by Simon Archer
“Hello?” I put the phone to my ear.
“Hi, Clark,” Krysta’s voice said on the other end of the line.
“Krysta! I heard you were having trouble getting a hold of me yesterday. I’ve made sure my phone is charged and on, so it shouldn’t be a problem now.” I was relieved to hear from her.
“Thank you, Clark. I’m just glad Macy was with you so I could get you a message!” She sounded upbeat and happy.
“Are you on your way to the house site?” I could see Theo looking at me impatiently, waiting for me to get in my car.
“Well, that’s the thing. I am elbow-deep in these numbers,” Krysta started. “I really want to help with the house, but if I don’t finish this analysis, Cora will have someone else do it. Will you be upset if I miss this first house-raising gathering?” Her voice had become soft, almost shy. Her dedication to bettering her business skills so that she could help me with VGS was flattering. There was no way I could be upset with her for that.
“No, Krysta, I won’t be upset. We have a ton of people coming today. You get done what you need to, but don’t plan on missing the next one!” I joked. I had no doubt she wouldn’t miss any more gatherings.
“Oh, thank you!” she squealed into the phone. She was bubbly in general, but I didn’t hear her squeal all that often.
“Wow, you sure are excited,” I laughed into the phone. Her voice instantly got serious again.
“I’m going to work to get this done by tonight, but if not, Cora said I could stay here one more night if needed. I’ll be sure to call if that ends up being the case, okay?” Her voice suddenly sounded a tiny bit shaky.
“That’s fine, as long as you get back tomorrow,” I told her. I didn’t like not having seen her yet. It could’ve been a control thing, or maybe I just missed her, but either way, I wanted her here soon.
“I just appreciate you, Clark,” she said. “I’ll keep you abreast of what is going on!”
“Alright, Krysta. Talk to you later.”
We both hung up the phone. Something felt off about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was probably just that we’d never been apart this long before, it felt awkward. I shook the thought out of my head and climbed in my 4Runner. I pulled out after Theo, and the two of us headed out to the house site.
The view seemed to get prettier every time I drove into the grove of trees that would soon be surrounding my house. Today, I was thankful for the trees, not just because of their beauty, but also because they dropped the temperature by fifteen-to-twenty degrees. Since the weather had reported the expected high to be ninety-five, eighty would feel like air conditioning. Theo and I parked and got out. He pointed to the area that would eventually be a garden.
“That looks like a good space for them to drop the wood,” he said. “Then the insulation could go on the other side. That would leave the scaffolding to use between floors, and that could go in the back. What do you think?”
I surveyed the area and said, “That will be perfect. The framing is going to be more complicated on the left side because of the tower.” I walked to where Theo was standing and posted up beside him.
“You and I have the most experience with this type of thing,” Theo started. “Charlie and Abe know their way around as well. The girls can do anything, so that leaves Bev, Abe, his wife, Gretchen, Abe’s friend, and Kevin. Where do you want them to start?”
“I know Abe has experience, too,” I told Theo. “We can have Bev sit right over there, in the shade, and boss us around.” I tipped my head in the direction of a completely shaded area under a nearby tree.
“Yeah, we’ll see how long she stays there,” Theo chuckled.
“As for Trevor and Kevin, we can start them with materials distribution,” I said. “After we all get the sill plate and joists, and the subfloor in place, we can start the actual construction on the tower while they finish laying out the wood for the stud walls in the rest of the house.”
“Solid plan,” Theo agreed. We both heard a small whirr in the distance and turned around to look in the direction of Theo’s house. We saw the Lindys’ car moving toward us. When they pulled into the grove, we waved them over where we’d parked our cars. A few moments later, Charlie, Leah, Macy, and Kevin were standing with Theo and me.
“Where will we be, Clark?” Charlie asked.
“You and Macy are with Theo and me,” I told him. I turned to Leah and Kevin. “Leah, how much manual labor are you looking to do today?”
“I’m not,” she said, only half-joking.
“I had a feeling,” I said, chuckling at her. “Bev will be here soon, and she is bringing some design magazines with her. Kennedi and Ellie had asked for her opinion on some furniture designs because Kennedi plans on making all the furniture. Do you want to help Bev get some ideas organized?”
“That sounds like my kind of construction,” Leah said with a smile.
“Good! I have some sun chairs in the back of my 4Runner.” I turned to go get the chairs. Kevin followed me.
“What will I be doing?” He started pulling chairs out of my car before I could reach for one.
“My plan was for you to do materials distribution, but I haven’t ever asked you about your experience with home construction.” I shot him a quizzical look.
“I’m more a drywall guy than a framer,” he replied honestly.
“Good to know!” I said. “You’ll be coming back for that then!” I nudged him in the shoulder to make sure he knew I was joking. Well, at least partly joking. After we’d pulled out a stack of chairs, we started setting them up in the shaded area. I’d loaded enough chairs for everyone because we’d be stopping to eat lunch at some point.
“Looks good,” Kevin said after the last chair was set up. We heard two car doors slam and looked up. Another car had pulled up and parked. Abe, Gretchen, and Trevor had gotten out.
“Gretchen!” Leah shouted over to her friend. “I’m so glad you could make it!” She ran over to hug Gretchen, and the two were instantly lost in girl-talk. Kevin and I walked back to Theo. Abe and Trevor came over to stand with us. Abe held out his hand.
“Good to see you, Abe,” I said, shaking his hand. “You ready to have a little fun?”
“Always!” he responded. I turned to Trevor.
