Chapter 2 - Construction, Threats From The Locals

Rose strolled into the bustling building site with a white hardhat, and a cheerful smile draped across her ruby lips. A man was giving orders in the distance. His name is Daniel Blasio, but he preferred to be called Mr Blasio. He works as a builder, and site manager and has over twenty years of experience. Rose had clicked with him from the moment they had spoken over the phone. She just knew that he was perfect for the project. Over the last couple of weeks, he had done a superb job, and they were making swift progress. She surveyed the Bothy; it looked secured although it needed a definite facelift but it was a start.

A shadow projected from the side of the building. Rose squinted her eyes struggling to see it before the shadow was gone. "Must be Tom." she whispered staring at the spot the shadow had occupied. Rose broke her gaze, and went about her business, helping wherever she could. She pulled another citation notice from under her windshield wipers as she left the site for the day. "This is quite shameful." Rose thought to herself before folding it up, and tucking it into her jacket pocket. She was on her way home when she spotted Tom walking on the side of the road. A little boy, kept hanging around the building site. Mr Blasio had chased him a couple of times but the boy kept returning, and started doing jobs around the site when he wasn't watching the men working. Rose never had any children, she was barren. However, she couldn't help but feel an attachment to this child. He didn't speak much from what she had been told, and when someone did try to speak to him, he would clam up before running off to do something else. She pulled up next the child pulling down her driver's side window. "Hello Tom." Rose spoke causing him to stop, and stiffen up. "Look dear, it's about to rain so, if you want, I can drive you home." she offered him. Tom shook his head before running off into the deep grassy fields. Rose sighed, watching him merge into the exapands of nature. All she could do was wait until he trusted her enough, and then she could get answers.

The locals in particular, were perturbed about Roses's project. The contractors, and other workers she'd hired received several threats on site, and through the mail because of the backlash. She had also received sanctions followed by other unfriendly letters. The entire situation became stressful but she had no choice but to proceed since she sunk her retirement savings into the project. When the local law enforcement approached the building site, and started throwing their weight about, that's when the seriousness of the problem dawned on her. From then onward, she decided to lawyer up, in order to fight fire with litigation. 

The lawyers had clued in Rose that, despite, the threats that the locals had been dishing out, they didn't have a solid case against her. The only loophole that they could exploit, in theory, was if they declared the area a heritage site. If that happened, then Rose would not be able build on the site and the whole project would end up being shutdown. She passed this information onto Mr Blasio, who searched through the historical records and discovered that the place is in fact, hundreds of years old, so could easily be deemed a heritage site. In light of this, Rose, Mr Blasio, and Alexander sat in her living room devising a strategy. "So, how are we going to approach this situation?" Alexander asked. Rose recined her chair trying to think. They would need to keep the lid on the records they found until this project was complete. The only issue, aside from the other ever-present ones, was that they only had six weeks remaining before the project became financially unsustainable. To make matters worse, one of the locals had already set-up a hate campaign against her going as far as setting up a blockade on the road. She was forced to replace a tire after they quite generously littered the road in nails. 

Looking to the others, Rose voiced her thoughts, "We'll do our best to complete the project before the six weeks is up. That's all we can do. Anything else, will just need to be dealt wih as it comes, my dears." The others nodded, uncertainty etched in their faces. She looked out of her window beyond Alexanders head at her flower garden. The pink roses drooped because of the rainfall but they retained their strength and vibrancy and thats exactly what she needed to do, retain her own strength and build the best Bothy those locals have ever seen.