Page 49 of Beyond our Forever

It was then that we were able to move into a larger and more comfortable house, although we continued to rent. Having children is expensive, so we hadn’t been able to save enough money to be home owners yet. But I wasn’t complaining, everything was fine and it was only a matter of time.

At Bruce’s request, my ever efficient brother devised a savings plan for us, which we strived to stick to, so step by step we were getting closer to realizing our dreams.

However, at the same time, without realizing it, we were also losing ourselves.

“Are you serious? Indianapolis?” Bruce came home from work one day with the prospect of another move, which would mean a big promotion.

Several years had passed, we were very happy in our current location, so the idea of moving again hadn’t even crossed my mind. But he wasn’t joking.

“What do you think?”

I was very aware that Bruce being the sole bread winner meant we always had to put my husband’s career first, if we wanted to keep a roof over our heads.

“It’s a really good offer,” he continued, as he looked me in the eye. We were laying in bed, taking advantage of the peace while our children were asleep in their rooms. “But I don’t have to take it, we could stay here for a couple more years while I look for another job.”

“But?” I knew there had to be a ‘but’ coming.

“But this is exactly what I’ve been looking for, director of my own department. Can you just imagine?”

“And that same position isn’t available in the company here in Detroit?”

I didn’t want to leave, I had learned to love this city, I didn’t even care about the cold. I loved walking around a famous shopping center on the banks of the river, even if it was almost always crowded. It was one of my favorite places in all of Detroit.

“The director here is one of the owner’s sons,” he sighed heavily. “You met him at the Christmas party, the tall, skinny one with the terrible jokes.”

“So he’s an idiot, right?” I teased.

“No,” he laughed. “He’s actually a pretty decent guy. Jokes might not be his thing, but he is very good at what he does, and I’ve learned a lot working with him.”

“Do you really think the best thing is for us to go to Indianapolis?”

“Honestly? Yes, I really do,” he admitted. “I like working at MacArthur, and I feel indebted to them, but there’s no prospect of a promotion there, I’ve gone as far as I can. That’s why Indi sounds good, it’s such a great opportunity. Imagine me making department director when I’ve barely turned thirty. And then hopefully in a few years I’ll be made a partner.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Say yes!” I told him. “We’re going to Indiana!”

That night Bruce thanked me with his body for what his soul was feeling. He made love to me until we were both exhausted, so in the morning he called the office saying he would be late, while I dealt with the kids when they woke up ready to start the day.

???

“How about this one?” he asked me as we came to halt in front of a property that seemed like a scary ghost house straight out of a children’s story. It was autumn, which made it look even more gloomy, among all the fallen leaves and broken branches. I didn’t even want to imagine it at night.

The house was quite secluded, in a very exclusive residential area which even had its own golf club, but even so, I could see that it was in shambles, it was even missing a part of the roof.

“Bruce, this is nothing but a wolf’s cave.”

For the past few months, Bruce had gotten the idea that it was time for us to buy our own house, the house of our dreams to be more specific, and I was pretty excited at the thought of owning our own place, especially as we’d settled in well in our new location.

But it was a task more difficult that I had anticipated. No exaggeration, we’d seen at least fifty properties all over the city. Try convincing an architect that they have found the perfect home, of course there was always going to be a problem with it unless he’d designed it himself… So now thinking about it, I understood what was so attractive about the run-down house in front of me.

The potential.

“Imagine what we can do here,” he said, guessing the course of my thoughts. “Keep an open mind, okay?”

His dark eyes shone with excitement, and I was certain he’d already seen this place before and that a blueprint had already been drawn up in his head.

Bruce took my hand and, climbing the ramshackle porch steps, we entered the house. From the outside it appeared to be a one-story building, but as soon as we entered one side of the spacious hall there were stairs that led to the lower floor, where I discovered more rooms. The house was a rather unusual configuration, but with each step I took I fell more in love with that pile of bricks.

“What if we knocked this wall down and replaced it with a glass wall?” Bruce was pacing back and forth as he suggested the changes he already had in mind. “Let me show you something.”

---