The Stars Shine Down

Chapter Six

Charles Cohn had inspected five buildings erected by the Nova Scotia Construction Company.
"They're a first-rate outfit," he had told Lara. "You shouldn't have any problem with them."
Now Lara, Charles Cohn, and Buzz Steele were inspecting the new site.
"It's perfect," Buzz Steele said. "The measurements come to forty-three thousand five hundred sixty square feet. That will give you the twenty-thousand-square-foot building you want."
Charles Cohn asked, "Can you have the building finished by December thirty-first?" He was determined to protect Lara.
"Sooner," Steele said. "I can promise it to you by Christmas Eve."
Lara was beaming. "How soon can you get started?"
"I'll have my crew here by the middle of next week."
Watching the new building going up was the most exciting thing Lara had ever experienced. She was there every day. "I want to learn," she told Charles Cohn. "This is just the beginning for me. Before I'm through, I'm going to put up a hundred buildings."
Cohn wondered whether Lara really knew what she was getting into.
The first men to set foot on the project site were members of the survey team. They established the legal geometric borders of the property and drove hubs into the ground at each corner, every hub painted with a fluorescent color for easy identification. The survey work was finished in two days, and early the following morning, heavy earth-moving equipment - a truck-mounted Caterpillar front-end loader - arrived at the site.
Lara was there, waiting. "What happens now?" she asked Buzz Steele.
"We clear and grub."
Lara looked at him. "What does that mean?"
"The Caterpillar is gonna dig up tree stumps and do some rough grading."
The next piece of equipment that came in was a backhoe to dig the trenches for foundations, utility conduits, and drainage piping.
By now the boarders at the house had all heard what was happening, and it became the main topic of conversation at breakfast and supper. They were all cheering for Lara.
"What happens next?" they would ask.
She was becoming an expert. "This morning they put the underground piping in place. Tomorrow they start to put in the wood and concrete formwork, so they can wire-tie the steel bars into the skeletal gridiron." She grinned. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Pouring the concrete was the next step, and when the concrete foundation was cured, large truckloads of lumber rolled in, and crews of carpenters began to assemble the wooden frames. The noise was horrendous, but to Lara it was music. The place was filled with the sounds of rhythmic hammers and whining power saws. After two weeks the wall panels, punctuated with window and door openings, were stood upright as if the building had suddenly been inflated.
To passersby, the building was a maze of wood and steel, but to Lara it was something else. It was her dream come to life. Every morning and every evening she went downtown and stared at what was being built. I own this, Lara thought. This belongs to me.
After the episode with MacAllister, Lara had been terrified that she might become pregnant. The thought of it made her sick to her stomach. When her period came, she was weak with relief. Now all I have to worry about is my building.
She continued to collect the rents for Sean MacAllister because she needed a place to live, but she had to steel herself to go into his office and face him.
"We had a good time in Halifax, didn't we, honey? Why don't we do it again?"
"I'm busy with my building," Lara said firmly.
The level of activity began to heighten as the sheet metal crews, roofers, and carpenters worked simultaneously, the number of men, materials, and trucks tripling.
Charles Cohn had left Glace Bay, but he telephoned Lara once a week.
"How is the building going?" he had asked the last time he called.
"Great!" Lara said enthusiastically.
"Is it on schedule?"
"It's ahead of schedule."
"That's wonderful. I can tell you now that I wasn't really sure you could do it."
"But you gave me a chance anyway. Thank you, Charles."
"One good turn deserves another. Remember, if it hadn't been for you, I might have starved to death."
From time to time Sean MacAllister would join Lara at the building site.
"It's coming along just fine, isn't it?"
"Yes," Lara said.
MacAllister seemed genuinely pleased. Lara thought: Mr. Cohn was wrong about him. He's not trying to take advantage of me.
By the end of November the building was progressing rapidly. The windows and doors were in place, and the exterior walls were set. The structure was ready to accept the network of nerves and arteries.
On Monday, the first week of December, work on the building began to slow down. Lara went to the site one morning, and there were only two men there, and they seemed to be doing very little.
"Where's the rest of the crew today?" Lara asked.
"They're on another job," one of the men explained. "They'll be here tomorrow."
The following day no one was there.
Lara took a bus into Halifax to see Buzz Steele. "What's happening?" Lara asked. "The work has stopped."
"Nothing to worry about," Steele assured her. "We ran into a little snag on another job, and I had to pull my men off temporarily."
"When will they be coming back to work?"
"Next week. We'll be on schedule."
"Buzz, you know how much this means to me."
"Sure, Lara."
"If the building's not completed on time, I lose it. I lose everything."
"Don't worry, kid. I won't let that happen."
When Lara left, she had a feeling of unease.
The following week the workmen still had not appeared. She went into Halifax again to see Steele.
"I'm sorry," the secretary said, "Mr. Steele is not in."
"I must talk to him. When will he be back?"
"He's out of town on a job. I don't know when he'll be back."
Lara felt the first stirrings of panic. "This is very important," Lara insisted. "He's putting up a building for me. It has to be finished in three weeks."
"I wouldn't worry, Miss Cameron. If Mr. Steele said it will be finished, it will be finished."
"But nothing's happening," Lara cried. "No one's working on it."
"Would you like to talk to Mr. Ericksen, his assistant?"
"Yes, please."
Ericksen was a giant of a man, broad-shouldered and amiable. He radiated reassurance.
