17

On the way to the office, Harmony placed a call. She could hear the excitement in the real estate woman's voice as she made an appointment for her to come into the shelter at ten that morning. For years her friend and co-worker Karen had suggested that they needed more space. They had outgrown their little building over the years. Today, Harmony decided to give Karen what she deserved, full control over Harmony House Enterprises. She was proud to give it to her and thankful that she arrived to work before her friend. It would give her the chance to set up the surprise.

"Mr. Vasquez. How are you this morning?" Harmony asked as she placed her second call of the day.

"I am well thank you, Miss Pond. What can I do for you today?" Mr. Vasquez replied.

"I need business papers drawn up and ready to be filed. Harmony House Enterprises is expanding, and I'd like to turn over majority control to my business partner Karen Holmes." She stated.

"I can do that. What time do you need it?" he replied taking notes.

"I'd like you here at the shelter with it by ten. Is that alright?" she asked.

"Consider it done, see you at ten Miss Pond." He hung up and got to work.

Harmony didn't stop there. If she was going to be forced into accepting this new life, she decided that she would have to jump in with both feet. She placed a call to the mayor's office. Once she had the secretary on the phone she pulled out a notebook ready to get started.

"Tell me everything I need to know about the museum benefit." Harmony demanded.

"The original agreement with the late Mr. Prichard was a matched donation. For every dollar pledged by the community, he would also donate the same amount." She began.

"I understand, and what was this money being raised for?" Harmony asked.

"It's for the expansion project. A new wing is to be built on the museum for traveling artifacts like the great painters of France, the Titanic exhibit and Egyptian history exhibit, to name a few examples." The woman replied.

"Sounds great, please let the mayor know he has my full support. I'm honored to fulfill the agreements Mr. Prichard left unfinished." She replied through clenched teeth.

"Oh thank you Miss Pond!" The woman exclaimed. "I'll have the limo pick you up at five if that's alright."

"That will be fine thank you." Harmony replied.

"It's my pleasure. Thank you again Miss Pond. You have a great week."

"You too, bye now." Harmony smiled as she hung up the phone.

Karen walked into the office and smiled at Harmony. She flopped down in the chair across from her.

"I wasn't expecting you to be back so soon." Karen gushed.

"Well, I'm not back." She laughed.

"What do you mean?" Karen asked worriedly.

"You'll find out in an hour. Let's go feed the residents." Harmony smiled as she stood and locked their purses up in the desk.

"Oh, this hour is going to drag on. Can't you just give me a hint?" Karen asked as she followed her friend out the door.

"Not even a whisper." Harmony laughed and handed her a bag of cat food.

"Well, damn it. What fun are you?" she huffed.

"You'll have to wait and see!" Harmony exclaimed before disappearing through the door into the kennels.

Harmony left Karen to finish cleaning the kennels after the animals all got their breakfast. She washed herself up and went out to the parking lot to meet up with Mr. Vasquez as he was parking his car. Not far behind him came Amy Blanchard from the real estate agency. They both walked up with folders full documents. Harmony got everyone into the office and then went back to drag Karen away from her cleaning responsibilities.

"Wow, what's all this?" Karen asked as she walked into the office.

"Well, I've been thinking. Now that I've been put in this new position, it's time to reevaluate yours." Harmony smiled.

"I'm not sure I understand." Karen replied confused.

"You've had some great ideas for where you'd like to see this company go. So I��ve asked my attorney here to make it official." Harmony explained.

"You're not serious?" Karen squeaked.

"Once you sign the documents, full control of Harmony House Enterprises is yours." She smiled.

Mr. Vasquez pulled out the paperwork and sat down with Karen to explain the technical aspects of the new contract. She happily signed all the pages allowing him to leave quickly to file the papers.

"Mrs. Blanchard is here for the second part of the surprise." Harmony explained further.

"There's more?" she astonishingly expressed.

"I am fully funding your expansion idea. The first step is looking at real estate locations. I gave her a basic idea of what we would be looking for." She said causing Karen to hug her tightly.

"You are wonderful. Thank you so much." She exclaimed.

"You've earned it. I'll leave you to it." She went to gather her things.

"Oh I'm not letting you out of it that easy. This was your dream too, so sit." Karen ordered.

"Alright," Harmony chuckled. "But, you know I completely trust your judgment right?"

"Yep, let's have a look shall we?"

"I found five major properties under the guidelines you gave me this morning." Mrs. Blanchard said as she spread out the papers on the desk.

"The first three are five story hotels that have been on the market the last month or so. The other two are warehouse locations that need a bit more work to get them to where you want them." She pointed out.

"Hey, I know this hotel." Karen said as she picked up the listing page.

"High school prom was there." Harmony said. "It was a nice place."

"Yeah, such a shame they couldn't keep it running." Karen said sadly.

"But you could." Harmony stated.

"You're right, I could." She smiled.

"Is that the one you want then?" Harmony asked.

"Definitely," she replied.

"Put in a fair offer for us then and let me know how it goes." Harmony stated.

"Yes of course Miss Pond. I'll get started on it right away." Mrs. Blanchard replied and then gathered up her things.

When she was gone Karen spoke, "I can hardly believe this is happening."

"You and me both." Harmony replied. "I couldn't even sleep last night with everything I've got going on in my head. I'm so not ready for this."

"You're doing alright so far. Just don't change too much. That's not what John would have wanted." Karen replied.

"I know, and you're right. I'm just trying to do the right thing and help as many people as I can." She said.

"And you will, one day at a time." Karen smiled.

"Thank you." She hugged her friend tight.

"You're welcome; now let's get back to our daily work schedule. There's so much to do here before we can think about relocating anywhere else." Karen laughed.

"I know, right. Enough slacking, you get back to cleaning and I'll do some check up's and follow up placement calls." Harmony replied.

"You got it boss," Karen winked and skipped away.

Harmony was happy that she had made her friend happy. For now, that would have to be enough. So, she buried herself in work and got through the rest of the morning. She managed to skip out unnoticed around one in the afternoon. She didn't want to go home alone so she made her way back to the cemetery.