Brigitte excitedly watched as the engineer came in and poured over her drawing, blissfully unaware that her father was paying a highly skilled laborer a good deal of money to spend his day drawing specs for a childish vision that likely was too unrealistic to ever be considered as a real building. 

And yet the man, David Atkins, approached the project like a professional, even becoming excited when he heard the nature of the building.  As Brigitte laid out the purpose of the building to him, and why she wanted it built - namely to house all the little friends she'd left behind in the orphanage and to get them out of a building that wasn't really up to snuff... he began making suggestions to Brigitte.  What started as humoring a little girl became something more... a man drawing a little girl's dream, albeit a guided one.  

"Maybe we should make sure there is a bathroom on each floor and each side of the house?"

"Yes, so no one has to wait!"  Brigitte bounced.

"That sure is a pretty kitchen but it might not be practical to have that many kids in the kitchen eating with whoever is cooking."

"But I want the kids to watch breakfast being made."

"Well, what if we didn't put a wall in but a half-wall for support and to turn into a giant functional snack bar?  It can have stools at it like a diner counter BUT it's also a way for cooks to put out food for everyone to get to easily."

"Like a lunch line at school!"  Brigitte got excited.

"Exactly."  David said proudly and he began editing his blueprint.  

"Papa, will we really build this?"  She asked her father with big blue eyes beaming up at him.

"Project like this is going to cost a lot.  I mean, how many homes do you know that have a slide inside?"  David said, not looking at the girl but this time Billy.  "Materials, manpower... I can have someone in accounting start working up numbers for you, if you want, but maybe repairing the house those kids have already would be cheaper?"

"But we have lots of money!"  Brigitte insisted.  "Why wouldn't we give some to my friends too?  I can share.  Sharing is good."

Billy leaned over and looked at the little bit that had been outlined there. He shook his head.

"This kind of customization and you think it can be done with a repair job? Probably just safer to start from the ground up, that way you can reinforce where you need to. My guess is the plumbing alone would be worth just starting from scratch. I mean, with that many bathrooms and showers, surely we would need to dig up the ground and put in a new in-flow from the city water to handle the pressure anyway right?"

He looked to Brigitte then.

"I'm not going to tell you yes, because Papa doesn't lie. We are going to build something very very like it, but it is not going to be perfect. It's never perfect. For example, a slide indoors is very dangerous, so that will probably be moved outside. Little things like that will be changed. Is that alright Miss Mastrosimone?"

She considered this a moment.  "I guess, but it would be fun to come down to breakfast in the morning on a slide."  She sighed.  "But I guess what I really wanted was to make sure they got good toilets and a nice roof.  If we gotta make some changes I guess it's okay."

David smiled at Billy, "I'll work up a few more edits and have something on your desk in a day or so and get it in the hands of our guys in finance.  We'll see what they say about the projected cost of the project."

Rebecca knocked on the door then and said with a smile, "Lunch has just been delivered - if you're both hungry now?" 

David picked up his blueprints and offered his hand to Brigitte.  "It was good to meet you Miss Mastrosimone."

"It was nice working with you, Mr. Atkins."  She shook his hand.

David chuckled and looked to Billy, "That's one hell of a little lady you got there, Mr. Mastrosimone.  Better watch out, she'll be running this place in a few years."

Billy could do nothing but smile and nod.

"That's the plan Dave, get your kid to be better than you, faster too if you can help it."

He snuggled Brigitte to his leg then and waved to Rebecca.

"Brigitte, do you want to find out what Rebecca has decided is a good lunch for today?"