Ashley & Milo

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  "Lindsey and Marie, Wednesday night I have to go somewhere on business. Your Mom is coming to stay here with you. We'll have dinner together just like we used to. I'll be home early Thursday morning and maybe we can go out for breakfast or something. I have to meet with Ralph Peterson about ten, so I will have to take your mother home before then. Are you okay with this?"

  "Just Mom and nobody else?"

  "Yeah."

  "Okay. I miss Mom, but I don't like living where we have to with her. Can't we stay here with you Daddy?"

  "I don't see how Sweetheart, but I will ask her."

  "Try awful hard Daddy."

  Ashley was taking all of this in and when she had a minute she just said how sad for the little ones. I went to work and when I finished, I looked back over what I had accomplished. Pretty damned good I thought. The gazebo, the shrubs and the huge expanse of ground that would green up and become lawn someday.

  I showered and took Ashley and the girls out to Wendy's. Ashley wasn't impressed and made the comment that someday I was going to have a live-in cook. Then she flashed me a smile and it made my day.

  Tuesday morning I finished a little early. Mr. Brown saw me picking up my tools and loading the last bit of trash. He came out with a check in hand.

  "You gave Tildy an estimate for eighteen hours and it could have been twice that and I would have been happy. This is the check for that and here is a tip for working so hard and keeping it neat while doing the job. I would like to ask if you could keep an eye on the shrubs and when they need trimming, you go ahead and do what needs to be done. Thank you so much and I am curious to see your apartment tonight. I'll see you then."

  I rushed home and met the painters. They were all set to begin. They had already covered the floor and everything that needed it. I had them make the bluebells in the girls' room just a little darker than they would be in nature. The roses, a few were almost crimson and others fading to pale pink. Thank God I had a big spray to work with.

  When we reached the living room, I didn't know what I wanted and wouldn't know until I saw it finished. The painters were fabulous to work with and patient when I kept changing my mind. Finally about three in the afternoon I had what I wanted.

  The painters went to work and put the sparkle coat on and by four they were loading up. I asked one worker to stay and help me mount a special light I had contrived in the center of the room and attached it to the wires that so concerned Ashley originally.

  Ashley and the girls had been banished to the house on Bellevue Avenue and that is where I was fed some nourishment. I was beat, but I had people coming this evening to see what the effect I had created amounted to. Mr. and Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Hamlin, Kim and Will Grover and family, and finally Ralph Peterson. Ashley, this was her project as well as mine, and I was hoping the special effect I had worked into it would draw us closer.

  Everyone was gathered together and I asked that they all look at the bedrooms first and not pay too much attention to the living room. Everyone was impressed with the bluebells and the roses. Lindsey and Marie wanted to go to bed so they could look up at the colored flowers on their ceiling.

  "Not yet kids. I would like everyone out in the living room to find a seat. All of you people that can get down on the floor, I want you to lie there looking at the ceiling. Ralph, Mrs. Hamlin and Kim, please lay back on the couch and everyone close your eyes. It will take a minute, because I am closing all of the shades so it will be dark in here.

  "Okay you can open your eyes now."

  "Daddy I can't see anything."

  "Just a minute Marie." I started the fan hanging from the center of the ceiling turning ever so slowly. On the end of each paddle I had installed a small light which was on a dimmer. As the paddles gradually made their first revolution, I slowly brought the lights brighter and increased the speed ever so slightly. The whole effect was like stars popping out of the night sky little by little as the evening progressed.

  The moons in the far corners, I had the painters cover with gold glitter and had them do a silver glitter on the stars that were Ashley's contribution. I spoke. "Lindsey and Marie, what does this remind you of?"

  "Our night at camp last weekend. It is beautiful Daddy."

  "I seem to have produced the effect I was reaching for. Ashley and I were unacquainted up until a month ago. We discovered that through the death of my friend and Ashley's husband, that we were co-owners of a camp on a mountain. We both were at a low point in our lives. We watched the moon come up and the stars come out. It was a life changing experience for me and my life has turned around for the better since that night. This is my thank you Ashley for experiencing this with me."

  "Thank you Milo for this. It is as the girls say, beautiful. And thank you too, for being my guardian angel. That night was a wonderful awakening for me too."

  "Okay, one more thing before I turn the lights on, and this is strictly for the kids. Do any of you know what a kaleidoscope is?" No one did. "It is where you look into a lighted box and as you turn it, the light creates different shapes and the colors change. So hang on because you are now in a kaleidoscope."

  I speeded up the fan and had colored lights positioned on the blades, giving everyone the feeling they were spinning around and around. I soon stopped for I knew it would make my guests dizzy. I turned the lights on.

  Mrs. Hamlin almost made me break up when she said with tears in her eyes, "Milo, I'm glad I lived long enough to experience this. I haven't seen the stars this bright for years and years. You recreated one of the most beautiful sights on earth. Ashley said she saw the stars when she was at camp, but I had no idea what she was talking about until now. You are a wonderful unique person. Thank you so much."

  Mr. Brown came up to me. "Ashley may have the plainest building on the street, but I'll wager there isn't one better decorated on the inside."

  "Ashley has hired me to improve her property and I asked Ralph Peterson to come up with something to change all of that. He is working on plans right now and is going to show them to me on Thursday."

  Ralph overheard this. "Don't let Milo kid you. I may be drawing the structural plans, but it is entirely his vision. I have never been so excited by anything in years. You wait, this is going to be a showplace."

  Later after everyone had left, "You're quite the showman, Milo Burns. Where is all this going to end?"

  "I don't know. It could end tonight, I'm that bushed. So far, do you think you have value for what you have hired me to do?"

  "Yes, of course, and more is coming. The city tax assessor is going to love this when he comes to reevaluate."

  "Is that a problem?"

  "Christ no, not with the value you keep adding to the place. Milo, won't you take tomorrow off?"

  "I could sleep in. The Browns paid me. I worked sixteen and a half hours and they paid me for the eighteen I had estimated. Mr. Brown gave me a two hundred dollar tip, he was that pleased. Why does everyone want to overpay me? Also, he said to watch his grounds and when they need attention, to just go ahead and do the work."

  "I can think of at least three reasons. One, they see how hard you work, two, they can see you do quality work and three, they know you are honest. No person would give away a million or more dollars when they had it in their pocket. I can think of a couple more, like taking the time to be nice to Mrs. Hamlin. One other that will be known by everyone shortly. You got old Mr. Peterson off the neighbors' backs."

  "Of course Ash, we could lose it all if they knew you and I were having a tryst at the Best Western tomorrow night. You haven't forgotten?"

  Ashley didn't answer, but the look I received told me I had asked a foolish question.