Days of Chrissie Past

"Then talk."

There was a pause before she spoke. "I have changed, I know that I was jealous of Angie, but I'm okay with that, with her. I know that we can be good together, I want to give it another chance, us another chance, please."

"That's not going to happen."

"Why?"

"I get the feeling that you are doing this with the expectation that, if it goes down that track and we get married, I'll forget about the money he owes me. Would I be close to the mark?" There was another pause. "I have another reason, Angie and I are getting married."

"When?" Angie asked

Jenny had disconnected.

"This is sudden," Angie said, "I know we have discussed the possibility, but there's been nothing definite decided as yet."

"Okay, Angie Reynolds, will you marry me?"

"Of course, you didn't have to ask."

"Gee, I expected a little more enthusiasm than that."

"Oh, you mean like this?" She threw herself at me, her arms around my neck and pushing me back against the wall. "Is that enthusiastic enough for you?"

"It'll do to be going on with."

"Bastard!"

"Bitch!"

We collapsed laughing to the floor. You can use your imagination as to what happened next.

Mother Nature has this habit of biting people on the arse. A matter of months after the court case, the vision of getting paid went down the gurgler big time.

Jensen had no problem selling most of his beachside blocks and construction was well underway on many houses. Emboldened by this, he advance the development of the other two parcels of land. Roadworks had been completed and the 'for sale' signs had gone up, when it struck.

Afternoon thunderstorms are quite common in this part of the world in Summer. This one was bigger than most, something like 150mm (6") of rain in a little under an hour. As the trees had been cleared and the blocks levelled, there was little to stop the top-soil washing onto the roadway and being funnelled down the hill. In no time at all the beachside blocks were up to their armpits in muddy water cascading through half completed houses on its way to the sea.

Claims lodged with the insurance companies were met with refusals. My court case had attracted attention and the refusal based on the situation having been at the least minimised, at the most avoidable. What made matters worse was, the insurance companies refused to issue flood insurance on future land houses.

Sales of land ground to a halt, and in desperation, Jensen called into our office. "I know that I ignored you warning, I know that I have been reticent in paying you, but I need your help."

"I don't know why, but I will help on one condition."

"And what is that?"

"I will not commence work until the construction costs have been lodged in a bank account in my company name. I will draw on half of that money to cover monies owed and the balance of further work on completion. You can use your own civil construction company to carry out the work but, and this is non-negotiable, if there is any divergence from the design or specifications, I will draw down the balance of the monies and you will be on your own. I will not be responsible for the result."

"I will have to consult my backers before committing myself. Give me a month."

"You have a month."

"You are aware that you could have saved yourself a lot of money if you'd accepted the original plans?"

"Don't rub it in. I will need to see your solution before I commit myself."

"Okay, cough up what you owe, and I'll make a start."

The money arrived the next day. enough for me to buy an engagement ring for Angie.

"So, how do we solve his problem?" Angie asked as she stared at the rock on her finger.

"We'll get them to dig a two metre wide by two metre deep concrete channel down the centre of the road. This will be filled with 75mm aggregate (rock) and covered. This will slow the flow of water down. The run off drains from the streets will be piped into this channel. The water will filter its way down hill. The outlet pipe will be on top of the channel and well above the mean high tide level."

"I suppose that you're going to tell me that this came off the top of your head."

"No, it was an alternate to the original design."

By the time that work had finished and it had survived its first heavy storm, Angie and I were married. No, we did not invite Jenny, although I did notice her at the back of the church, We were surprised to find a present from her in among the pile that we had to sort through when we got back from our honeymoon. The package contained an apology full of remorse and contrition along with a pile of maternity clothes for Angie. Had she been stalking us?

"I had a call from Jenny just before the wedding asking for hints on a suitable present. I told her that anything should be accompanied by an apology and that you would be needing maternity clothes very soon. She took that amazingly well, there's hope for her yet."