Chapter 87

“No problem,” Roger said. “We’re good for it.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it,” I said, and left the room.

Before I went back to the office, I took a look at the room we’d begun to call “the little room under the stairs.” It wasn’t really a little room, but enlarging the stairway to the attic had narrowed it somewhat. Surveying the room confirmed what I’d been thinking about for some time, so I went to the office and made a telephone call. Several days later, when the boys got home, Angela and I were waiting for them.

“Mom,” Roger said, “what’s happening?”

She gave him a hug and said, “You and Steve come down the hall. Philip and I have a surprise for you.”

We led the boys down to the little room and opened the door. I let Angela do the talking, and she said, “We decided that since you’re starting college, you need a better place to study, so we fixed this room up for you.”