Chapter 44

We had walls constructed at a point where the roof was about three feet from floor level, and each dormer wound up with a built-in window seat. Although we’d have preferred hardwood floors, we elected to have heavily padded carpeting installed so that sound penetrating to the floor below would be kept to a minimum. Widening the stairs involved knocking out a wall and making one of the spare bedrooms about three feet narrower than it had been. We also added a couple of security cameras, placed such that we could monitor the kids from the study.

We hosted a party for Charles’ office in early December. Steve, Roger, and Sammy had been going to the children’s hospital almost every Saturday since they’d asked permission to help, and they appeared to be genuinely touched by the plight of all the kids who were fighting cancer. They were particularly fond of an eleven-year-old named Jimmy, whom they were teaching to swim.