8. Race You to Clarity #2
I’m lying on my back, elbows out, fingers linked behind my neck.
There’s a rock under the blanket that’s digging into my back, but I don’t want to move because our legs are touching, and Charlie hasn’t pulled away.
“My dad is a carpenter. He’s really good.
His workshop is in the backyard, and I spent a lot of time in there with him, learning everything I could.
“That might have led me slightly toward my career, but what really did was a building in my town that’s kind of a gathering hall and reception center.
It’s been around since the early nineteen hundreds and used to be a courthouse.
When I was ten, a historical restoration specialist and his team came in.
He needed a skilled carpenter, and he asked my dad.
“I spent every day there after school and every second I could during the summers, watching it happen. I was mesmerized. The restoration specialist’s name was Hudson, and he never seemed to be bothered by a little kid shadowing him everywhere he went.
I think he saw that I was interested in a lot more than the regular construction stuff that most boys are interested in—power tools, tractors, stuff like that.
“So he told me what he was doing, why he was doing it a specific way, what his thought process was, everything.
He also talked a lot about how important it was to care about the past, to honor history because it was what helped us understand the present, and about how we were all standing on the shoulders of the people who came before us.
“Seeing that building restored, and learning everything I did along the way from both Hudson and my dad, was transformative to me. I loved everything about seeing it go from old and damaged to restored and beautiful. It was proof that broken things could be made whole again .
“But it was my grandpa who sealed the deal for me. When he saw how interested I was in restoration, he brought me here.”
“To Cipher Springs?”
I nod. “To The Shadowridge, specifically. My grandpa had grown up in Cloakwood, but he came here to watch a musical at The Shadowridge— My Fair Lady —and that’s when he met my grandma.
She played the lead, and my grandpa said that when she sang ‘I Could Have Danced All Night,’ he was entranced.
He stayed after so he could meet her, and the rest is history. ”
“That is so sweet!”
I nod. “While we were looking at The Shadowridge, my grandpa said, ‘She’s run-down now, but I’d love to see her shine again.
’ I was only ten at the time, but I told him that I was going to be a restoration specialist when I grew up, just like Hudson was, and that I was going to restore The Shadowridge for him.
I’ve never stopped wanting that ever since, so choosing my college major was a no-brainer.
“I worked in construction part-time through college. In college, I got an internship with a historical restoration specialist. A lot of what he was doing at the time of my internship was securing funding, which is arguably the hardest part. I learned so much from him. Right after college, I started working full-time for a restoration company, and did for a couple of years until I was ready to go out on my own.”
The whole time I’m telling the story, Charlie has her head turned to me, looking like she’s soaking every bit of my story in. I’ve probably been talking way too much. It’s just not often that I find someone who is as interested as she seems to be.
“Those two parts of your job sound like they require very different skill sets,” Charlie says, the breeze catching her hair and blowing a few strands away from her face.
“Well, it sounds like there are a lot more than two parts of it, but I mean everything related to working on the building versus everything that happens outside of the building, like getting permissions and funding.”
I chuckle. They definitely require different skill sets.
And there are parts that I like more than others.
“Yeah, there are a lot of meetings with planning commissions, historical preservation societies, and code enforcement. Plus, grant applications. Sometimes presentations or speeches made to city councils, a development board, sometimes the public, at galas for private donors, things like that.”
“Wow. I would totally fail at that part.”
“What are you talking about? You would charm everyone! They’d be eating out of your hand.”
She shakes her head. “No, I wouldn’t, because I’d be freaking out about being in the spotlight. I’d never actually make it to the point of talking to them because I’d be in the bathroom either throwing up or passing out from hyperventilating.”
I look at her curiously, wondering why she might worry about being in the spotlight. Everything about Charlie is delightful, and I imagine that whatever she did, she’d be well received. “What about you?” I ask. “What drew you to your job?”
“I can’t really pinpoint an exact source of my desire to work with computers like you can. It was just something I took to easily. And because the family business is business solutions, I naturally took my love of computers in that direction.
“Plus, I just like to help people. I enjoy being in the background, quietly supporting the people in the spotlight, helping them to have everything they need to really shine.
“I did an internship with a cybersecurity consulting firm during college. They worked with hospitals, financial companies, and government agencies to stress-test their internal systems and set up backup protocols. I was the one sitting in the corner with too much caffeine, flagging anomalies before the pros did.”
As she’s explaining, she hesitates a few times, probably trying to decide how to put into layman’s terms things that are way too technical.
I’m glad, because what she does say is still above my level of computer knowledge.
My computer knowledge is all related to architectural software, project management software, and researching on the internet.
If anything goes wrong beyond that, I’m at a loss.
“And then Lancaster Business Solutions recruited me right out of college. Which, okay, I know it sounds like I’m just saying, ‘And then my parents hired me.’ But they didn’t hire me—hiring is done by the board with no input from the directors, so they couldn’t even suggest that they consider me.
They found and recruited me all on their own. ”
“Oof. Your parents own and run the business, and that doesn’t even get you an in? No automatic hire because you’re the boss’s kid? Not even consideration? That’s rough.”
She chuckles. “I get how ridiculous it sounds. It’s just that…
” she pauses. “My job requires some very specialized skills, and if the person in my position doesn’t have them…
” She pauses again. “Just trust me when I say that bad things would happen. So they couldn’t just hire me because I am a Lancaster—I had to have those skills.
“Anyway, with the exception of today, I love it, and I’m really good at it.” She looks at me from the corner of her eye, like she’s trying to hold back a smile. “Probably because no one sees the person behind the computer.”
I chuckle .
“You know, you were right.”
“I love being right,” I say. “What was I right about?”
“About needing to get out of my own head if I ever wanted to sleep tonight, and about this being an excellent way to do it.”
The night air was a good temperature right after we’d run around the grass, but now it’s getting chilly. Charlie looks at her watch, which prompts me to look at mine. Oof. It’s way later than I thought.
“Morning is still going to come just as early,” Charlie says, “so maybe we’d better head in.”
We both get up, and I grab the blanket. As we are almost separating to go to our own stairs leading up to our patios, I blurt out, “Come and see my job site. I mean, I know you did once before, but a lot has changed since then.” Including how well I know Charlie.
I’m not even sure I knew anything about her at all when she appeared at the theater my first week there.
She smiles a wide, genuine smile. “I’d like that.”
I don’t know about Charlie, but I’m going to be heading to bed feeling much more blissful than I would have if I had never come out to my patio tonight. Especially because the image of Charlie, running around the grass in her pajamas, will also be forever burned into my mind.