The Coach House Read Online Free PDF

the other salesmen were loafing around most of the time, selling half as much as he was and getting the same pay. So he put together some figures for the owner, crafted a winning presentation, and asked to be paid straight commission, something they had never done before.
    Richard eventually left the medical supply business to sell high-end medical equipment; autoclaves, X-ray machines, incubators, ventilators, iron lungs, defibrillators and more. In short time he had his own territory.
    Some things Richard talked freely about, like his network of friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and customers, which he claimed numbered well into the thousands. Unfortunately, no one from his hometown, including his family, made it into his network.
    After Richard had been selling medical equipment for three years and dating Marie for a couple of months, he showed up at her apartment one evening with a bottle of champagne. This was the first time he had ever come over unannounced. Once inside, he picked her up and twirled her around.
    “What’s this all about?” she had asked.
    “Honey, we are cel-e-brat-ing tonight!”
    “Well, tell me! What are we celebrating?”
    “You know the big account I have with Fiefield Hospital outside of Milwaukee. I’ve talked about it a number of times.” She nodded. “Well, they’ve decided to build a 200,000-square-foot addition, and guess who just got the exclusive order to furnish all, I said all of the equipment?” He grinned from ear to ear.
    “That’s wonderful!”
    “I figure I’ll make as much in commissions on this order alone as I did in total the last two years combined!”
    The crack of the champagne cork echoed throughout her apartment. “Get the glasses…quick!”
    “And they are including me in on some of the design meetings to make sure they build the right space for the equipment. Sweetheart, they plan to build an iron lung ward that will hold fifteen people. That alone is more than I have ever sold in an entire year.”
    “Sounds like you’re going to be spending a lot of time in Milwaukee.”
    “I know, hon. That’s the only downside. But we’ll work through it.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I have to work out a hundred details about how I’m going to be able to pull this off without jeopardizing my other accounts.” He shot her a grimace. “The boss had the gall to suggest that I team up with someone and split the commissions. Ha! That’ll be the day.”
    “When will all this start?”
    “They don’t plan to break ground until the spring, and then it will take a year to a year and a half to build it. I have a preliminary meeting with them and the architects next week. I have hit the jackpot!” He took her glass, put it on the counter, and swung her around the kitchen. His eyes glistened. “Let’s go dancing tonight.”
    “Richard, I think you need to calm down, or you’ll be the one who needs the iron lung.”
    “Nonsense! I’m invincible! Didn’t you know that?”
    * * *
    It was in February 1946, just days before their wedding when Marie and Richard left his apartment at five a.m. in an attempt to arrive at his parents’ home in time for dinner. Marie was excited about the trip and hoped things would surface during the visit that would expose family ties that Richard had thus far circumvented.
    The interminable ride to Johnston City, all three hundred miles of it, was comprised mostly of expansive flat fields and trees whose branches were weighed down by snow and ice. The landscape didn’t change much from one mile to the next, like one Christmas card scene after another and another and another, as they moved through small towns like Kankakee, Paxton, and Rantoul.
    The radio blared.
     
    Headin’ for the station with a pack on my back
    I’m tired of transportation in the back of a hack
    “Richard, you haven’t really told me very much about them,” she said to him after a couple of hours.
    He made a face. “Where do I start?