Chapter 19

The night before the first day of work with the project humanity builders, I was too nervous to sleep. had no idea how things would work out with my part time job. I sure as hell wouldn’t be dropping my real job to be a pretend carpenter. Nonetheless I skipped my morning hike opting for a real breakfast instead. While ridding the scooter to the job site, I carried my tools in the small knapsack on my back. Mine was the only three wheel moped in town and was therefore a curiosity.

I didn’t cover the scooter, but I did have a tarp in case it rained. It was stored in a small space, inside the storage box located above the Honda gasoline engine. There wasn’t a lot of space in the storage compartment, which was why I owned a trailer for real loads.

When I pulled onto the site, I was about fifteen minutes early. I rode up and parked in the yard of the house under construction. The foundation and the piers had been set. None of the wood framing was in place though. It looked like it might be the crew’s very first day on the job site. If so I would be lucky. I might get to see the whole house go up.

I walked up to the black man standing with a paper cup of coffee and a cigarette. “Hi I’m Ed Rogers,” I said. “The FNG.”

“Levi Brown,” he said extending his hand. “Good to see you Ed. How much experience you got building house.”

“None, I’m afraid,” I admitted.

“Well, soon as the others get here, we will pop your cherry,” the black foreman said.

“Be Gentle,” I replied straight faced.

The day started with me being one of the two men, and the foreman who showed it. We started out building the floor joist system. We built the floor with all the newest products, which were donated by the national chain stores. They did it for their public relations, and the tax write off.

Since I had no idea what I was doing, it was a damn good thing that Levi did. He showed us how to lay out the string line to measure for square. I listened carefully. Truth is that the building had become so mechanized that once he started us square, and as long as we did as we were told, the framing of the floor system was a piece of cake.

We got the whole sub floor in before the end of the day. A third man joined us after lunch and we flew through the remainder of the sub floor. Just before we left for the day it was my job to staple down a plastic drop cloth, just in case of rain. The type wood we used did not handle rain so well. Over half the products that we used were chip board bases. It was an education in modern building techniques, I do have to admit that. I can’t say how I felt about it that first day. It had been a lot to take in.

On the second day we finished up the platform as I called it. It was on that platform, created by the sub-floor, that everything else sat. The skeleton took another couple of days to complete.

In all I put a week into that house before I got a call from Alison. She knew how I was spending my days. She called me on the job to ask, “Do you have enough energy for us to have pizza by the lake and go back to the car wash and turn in early.”

“Absolutely,” I immediately agreed.

“So how is the play coming?” I asked on the way from the car wash to the pizza restaurant.

“It coming along good. I did hope you would give me a few quotes from your long list of one liners from the cop shop,” she suggested.

“Sure what do you need,” I asked.

“Let’s just talk about it over pizza and our view of the lake,”she suggested.

We were back from the lake by 9PM. We were actually in bed by nine fifteen. It was still pretty warm in the bedroom at that time of night. I of course was a fan of hot sweaty sex. Unfortunately Alison was not so much a fan. The car wash was my place. so it was agreed that what I did with it was my business. We agreed to move to Alison’s place if she hated what I did. So far she had just mentioned the heat in passing.

Things like, “You need to think about air conditioning before the real heat arrives.” That was after the lake and also after the first bout of hot sweaty sex.

It was just after 11PM when there was a knock at the door. I put on my cutoff jeans, slipped the Colt into my pocket and went to greet the visitor who I felt pretty sure would be Thia. I looked out the window and it was of course her.

“What are you doing here,” I asked sounding as irritated as I felt.

“I came by to surprise you,” she replied.

“Are you drunk?” I asked.

“No would you rather I be,” she asked with her attempt at a pixie smile.

“No, I don’t want you here right now drunk or sober,” I replied.

“Too bad, I want to join your party,” she said

“There is no party. The bed is too small for a party and you are my daughter,” I said really showing my displeasure.

“Let’s just ask the sweet Alison. She might like it,” she said pushing toward the bedroom door.

“Don’t do this Cynthia. Nothing good can come from it,” I said trying to be reasonable. “You need to get home to Jon.”

“He and his dad went camping. They won’t be home until tomorrow afternoon. So you see, we have plenty of time,” she continued trying to make her point.

“What the fuck are you on?” I asked in a loud voice.

“Ed, let me talk to Cynthia,” Alison suggested entering from the tiny bedroom. “She led Thia back into the bedroom. Then the two of them got into the bed. Alison was wearing one of my tee shirts. Thia was still in her scrubs. I stood in the doorway and watched Thia remove the pants of her scrub suit. She was wearing a very brief pair of bikini panties. She crawled into the bed with Alison. I had no idea what to expect, but I expected it to be something. Something more than Alison stroking Thia’s hair and whispering to her. But that was all there was at first.