Chapter 52

I got home at 6:15 that night. Unlike the previous night, there was nobody to meet me at the door. I missed seeing Jill. Two days and it was like she belonged there. I wasn't looking forward to John coming home from Houston. There's definitely something to be said for having a soft, warm girl pressing back into you while you sleep.

I was halfway down the hall to drop off my books in my room when it hit me I didn't have a room anymore. A few square feet in front of the couch to lay my sleeping bag. That I had to remove every morning so the space could be used by everybody else. Quite likely the girl who had taken over my bedroom.

I turned around and put my books on top of the TV in the living room. I went to the refrigerator, got an apple juice and went out back.

Queenie came over to see me as soon as I walked out the door. I scratched her head and looked in on the puppies. They were excited to have someone to pay attention to them but I wasn't out here for that. I petted each one but got up and headed for the garage. Queenie followed me in.

We've got a two car garage. You can squeeze the Chevy inside but you'll have to walk sideways to get out. It has the standard double size door at the front. The kind you pull out and up that is balanced by huge springs. If you open that door and look in, there's a door on the right, almost at the back wall. If you enter the side door and turn toward the front, you'll pass our water heater, a big cast iron sink, Mom's washer and dryer and an old wardrobe that somebody picked up somewhere years ago. It's filled with my father's clothes, of all things. It is about two and a half feet deep, four feet wide and maybe seven feet tall. There's a shelf with a foot and a half of room above it and a rod from side to side for hanging clothes. Two sliding doors allow access to either half.

The back end of the garage is mostly tools. A workbench takes up most of the wall. There are cupboards above the bench with pegboard doors. Hangers are on the inside of each door for screwdrivers, hammers, pliers and other hand tools. Coffee cans filled with screws, nuts, washers and other hardware are stacked on the shelves. There are a couple of vises at one end and a grinder at the other. These items are accessible by going around the end of the bench and standing sideways. There are drawers under the bench that roll out. They have power tools, mostly in metal cases.

Off to the left of the bench is a section of pegboard over the studs that run from floor to ceiling every 16 inches. Hooks with three legs are strewn across the surface for items that won't fit inside the cupboard doors. Extension cords, a couple of drop lights, a coil of rope, our crowbar, a five foot yardstick and a large square in the shape of an "L" were all there. I know a yard isn't five feet but what else do you call it?

This had been Dad's pride and joy. The kitchen cabinets, shelves in both bathrooms, the wooden planters around the yard all came to be at that workbench. I remember watching him work for hours on many a Sunday when I was young. These days you had to move one or both of our bikes out of the way if you needed to get to the workbench.

Mom had no idea which tool was used for what. She was more likely to get a kitchen knife to remove a screw than to make a trip to the garage to get a screwdriver. I did some work out there but I wasn't as into it as Dad had been. I don't have the patience to measure, cut, sand and finish wood. Dad enjoyed getting the raw materials at Home Depot and creating something that would be used for years.

The left side had rakes, shovels, a couple of picks and some brooms of various types hanging near the back. There were some shelves with half used cans of paint, varnish, paint thinners and other solvents as well as oil, antifreeze, car cleaning supplies, a gallon jug with some water in it and other car junk. There was a water hose for some car or other with four bends in it. You never know when you'll need one of those. A lot of the items had been out there long before they were considered to be hazardous materials.

A six foot fiberglass ladder and our lawnmower took up the rest of the left wall. There was a large trash can in front of the ladder hanging on the wall.

One of Dad's big projects had been a partial floor under the roof. It ran from side to side, starting about four and a half feet from the front door and ending about the same distance from the back wall. It ran from under a foot below the roof at the two sides to almost five feet where the roof peaked in the center. There was a square hole in the middle, three and a half feet on a side. The construction was two by fours, side to side with one by six slats to make up the floor. Two by fours came down from the ceiling beams to the front and back edges and the four corners of the hole in the center for support.

This was our place to put stuff we didn't have room for. Boxes of records that Mom and Dad had. 45S, 33s and even a few 78s from Dad's parents. An old record player that had its own case that used to be in my room. I remember putting the inserts in the 45s so they would fit on the spindle. Many years ago, when I was very young. My Big Bird and Cookie Monster records. There were three boxes containing an encyclopedia that thought the cold war was still in effect and space travel consisted of a couple of trips to the moon and back. There was an extension ladder up against the bottom, on the left side, held by brackets that could be rotated to release it. There was also provision to store Mary's and my bikes on the bottom of the structure that hadn't been used for years.

My prize was on the left side, near the front. It was tough by myself but I was able to get the ladder up there and work it on top of the open garage door, then wrestle it down to the floor. Mom and Dad's old mattress and box spring set. There were a couple of king sized pillows next to them that I grabbed. I moved the ladder to the center and spotted a stand-alone heater. I pulled it down and took the plastic off the heater and the bed. I plugged in the heater and it warmed up right away. No bed frame, no headboard but it would be a lot better than a sleeping bag in the living room.

Dad had gotten a big roll of plastic when he started storing things on the shelf. Kind of industrial sized Saran Wrap. The plastic was covered with dust but the mattress and box springs were ready for sheets. I put the plastic in the trash can and washed my hands.