Chapter 20

"Me too."

They washed up the dishes while Justine talked about what she was going to wear at Risha's wedding. None of the clothes sounded familiar.

"Where do you have all these clothes?" Patrick asked.

"I borrow clothes from Tami and Cinda; they're Stone's friends; and Marisha has some put in a trunk for me when I visit. My own clothes look really strange with everyone else dressed different, so I like to change while I'm there."

"All right. I was wondering if we needed to get you a bigger closet."

"Nah, I have enough stuff."

"I'm glad to hear that. So, you won't mind if I give all your Christmas presents to the poor."

"That's a great idea!" Justine said.

"I was joking."

"No really, I don't need anything and there are all kinds of people who don't have anything. We should help them out."

"OK then, you make a shopping list of what you want to give away for Christmas and I'll do the same thing."

Justine had her list done on Saturday and they went shopping. Patrick invited Lee to come along on the spur of the moment. They had a great time buying clothes and toys and dropping them in the collection bins. Justine insisted this was just between them and no one else was to know.

Patrick hadn't done his list yet, but he'd been giving it careful thought. Then he saw a poster and he knew exactly what he wanted. While Lee and Justine were sipping hot chocolate he slipped away to make a phone call.

"What was that about?" Justine asked. "You never use your cell phone on weekends."

"I was checking to see if my Christmas present is available."

"Well?" Justine said.

"It is."

"So are you going to tell us what it is?"

"I'll tell you on the way."

They finished up their hot chocolate and Patrick led them out to the car.

"Buckle up," he said.

He drove through the City to a nondescript building situated by a strip mall.

"Isn't this the Women's Shelter?" asked Lee.

"Yes, Ingrid did some work for them, so I was able to ask a favour."

"And ..." said Justine.

"For Christmas I would like you to design me a new living room. Theirs. They're advertising for paint and such to redecorate so I asked them if they wanted Ingrid's daughter to design their new living space. They were delighted. So here we are. Are you up for it?"

"Are you kidding? Let's go see."

They got out of the car and walked up to the door. Patrick buzzed and a woman's voice squawked at them from a speaker beside the door.

"May I help you?"

"My name is Patrick Constance. I talked to your director about my daughter helping to do the design for the living room decor."

"Please wait."

A couple of minutes later a woman came out through the door. She had blond hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a comfortable suit, but her face looked tired and sad.

"I'm Natalie Jones, the director of the Shelter. I didn't realize that Justine was so young."

"I'll vouch for her skills. I'm Lee Palenz and Justine did my home."

"It's not her skills that I'm worried about, but this isn't always a very pleasant place. We try, but it is hard on children."

"Then you need me more than ever," Justine said, "I can help design a room that will help everyone feel more at home and relaxed. They might be hurt and scared, but they still deserve a nice place to live."

"I wish more people felt like you do," Natalie said.

"I just need to see the room and I can do most of the work at home. It's my Dad's Christmas present."

Natalie looked at Patrick. "You asked for a decorating job in a Woman's Shelter for Christmas?"

"My wife believed very strongly in what you do here. She did the original design for the shelter when it was built."

"You won't be able to come in today, but Justine and Lee can come in and look at the room."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it."

"Now Justine, I have to ask you to keep anything you see in the Shelter absolutely in confidence. You can't talk about anything you see here. If you recognize someone, you can't talk to them about being in the shelter outside of these walls. This is really important."

"I understand," Justine said, "this is their home."

"It's more than just their home. The families are here because they don't feel safe anywhere else. There are some dangerous people who would hurt these women if they could."

"Then we'd better work hard at keeping them safe and helping them to feel safe too."

"That's some girl you have here," Natalie said to Patrick. She put her hand on Justine's shoulder. "Let's go look at that room."

The three women went through the door and Patrick got in his car and went for coffee. When his phone buzzed, Natalie said that Justine and Lee were ready to be picked up. He went and collected them. Justine was silent all the way home.

"Are you all right?" Patrick asked as they pulled into the drive.

"Oh, yeah Dad, I'm just thinking about the design. Natalie gave me pictures of the room to work with and we took all kinds of measurements. She said I could talk to you about the design if I needed to."

Lee said goodnight and walked off into the dusk. Patrick followed Justine into the house. She went straight to the computer and loaded the pictures into the computer. She got out a sheet of paper and began carefully measuring and drawing lines. A room quickly took shape. She cut out rectangles to represent furniture.

"I'd show you pictures of the room, but there is someone there that you aren't allowed to see."

"Someone you know?"

"I'm not allowed to talk about it."

"You can talk about how you feel without talking about the person."

"Let's just say I'm really glad you're my Dad."