Building on Dreams

Chapter 42 - Lips, Secrets, Cabinets and Cement

As Greg and Susan predicted, their weekend passed in a whirlwind of busyness.  Susan was right though, making decisions about things as concrete as the rock for the fireplace or the finishing materials of the house was very exciting and effectively distracted Greg from thinking about the current stage of their project or the cave or even the image of the deer along the trail in the fog.

Monday came, bringing with it a stack of papers to sign and the funding of their construction loan. The result was a check to use for covering the costs of building their house, accompanied by a schedule of monthly payments to be made to the loan company, which would eventually be converted into a more conventional sort of mortgage for their new home.

Greg made an appointment with Denis, his accountant, for early Tuesday morning to get some help managing the construction funds during the building process. He met with him as scheduled on that day, got some advice on how to handle the money in the interim, and had two checks cut, one for each of his contractors, from the funds that very same day. With his loan finally in place, Greg managed to get to their building site by noon on Tuesday.

 c

Greg parked beside the sunshade Mr. Thompson was using as his office and went looking for him as soon as he arrived.

"Hello," Mr. Thompson came to greet him. "We were wondering when we'd see you."

"Is there a problem?" Greg asked.

"No, but Mr. Sato is here working with us today.  I think he wants to talk to you," Mr. Thompson explained.

"Oh okay. Before we get into that, I have a check for you," Greg said handing over one of the two checks he'd had prepared that morning.

Mr. Thompson looked it over carefully, thanked Greg and put it away.

"I also have materials choices for both fireplaces," Greg told him.

"Both?" Mr. Thompson asked. "I only see the one in my plans."

"Oh that's right, the second is in the cottage Mr. Van Kirk is going to build," Greg recalled. "Sorry."

"That's all right," Mr. Thompson commented looking at him curiously.  "Mr. Sato is down in the cave."

Greg nodded and started to head towards the tunnel entrance on the north side of the hill, when Mr. Thompson stopped him, handed him a hard hat and said,

"This way."

He led Greg down into the valley on the south side of the hill instead. It quickly became apparent that what on Friday had been simply a dark hole in the side of the hill was now much bigger and was beginning to look like an actual cave, which of course is what it was.

"Hello Greg!" Lee Sato called when he spotted him. "I was wondering when you were getting here."

"I didn't know you were waiting for me," Greg said apologetically.

"We weren't, really. That is, we have been able to proceed without you. But I did want to go over some things now that the cave is essentially open and you are here," Lee said.

"With the exception of lunch, I am at your disposal, Lee. I brought mine with me," Greg explained.

"How about we walk through this first and afterwards we can talk about it while we eat. I haven't had mine either," Lee suggested.

"That's why I'm here," Greg assured him.

"Come this way then," Lee invited and together they walked up the incline of soil and rock that was still mounded half way up to the roof of the cave. The left side was lower than the right and this is where Lee led Greg, up over the crest of the slope, stopping at a place where they could see both sides.