Life after the Lottery Ch. 83

"I am coordinating with the architect to get that rolling as fast as we can. He will work with engineers to get the basement built as soon as possible. Once that is done, they can begin building the house on top of it. I'll get a contractor there to help the others get the shell up and the inner walls. But I think it will be next Winter at the earliest before it is complete enough to live in. Do you have any more ideas for the immediate future?"

"Maybe...but I haven't talked to you about it yet."

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"The Elders and the Council are trying not to have any more mobile homes moved to the reservation."

"Some of the ones that are there are pretty shabby."

"There are ten or more that are very old and in bad shape," Dawn said.

"What are you thinking, honey?"

"I talked to Running Bear about prefab modular homes the last few times I was there. There is a place in North Carolina that builds them and assembles them. They look nicer and sturdier than mobile homes. The mobile homes are only 1,000 to 1,200 square feet. The mobile homes are somewhat cheaper than modular homes, but..."

"They are still houses on wheels."

"Yes."

"What are you thinking?"

"A 1,200 square foot nice modular home runs about $90 a square foot. That is about $25,000 or more than a mobile home that size. Could we...pay for some?"

"Of course."

"If we could get at least ten up so the families in the older mobile homes could move into them, that would allow them to get rid of those ten ugly ones."

"Are ten enough?"

"No."

"Are you thinking about one as a temporary house for us and the babies?"

"Yes...and maybe a few more. I think they could get one for us up in about three months. Maybe something bigger. Everyone could see it then."

"Whatever you need, honey. Maybe two. One for us and one for Linda and Rachel."

"There is a small lot near Great-grandfather's that is unassigned right now. If we put one there, someone could move into it once our house is finished."

"That sounds like a solution. But..."

"Can I put Running Bear and a few of the Elders in charge of negotiating with the place that builds the prefab modular homes to see what they can have them built for? They can go and look at some and see if they like the idea."

"Of course you can. You don't need to ask. If you want to have them build a number of homes, do it."

"I am hoping we can work with the builder to see about making them fit in a little better. Since the Casinos have been built, that money is going into projects, but a lot of those are projects to attract tourists. They are neglecting the private housing."

"Honey, what would you like to do long term?" I asked.

"Fifty houses. Replacing all those ugly mobile homes and more."

"You are only talking about $5,000,000 or so over several years. If that is what you want to do, do it."

"Okay! Can you coordinate with Running Bear!"

"I will do that. I'll have him put together a group of five or six to oversee it. And get started. They should have people help put them up like Habitat does."

"Thank you, honey!"

"I think a good idea for all these projects would be to set up a meeting sometime during the next few weeks about all of this. We can arrange to have the architects and engineers there and people from the modular home company. We could probably get things going over a few days. Can you go for a few days that soon?"

"Sure. Once the girls are back in school after the first, we can set that up."

"Good. I'll call Running Bear and have him set up a meeting there about the modular homes. I'll have our architect send an engineer. I think that can get everything rolling. Set up some tours of the modular homes. Will tell them we will pay for 100 over the next several years. That should get us a better price."

"Sounds perfect, honey."

The End??

It has been a long adventure writing this series. Much longer than I ever planned. I wrote "Our Lucky Weekend" in April of 2011. I wrote it on a whim after reading the stories here for a few years. I was curious if I could write something that would get a Hot score. That first story did. So, I undertook writing a series. This one. I didn't have an outline or a plan. The story just developed more through serendipity than planning. It is about two alter egos. I am even amazed at how it came together.

Since 2011, many things have happened. Both in this story series and to me. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013. After the surgery, the series almost stopped. I finally picked up writing again and let my frustrations out that way. Needing to have my prostate removed in my fifties was a real bitch and a life changer. Men over 50 and ladies with older men, make sure you get your prostate checked annually! I had been doing that, and they nearly missed the cancer!

Shortly after the cancer scare and surgery, I was diagnosed with a form of inflammatory arthritis. It is related to psoriasis. It has nothing to do with age. It just happened. It has been the curse from hell! I live in pain 24/7/365. Most days are bad. Others are worse. My medical team is trying everything, but it is a lot to deal with. It has slowed me down considerably. I made the decision about a year ago to begin bringing this series to an end. I just couldn't write at a pace any longer that was worthy of you that have followed it. My goal was 100 chapters. I nearly made it! But concerns about the arthritis getting into my hands more sped this decision along, just in case. My doctors are working hard to keep the arthritis out of my hands. If this form gets in your hands, it can destroy them quickly.

I have been through four computers over this time. I had to resort to pulling some of the stories off the website because they disappeared between all the computers.

Is this the end of Life after the Lottery? Maybe...maybe not. For the last four years, I have been tinkering with a prequel. Some of you have asked for it to learn more about the background of the characters. I have started it and am making progress. But I will not begin publishing it until I have many chapters written. I don't want it coming out slowly. Maybe in a year, you will see it posted. Keep an eye out. The chapters will be titled Life after the Lottery -- The Prequel.

I suspect that over the next few years or so, a few Post-Life after the Lottery stories will come out and be added to this series. I have thought about a few and added some segways in the last few chapters for them. Maybe you will read about the Smiths years later. I'll play with it.

Thanks to all of you who have followed. Many thanks. You stayed with it through all my warts and issues with writing. I have grammatical and spelling problems that are due to something called dysgraphia. I only figured out what was going on after many years of problems with those subjects in school. One of my professors in grad school explained it to me after reading a couple of research papers I wrote. It is a hardware wiring problem in the brain that can't be fixed. He was familiar with it and helped me understand it. Google it sometime. Since then, I have researched several grammar checkers to help. None are perfect, but I settled on Grammarly. I'll give it 4 and a half stars.

I am in the process of cleaning up all of the series' first chapters. As I have re-read them, they are so badly written I am surprised everyone stayed with them. Since I started writing all this on a whim, I didn't pay much attention to the technicality of the writing in the beginning. They are terrible! I'll get them all reposted one at a time after I clean them up.

Look for the Prequel soon. I have another shorter multi-part story I have been playing with for a long time. It is called The Slide. When I say I have been tinkering with it for a long time, I mean it. I started it well before COVID and even well before I saw some of the newer movies that deal with some of what is in the story. You'll understand this once you read it. The Slide will be very different from anything else I have written. It is a bit out in left field. It will be very different. It will probably start in the Spring of 24.

I'll see you in the Funny Papers!