got a Victorian house up in Rolling Hills Estates,” she mentioned and waited for Rae to acknowledge that she knew where that was before she continued. “I decided I needed a home, not merely a house,” she explained and knew that this woman of all the women she had dated would understand.

  Rae nodded but she was beyond shocked at the news. This woman didn’t care about such things. She was too busy, too much a workaholic to have time for a home and family. It was one of the many reasons they had broken up. Rae had wanted to start a family, she had wanted a baby, and realized after their break up that Ellen was the wrong person to want that with at the time. The reason she gave was that she didn’t wish to perpetuate her family’s faults. Even if the baby would be Rae’s she didn’t want a child to mess up her life. It was when Rae had analyzed her and told her that she felt she had Gamophobia, a fear of marriage that the relationship had really turned sour. “Wow, that must be quite a change,” she stated.

  Ellen nodded and on impulse asked, “Want to help me look?”

  Rae shrugged and smiled. “Why not?” Ellen was good company and the change in her she couldn’t understand but she did enjoy. After hitting several antique shops they went to lunch and Ellen delighted her, charmed her, and asked her out, which Rae accepted much to their mutual surprise. After being hurt by Ellen so long ago she had thought she would never again go on a date with her but this Ellen, this completely changed Ellen, she could like her. She realized the apology that Ellen had given her those months ago had been the beginning of a change in her and she wondered how much and what had really caused it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  STUDENT EXUBERANCE

  “You want to do what, with what?” she asked the group of young students before her in her loftiest tones. She recognized them from their Oklahoman accents, but her own was safely tucked away.

  “We want to use your circuits in sensors we want to develop,” the leader of their little group said enthusiastically. He had to be about twenty-four.

  “Then we want to put the sensors up in a tornado,” another one piped up and Ellen looked at him dubiously.

  “And how do you propose to do that?” Ellen asked skeptically. She really had to have a chat with her secretary at allowing proposals like this to be offered to her personally. Her time was far too valuable for such nonsense.

  “We will put them in a machine we intend to build and put that in the line of the tornados path and we hope it will suck it up,” their leader, a dubious honor she was sure, imparted.

  “Hasn’t someone already done something like this?” she asked, trying to vaguely remember a movie on this very subject.

  They nodded instantly. “But it didn’t have the technology we would put in it,” he answered with youthful naiveté.

  “Do you have the schematics available for your proposed machine?” she asked, she was sure they were unprepared and the six of them would have to leave soon, she was beginning to feel a bit…claustrophobic with all this enthusiasm.

  “We do,” he assured her and pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her.

  Ellen nearly laughed. Most engineers or architects had schematics drawn on poster sized or blueprint papers. This was obviously hand-drawn. She looked at it anyway. It was actually intriguing.

  “We were hoping your partner would take a look at this and maybe give us a hand?” he asked tentatively.

  Without looking up Ellen dismissed it with, “My partner died.” She looked up at the genuine groans she heard from the group.

  “Oh, then are there any engineers that could possibly take a look at this?” he asked hopefully.

  She looked at him and sat back in her chair. “What makes you think I’m not an engineer?” she asked in a frosty voice.

  He blinked. His companions blinked. The girl amongst them smiled a little secret smile as she nodded as though she had just had a secret confirmed.

  “I’m sorry, I thought you were the administrative genius of the operation,” he apologized, trying to make immediate amends and thinking he had just blown their one and only opportunity.

  “I am,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t know what our products do or how to make them,” she pointed out.

  “Is it possible you could help us with this then?” he asked hopefully again.

  “Why didn’t you go to your own engineers? I’m almost certain Oklahoma has several schools that would contain engineers.”

  He nodded. “We were hoping to apply for a grant or a scholarship to work here too. It’s why we made the trip ourselves and put in for a meeting with you. We were hoping to plead our case. The engineers laughed at us and our plans. We can make it if we have the supplies, but being able to buy the sensors will just about kill us,” he explained.

  She knew how expensive things of that nature could be; it’s what was part of their bread and butter here. She knew her partners on the electronics side of the business wouldn’t be too happy if she gave away the product either. “How many of these sensors were you planning on putting into this,” her hand slapped at the paper he had handed her with his plans.

