Worthy Opponents(39)

Mike had texted Maureen right before the flight took off, to assure her that everything was on track and in order, and the flight was on time. And then he had texted Spencer. “About to take off. All well in Paris. The young eagle is in surprisingly good shape all things considered. Talk soon. Best, Mike.”

He settled back to have dinner with Zack on the luxurious first-class flight. Zack looked right at home. After having backpacked around Europe for eight months, Zack was ready to come home and be pampered for a while, and Mike was excited that his son would be staying with him. He may have missed out when Zack was a little kid, but in spite of all of Maureen’s dire predictions, he wasn’t missing out now, and Zack had forgiven him his earlier absences and loved being with him. Mike felt like a lucky man as he watched his son sleep on the flight, and thanked God again that Zack was alive.





Chapter 9


The orthopedist Maureen took Zack to looked over his X-rays and was satisfied with the way the bones had been set. He told him what they all already knew, that Zack was lucky to be alive. It was a miracle the bus hadn’t killed him when Zack drifted out of the bike lane. The driver didn’t even see him until he was on the ground, and people were screaming to warn the driver. All Zack could do now was wait until the bones healed. He was going to be very hampered in the meantime, particularly with both wrists in casts.

Mike and Maureen organized a babysitting system for him. Mike dropped him off at his mother’s on the way to work, and picked him up on the way home at night. That way Zack got to spend time with both his parents, who had missed him for so long, and he was enjoying having his father to himself at night in Mike’s new apartment. Maureen knew a college student looking for odd jobs who had agreed to come to her house in the daytime to help them out. Zack settled in quickly and felt at home in the new apartment. Once Greg and Luke were back in New York, they often came over in the evenings, sometimes with other friends, and hung out with him, while Mike ordered food for them, and let them spend time together without interfering. When he did join them, they told him about their adventures on the trip. For the most part, it sounded like wholesome good fun, with a few scary episodes that had added some spice to their long trip and had proven to be harmless in the end, except for the final chapter with the bus.

Spencer sent Mike an occasional text to ask how Zack was doing, and it sounded as though they were managing very well. During his second week home, Zack had sent in his applications to NYU, Eugene Lang College, and Columbia for admission in January. He rejected Mike’s suggestion of MIT. Having been away for a year, he wanted to stay in New York, and Mike didn’t object. He was happy to have his son home, although he’d be living in the dorms once he started school.

When the store reopened, Spencer was busier than ever, and she noticed that the homeless population in the neighborhood seemed to have increased. While the construction was in progress, there had been nooks and crannies where they could set up their “cribs,” as the homeless called them, and their tents, and there was garbage near the entrance to the store every morning, rolled-up sleeping bags in doorways, and shopping carts full of belongings along the sidewalk. Spencer’s customers commented on it, and she was trying to figure out ways to help the homeless while keeping them at a distance from the store. One morning one of them, who had become a familiar face in the neighborhood, was standing a few feet from the entrance, stark naked, giving himself a shower from a hose, and she didn’t want to call the police. The doorman had escorted him rapidly away, but it was an ongoing problem she was eager to solve.

She finally had an idea late one night. In the morning, she spoke to Paul Trask about it and asked for his help.

“I need some kind of space to rent, with a large interior area, like an old garage, a warehouse, an art gallery. I need one big room. It doesn’t need to be habitable or pretty or chic, but it has to be big, about ten blocks from the store. It’s going to be a work and storage space, not a store,” she explained. “And we need a bathroom.”

“Is this for our annex?” Paul’s eyes lit up at the prospect, and Spencer shook her head.

“It’s not our annex. This is for something else. I’m not ready for our annex yet.” She didn’t explain further. The insurance had paid for a good part of the repairs and renovations after the fire, but not all of it, so it was an added, unexpected expense. She didn’t want to incur more big expenses at the moment, but if done right, the project she had in mind shouldn’t cost too much. After that, she spoke to HR, and asked them to put up a notice asking people to sign up if they wanted to make some extra money working late on a special project. She was going to pay them, and also the rent for the location, out of her own pocket. She assumed she would get mostly the young employees who might sign up. She was planning to pay minimum wage, and didn’t want to pay more. They had about fifteen names at the end of a week. And two weeks after Spencer had asked him, Paul Trask walked into her office with some photographs.

“I don’t know what you want it for, Spencer, but I think I might have found what you’re looking for. It’s an old brick garage. A car mechanic rented it for thirty years. He retired, and it’s standing empty. It’s ten blocks from here. It’s no thing of beauty, but it’s functional, and it’s big, and it has a basic bathroom.”

“It sounds perfect. When can I see it?” She smiled at him. “Is it expensive?”