Mathew's Story

Part Twelve

I stayed with Samantha until visiting hours were over then flew to Debbie's house. They welcomed me into the house as if I were family. I was surprised when Debbie's father offered me a job at his firm as an apprentice of a sorts. I jumped at the opportunity to learn engineering and get hands on experience. I had a hard time sleeping that night as I was worried about Samantha.

When morning finally came I helped out with the breakfast and did the dishes as well before going to see Samantha. I arrived to find her awake and eating breakfast. A police officer walked in a few minutes later to talk to both of us. Samantha pressed charges against her mother for the incident. Once all the information was written down the officer made a call on the radio and got things going.

Samantha's mother was arrested and charged with 2 counts of assault and possession of an illegal narcotic substance. I held Samantha as she cried. “It's for the best honey. Now we can force her to get some help so she can get off the drugs.” A nurse overheard the entire thing and agreed with me that forcing her mother into treatment was for the best.

I stayed a few hours with Samantha before I kissed her and flew off to meet Debbie's father at his firm for my first day of work. I was greeted by him as soon as I walked in. The secretary was all but drooling on the carpet at the sight of me. Debbie's father laughed and introduced us then told her that I was already engaged to be married.

“Shoot! I always miss the good looking ones.” We laughed about that and she showed me around the small office place that looked like a disaster zone. I listened as Debbie's father explained some of the more simple projects they had going on at the moment and he explained why things were done certain ways. We left the office in the afternoon and went to one of the construction sites where they were trying to work out a small problem with the structure.

I looked at the door system they were having trouble with and came up with a solution for the problem. I got a piece of paper and drew out a rough sketch of the solution while they were discussing options in technical terms. I saw where they had the power cable running and spotted a place where it would be safer and less likely do be damaged. Since the cable carried electrical power the place I had in mind to run it through would also be well shielded from weather. A half hour later I had a rough plan drafted as they were examining the blueprints.

After examining how everything was supposed to hook up I changed my design idea a small bit and it would still work and be safer. Once I was certain that everything was going to work I walked up to them and spoke up. “I think I have an idea that might work.” I showed them my rough sketches and explained it all to them as we looked everything over.

They measured everything out and sure enough, my ideas would solve the issue perfectly and still be up to code. “I have an eye for these sorts of projects and it is an easy enough thing to fix after looking at it. This will allow the door to be modified and still not have an issue with the placement of the power cables in the area. Once everything is in place you will not see the cable unless you look closely for it or get a ladder and get up high enough to look into the area. The breaker box as you call it can be set near the other side of the door so the door will not interfere with it when it slides open.