  “We thought about five-hundred per barrel, each,” he added belatedly.

  “Each?” she asked with her eyes narrowing. They all shifted nervously. “How many of these apparatus’ were you planning on making for your little adventure?” she asked astutely.

  “Six,” he confessed and then held his breath. It sounded like a lot and they all knew it. But they figured if anything happened to one machine, there would be a back-up, and they would learn from each of the back-ups and improve on them. Six had seemed like a comfortable number to work with.

  Ellen sat back in her chair again thinking. “Do you have a resume?” she asked suddenly.

  He shook his head. As she glanced at the others they shook their heads too.

  “Tell you what. You write out your proposal to me, complete and professionally. You write out decent schematics for your machine, again, complete. I want cost analysis’ and a budget. Bring all that to me as well as your resumes and I do mean ALL,” she glanced at the group sitting across from her. “Once I look over your proposal I may have something for you, but only if you do your homework,” she advised.

  They exchanged glances and nods as one by one they agreed to her proposal. Their leader stood up and they all followed. Ellen stood up out of respect. “We’ll do that Ms. Christenson, we’ll surely do that,” he said enthusiastically and reached out to shake her hand.

  Ellen smiled as he shook her hand as enthusiastically as his outrageous proposal had been. As she escorted them out she called to secretary to come in.

  “How in the world did they get in here?” she asked, fixing a stern eye on her assistant.

  “I, I, I guess they were on your calendar,” she hedged and then she saw Ellen’s expression and crumbled. “Bobby’s my cousin and he begged me to get him in to see you. I didn’t really know the whole story and I …” she started to go on and on but Ellen held up her hand.

  “In the future, you tell me what their ‘story’ is, and I’ll determine if I’ll listen to their proposal, okay?”

  Her secretary, immensely relieved that she hadn’t been fired on the spot, nodded. Now Ellen could see the resemblance to one of the group.

  “And here,” she said handing the folded paper the boy had left on her desk. “Get this back to them if you would?”

  “Yes, Ms. Christenson. Right away Ms. Christenson.”

  She shook her head as the woman quickly backed out of her office and went back to work.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  THERAPY

  “Do you think that reliving your childhood remembrances has helped you to move on?” Nancy asked her.

  �
�I think I’ve exorcised the demons. I know I’m happier. Definitely healthier,” she answered. She had been wondering if she needed to come to therapy anymore. Ryan’s stipulations in his will had been met. All except for meeting his daughter and she had made that call for next week.

  “And dating Rae, don’t you think that’s a set back?” Nancy had to wonder at her own objectivity about Ellen dating. She knew if Ellen weren’t a client, she would ask this brilliant and attractive woman out. She knew most of her faults, she knew how she ticked, and still the redhead kept surprising her.

  “Actually, I think it’s fate,” she smiled at that admission. Fate, Karma, she knew some people really believed in that. She wasn’t sure she did. “She was a good friend back in the day and I’m glad she is back in my life for however long it is.”

  “That doesn’t sound like you think it will last,” Nancy said astutely. Inside she was hopeful that Ellen would stay single, it gave her a chance to make a move when they were no longer Doctor and Patient.

  Ellen shrugged. “None of my relationships last,” she admitted. “But I have to start somewhere and I liked Rae back in the day. I’ve grown. She’s different too.” Maybe Rae wasn’t really different, maybe Ellen just saw her differently, she admitted to herself. She knew she had been a lot of fun to be with as Rae helped her shop for her bedroom set and once that was found, other odds and ends for the house. She had exquisite taste. Rae had been astonished at the warm and cozy house Ellen was putting together.

  “It’s fantastic Ellen,” she told her reverently. She’d always wished to have a place like this; she could see children playing in the backyard. She knew better that to suggest that to Ellen though. She knew her views on children, or she had.

  “Do you think that having a past with Rae might affect your future relationship with her?” Nancy was trying to remain professional. She didn’t realize yet how her own feelings were affecting this session, she would later when she analyzed her notes.