The Facilitator© First Published 2023

Chapter 7 - Construction Zones

The construction started immediately. An army of, workers busied themselves with earth moving equipment and shovels until there was a huge hole in the ground not 50 yards from Harry and Sue's kitchen window. The rear of the house had been demolished to make way for a three-storey extension culminating in the entrance to the proposed tower. The Tower of Babel, as Harry had coined it to the local media when he was interviewed about the failure of the appeal and the subsequent commencement of the construction.

At the same time, there was another construction zone of sorts happening in the Moran household. The Planning phase involved a discussion regarding the pros and cons of IVF treatment.

After discussing Harry's test results Sue had investigated their options on the internet. Harry had always left that sort of thing to his wife. He had little use for, nor interest in the internet. Harry saw it as yet another thing that had contributed to the demise of his once thriving TV repair business. The only customers he had left now were older people who could no longer afford to buy the latest TV. But TVs had become so cheap now that even that customer base was drying up. Invariably, when asked for a quote to repair, he, being an honest man, had found himself bound to tell the little old Mrs. Smiths of the world that it would be cheaper for them to buy a new TV.

His honesty may have helped to save his business though, for lately more and more, he was being asked by these same old people to help them set up their new TV with internet connection and connect it to their old DVD player. Ironically for this service, they appeared willing to part with as much money as it would have originally cost to repair their old TV. Granted it involved a home visit and time spent could become quite elastic but all things considered even allowing for higher petrol prices business was picking up.

Word of mouth had then kicked in amongst the sons and daughters of these older folk who had enlisted his aide to set up home movie theatres with surround sound and projection systems. He quickly discovered that his newly acquired well-to-do clients were willing to pay top dollar for the convenience of having someone set up their expensive entertainment systems.

Despite his business no longer facing bankruptcy money was still tight and IVF was still so expensive, and they weren't even sure if they qualified.

It was only after countless arguments with Sue in which he was beginning to date to think that he was finally getting her to see reason. He was heartened by the fact that when they attended her younger sister's wedding where Sue was Maid of Honour, at the reception, and at no time during the night, with all the friends and family present, had the subject of IVF been brought up, by anybody, let alone Sue.

Then it happened. It was March and Sue's sister had no sooner settled in after the honeymoon when she rang Harry on his mobile. It was unusual for Charity to call and speak to him without her sister being present.

"Hi Charity, what's up?" Harry asked quizzically.

"Hi, Harry, hope I haven't caught you at an inconvenient time have I, you at work? We aren't on speaker, are we? Sue isn't there with you is she?" Charity sounded nervous.

"No, Sue's at the studio, what's the problem, are you in need of my services?" Harry said half-jokingly.

"Well, in a way, yes. Look there is no easy way to say this . . . I . . . I mean we are going to have a baby!" Charity finally blurted out.

"Funny I don't ever remember us having sex?"

"Fun . . . ny . . . not! Me and Josh of course. I just don't know how to break the news to Sue, maybe she'll be very upset, given what you two have been through, what do you think?"

"Congratulations to both of you, that's really great, right? Would you like me to tell her?"

"Yes please, would you mind? I think you might be able to judge the best time to bring it up?"

"Yes, it'll be a bit tricky but I can handle it. Leave it to me. I am sure she'll be over the moon when she gets over the initial shock. Knowing her, she'll probably call and grill you about whether you planned it or not."

"Oh, we did plan on starting a family in the next two years or so, not so much on the honeymoon though!" Charity laughed with relief, "Josh is over the moon though, he is so looking forward to becoming a dad.

#Word Count: 3457#