Chapter 17

I got up early and was dressed and out the door before six the next morning. I thought it best to avoid any possibility of either conflict or recriminations about what had occurred the night before.

I checked on our current job site before driving over to walk around on the new Stanton lots that I'd just gotten the variance for. With five new lots available, I had to decide on the order of how I wanted to proceed. Normally, I'd start working on the first one until I'd gotten it up and framed, before starting work on a second.

The housing market had been heating up over the past few months, and I wanted to make sure I had some product to sell while demand was high. I'd been toying with the idea of adding these two experienced guys to my crew.

The Kiel brothers were both people I'd worked with before. I knew they were reliable, but one of them, Dave, had a bit of a temper problem that sometimes caused disruptions on other job sites where he'd been working. The reason they were both available at this time was because Dave had gotten into a heated argument with his last job foreman, and had been fired by the overall subdivision manager after some shoving had occurred during the exchange. Ben, Dave's younger brother, had quit in protest of that firing.

I really liked Ben, and I knew I could put up with Dave's temper, just as long as he didn't go around looking to make trouble. With the addition of these two, working on two houses, simultaneously, wouldn't present any problem. I knew I could easily afford to hire another unskilled worker to help the brothers out with the build.

I called over to the phone number Ben had given me and made an appointment to meet the two of them over at a Bob's Big Boy equidistant from where we both were. I was glad to hear Ben's excitement over the prospect that he and Dave might soon be back to work. Like a lot of relatively young construction workers, Dave and Ben spent their wages just as quickly as they got them.

Both men were single, still in their mid twenties, and liked to sample a lot of night life just about every weekend. As long as they showed up to the job site on time and gave me an honest days work, I had no problem letting them enjoy their week end free time. Usually, I didn't work any crew on the week ends unless we were up against some deadline, or were having to adjust our schedule because of being rained out during the week.

At our meeting we ate a very early lunch and discussed how I wanted to start preparing all five lots and getting all five of the foundations poured and trenches dug for sewage and water mains. Once we had those two roughed in, it would be easy to wire in the power to each lot before we started work on the framing.

I never brought up the incident that had caused Dave to be fired. He knew that I was aware of what had happened, and probably appreciated the fact that I didn't consider it important enough to bother mentioning. Physically, I didn't believe either brother would pose a challenge to my authority. We'd gotten along fine on other occasions when we'd worked together. They both had worked as framers for me on other projects I'd built, and I was very comfortable with their experience and work ethic.

They each asked me for two hundred dollars advance against their first paychecks. I remembered that this wasn't at all unusual with the brothers. I'd need to keep more cash on hand while they worked for me because they tended to stay broke during the week.

When we parted, both agreed to be at the new job site the next morning before seven. They knew what I wanted them to concentrate on for the next few days, and I knew what I needed to get arranged and scheduled to make sure they had what they'd need to get the foundations ready for pouring and the ditches dug for sewer and water hook up to each pad.

I spent the rest of my work day over at the old job site, seeing that everything was on schedule and up to my standards. I got one of my building site fences moved over to the new job, then had one of my guys take the Bobcat there. Later, I called another guy to move over some lumber to be used for the cement frames for the foundations.

I had another guy I always worked with for handling the cement purchase, and for supervising the actual pouring. I had confidence that he would take care of all the details, making sure the job was done right.

I got back home a bit after three o'clock that afternoon. Dorothy and Sonia were both sitting at the dinner table in the kitchen with Zinat, Eric and Jake. All three children were busy doing their homework, and their mothers were drinking some iced tea and discussing plans for that night's dinner.

"What time did you leave this morning, Jim? Did you have anything to eat?" Dorothy had turned her head towards me as I walked through the back door off the kitchen.

"I left just before six. I had a breakfast meeting scheduled with the Kiel brothers. I'm putting them to work over at the new job site in Stanton. We're going to be pouring the foundations for all five lots before we finish up the current house. I want to start moving faster to take advantage of this new little boom in the housing market." I leaned over to give her a kiss on her lips. I didn't say or do anything about Sonia. I had decided to try to act normally until the women let me know the lay of the land.

"You want to build all the lots at one time? Together?" The tone of Dorothy's question made me realize that she wanted some assurance that I wasn't taking on anything that could jump up to bite us in the ass, financially speaking. When it came to my work and the business money, Dorothy mostly let me handle all the decisions.

"Right now, I'm only getting all the foundations put in and bringing the sewer and water lines over to each lot. It will save us some money in the long run doing it this way. I'll probably end up building two at a time, rather than only the one. If things still look good, after the two new ones are framed and roofed, I'll probably go ahead and start the last three then."

"Do we have the money for all that? I know you don't like to borrow."

"I have all the money to build the first two, and to do all the utility prep work on the other three. Once we sell the current house we're building, I'll have enough for the last three build outs, Things have been real good lately, and I think I should try to position myself to take advantage of that. Don't worry, I won't allow us to get overextended."

"I was just concerned about making sure we don't get in trouble. Now that we have two more in our family, we wouldn't want our money to get tight."

Dorothy smiled and gave me a sultry look. She looked like I needed to say something else to assure her. This was much more than I usually got in the way of concern from her about financial matters. I suddenly had some idea of what she really wanted, some indication from me that I was all right with the new relationship we now had with Sonia.

I smiled over at my wife, then looked at Sonia for the first time since I'd come into the house.

"Are you okay with everything, Sonia? You getting everything you need here?"

I watched her face as it reddened. I could see I'd taken her by surprise with my verbal attentions. I knew that she had been used to riding roughshod over Milt during the years they were together. Dorothy might claim to admire strong men, but I'd seen no sign of anything like that with Sonia. She was used to ruling her roost, and I'd already been a bit concerned that she would start agitating to try to take some control here. I was very much opposed to that happening.

"We're good, Jim. Jake and I both appreciate you taking us in like you have." As she spoke, Sonia looked down at her small hands folded together on top of the dining table. Her face was still flushed.

"You realize that I'm not like Milt though, Sonia? If I decide I want something, I expect to get it, without having to put up with any whining or arguments. I make the rules, and I expect those living under my roof to obey them. Are you going to be able to live with things being like that?" I would have sworn that I saw Dorothy and Sonia both shiver when I asked Sonia that.

"Your house, your rules, Jim. You tell me what you want, and I'll try my best to give it to you." She still was staring fixedly at her folded hands as she said this. It was like her personality had undergone an abrupt change. I wasn't sure I was happy to see her attitude so suddenly changed like this. I wasn't used to seeing Sonia cowed like she seemed to now be.

"You kids go take a break for awhile. Here's three dollars, Zinat, take Jake and Eric down to the store and buy us a half gallon of Dreyer's ice cream. You three pick whatever flavor you all decide on." As they got up, I noticed Jake giving his mom a worried look. Sonia never looked up from her hands resting on the table. As soon as the kids ran out the front door to get the ice cream, Dorothy spoke up.

"Why are you acting this way, Jim? What did Sonia do wrong?"

"She didn't do anything wrong that I know of. I just wanted to make sure she understood that our new situation doesn't really change anything around here. I want you both to understand that. If I'm going to be fucking both of you, I expect her to act more like you do. I want to make sure she understands that she has to pull her own weight with the cooking and the cleaning and taking care of the children. I certainly won't put up with her trying to treat me like she treated Milt."