"I know why you're here," he said, "but Buzz told me to assure you that you have nothing to worry about. We've been held back a little on your project because of some problems on a couple of big construction jobs we're handling, but your building is only three weeks away from completion."
"There's still so much to do..."
"Not to worry. We'll have a crew out there first thing on Monday morning."
"Thank you," Lara said, relieved. "I'm sorry to have bothered you, but I'm a little nervous. This means a great deal to me."
"No problem," Ericksen smiled. "You just go home and relax. You're in good hands."
Monday morning there was not a single workman at the site. Lara was frantic. She telephoned Charles Cohn.
"The men have stopped working," she told him, "and I can't find out why. They keep making promises and breaking them."
"What's the name of the company - Nova Scotia Construction?"
"That's right."
"I'll call you back," Cohn said.
Two hours later Charles Cohn telephoned. "Who recommended the Nova Scotia Construction Company to you?"
She thought back. "Sean MacAllister."
"I'm not surprised. He owns the company, Lara."
Lara felt suddenly faint. "And he's stopping the men from finishing it on time...?"
"I'm afraid it looks that way."
"Oh, my God."
"He's a nahash tzefa - a poisonous snake."
He was too kind to say that he had warned her. All he managed was: "Maybe...maybe something will turn up."
He admired the young girl's spirit and ambition, and he despised Sean MacAllister. But he was helpless. There was nothing he could do.
Lara lay awake all night thinking about her folly. The building she had put up would belong now to Sean MacAllister, and she would be left with a staggering debt which she would spend the rest of her life working to repay. The thought of how MacAllister might exact payment made her shudder.
When Lara awakened, she went to see Sean MacAllister.
"Good morning, my dear. You're looking lovely today."
Lara came right to the point. "I need an extension. The building won't be ready by the thirty-first."
MacAllister sat back in his chair and frowned. "Really? That's bad news, Lara."
"I need another month."
MacAllister sighed. "I'm afraid that's not possible. Oh, dear, no. You signed a contract. A deal is a deal."
"But..."
"I'm sorry, Lara. On the thirty-first, the property reverts to the bank."
When the boarders at the house heard what was happening, they were furious.
"That son of a bitch!" one of them cried. "He can't do this to you."
"He's done it," Lara said, despairingly. "It's over."
"Are we going to let him get away with this?"
"Hell, no. What have you got left - three weeks?"
Lara shook her head. "Less. Two and a half weeks."
The man turned to the others. "Let's go down and take a look at that building."
"What good will...?"
"We'll see."
Soon half a dozen boarders were standing at the building site, carefully inspecting it.
"The plumbing hasn't been put in," one of the men said.
"Nor the electricity."
They stood there, shivering in the freezing December wind, discussing what still remained to be done.
One of the men turned to Lara. "Your banker's a tricky fellow. He's had the building almost finished so that he wouldn't have much to do when your contract was up." He turned to the others. "I would say that this could be finished in two and a half weeks."
There was a chorus of agreement.
Lara was bewildered. "You don't understand. The workmen won't come."
"Look, lassie, in your boardinghouse you've got plumbers and carpenters and electricians, and we've got lots of friends in town who can handle the rest."
"I don't have any money to pay you," Lara said. "Mr. MacAllister won't give me..."
"It will be our Christmas gift to you."
What happened after that was incredible. Word quickly spread around Glace Bay of what was happening. Construction workers on other buildings came to take a look at Lara's property. Half of them were there because they liked Lara, and the other half because they had had dealings with Sean MacAllister and hated him.
"Let's fix the bastard," they said.
They dropped by to lend a hand after work, working past midnight and on Saturdays and Sundays, and the sound of construction began again, filling the air with a joyful noise. Beating the deadline became a challenge, and the building was soon swarming with carpenters and electricians and plumbers, all eager to pitch in. When Sean MacAllister heard what was happening, he rushed over to the site.
He stood there, stunned. "What's going on?" he demanded. "Those aren't my workmen."
"They're mine," Lara said defiantly. "There's nothing in the contract that says I can't use my own men."
"Well, I..." MacAllister sputtered. "That building had better be up to specifications."
"It will be," Lara assured him.
The day before New Year's Eve the building was completed. It stood proud against the sky, solid and strong, and it was the most beautiful thing Lara had ever seen. She stood there staring at it, dazed.
"It's all yours," one of the workmen said proudly. "Are we going to have a party or what?"
That night it seemed that the whole town of Glace Bay celebrated Lara Cameron's first building.
It was the beginning.
There was no stopping Lara after that. Her mind was brimming with ideas.
"Your new employees are going to need places to live in Glace Bay," she told Charles Cohn. "I'd like to build houses for them. Are you interested?"
He nodded. "I'm very interested."
Lara went to see a banker in Sydney and borrowed enough money on her building to finance the new project.
When the houses were finished, Lara said to Charles Cohn, "Do you know what else this town needs, Charles? Cabins to accommodate the summer tourists who come here to fish. I know a wonderful place near the bay where I could build..."
Charles Cohn became Lara's unofficial financial adviser, and during the next three years Lara built an office building, half a dozen seashore cottages, and a shopping mall. The banks in Sydney and Halifax were happy to loan her money.
Two years later, when Lara sold out her real estate holdings, she had a certified check for three million dollars. She was twenty-one years old.
The following day she said good-bye to Glace Bay and left for Chicago.