“Happy you could make it,” I said. “I appreciate you volunteering to help.” I watched Trevor’s eyes when I spoke to him. His face smiled, and he returned the pleasantry, but his eyes were unchanging. I still couldn’t place a finger on why I had an odd feeling in my gut about this man.
Just when we were wrapping up our hellos, the materials truck arrived, followed closely by Kennedi, Ellie, and Bev. The men in the equipment truck made quick work of unloading and stacking the supplies where Theo and I directed them to. Bev made her way to Leah, and Gretchen, and sat down. They immediately started looking through a stack of books and magazines Bev had brought. Ellie and Kennedi walked over to our group and waited for their instructions. I waited until all the materials had been loaded off the truck, and the drivers were on their way, before getting specific.
“We are going to start everyone with materials distribution to the tower side of the house,” I explained. “As soon as that is done, Kevin and Trevor will continue distribution while the rest of us work on getting the sill plate and joists, and the subfloor built. Then, Ellie, Macy, and Kennedi, your main jobs will be on the upper floors of the house. You ladies have balance like us humans could only wish for. Getting the frame up will be a cinch for you. On the parts you need help with, we can lay out scaffolding and get up there with you when the time comes.”
“We shouldn’t have any need for you to get up there,” Ellie and Macy said in unison. They looked at each other and started laughing. Ellie turned to me and said, “We updated this morning and included all the construction information we will need for this project.”
“Who needs years of experience?” Theo said sarcastically.
“Right?” Trevo
r piped in.
“I don’t need years of it, but it will take me a couple of hours to learn what everyone is doing and how,” Kennedi interjected. I moved over to her and put my arm around her shoulder.
“You’re going to do great,” I whispered to her. She was no longer embarrassed by her defect making her learning process take longer than a normal CG, but I didn’t ever want her to feel even slightly self-conscious about it.
“I’m excited!” she whispered back. I squeezed her shoulders, let go, and smacked her on the ass. “Ooop!” she said, surprised. I winked at her and turned back to Theo.
“Time to get moving!” I said. “The plans and all the tools you’ll need are on a table by the wood stack.” The seven of us headed toward the woodpile. We stopped at the table to strap on our tool belts and gloves. Within a couple of minutes, we were well underway, getting the framing materials distributed.
Our first step was getting the sill plate and joists in. They had to be laid perfectly level, which didn’t prove to be as difficult as normal, being that the girls would eyeball level. Next came the subfloor. By the time we’d reached that point, Trevor and Kevin had distributed all the wood to each side of the house it would be used for. They joined in on laying the subfloor, and the process sped along.
When we got to the point of putting the insulated concrete panels up, Kevin took a break. It wasn’t due to laziness. He just wasn’t experienced in that area. The concrete panels were a more energy-efficient option to standard subwalls, but not many laymen knew how to work with them. After we were underway with those, I noticed that Trevor was very busy walking back and forth from the tool area to where the girls were working on getting panels up. He’d ask them a question and then go back to the table where the plans were and look deep in thought. Then he’d repeat the process. During the entire raising of the concrete panels, I didn’t see him actually do any work.
Once the wood for the tower side of the house was ready, Charlie, Theo, Abe, and I began more detailed framing. I’d opted to build the tower cut to shape, so the longest part of the process was cutting the wood at the correct angles to fit together. The other option would’ve been to make the tower corners look finished at the drywall and siding stages, but that felt like a cop-out. While we worked on the tower, the girls, Kevin, and Trevor started on the rest of the house. At about the halfway point, Bev called for everyone to come to eat lunch. We put our tools down and headed to the back of Theo’s truck, where Bev, Gretchen, and Leah had laid out an extensive selection of food.
“Wow, Bev,” I said. “I didn’t know you were bringing the restaurant with you!” She put her hands on her hips.
“Well, you should have!” she joked. She got busy helping pile plates full of hearty sandwiches, pasta and potato salads, and fruit medleys. One by one, we filed over to the chairs Kevin and I had set up. When all of us were seated, there was absolute silence until everyone was at least halfway through their meal.
At that point, Charlie looked up and said, “Bev, you are a lifesaver. I don’t know about these guys, but I was hungrier than I realized.” Everyone eating started nodding in agreement.
“Everything is excellent, thank you,” Trevor chimed in. An awkward silence followed. What was about that guy? I just couldn’t put my finger on it. It was Theo who finally broke the silence.
“Well, now y’all know my secret,” he said. “My wife keeps me alive by making sure I eat.” There was a round of muted chuckles as we laughed through mouthfuls of food.
“Lucky for us,” I started. “You are a beast out there, Theo.” The man had worked harder than some men half his age I’d seen on job sites.
Theo swallowed his bite of sandwich and said, “I just really want my loft back.” He kept a straight face and took another bite. I saw Abe stop and stare at him, then at me. Theo glanced at Abe and then to me. As we watched Abe’s discomfort grow, we couldn’t keep ourselves from laughing. “I’m just kidding, Abe!” Abe took a deep breath and started smiling.
“You all are good at playing mean!” Abe said.
“It’s going to be odd not living there,” I said. “At least at first.”
“Think of it this way,” Charlie piped up. “You’ll move out of the loft and into this house, and then Theo will never be able to get rid of you!”
Theo grabbed at his chest as though he had a heart attack and slid down his chair while whispering, “Lord, what have I done?”
“You’ve made your own bed, Theo!” I put on my best taunting look. “You have to lay in it now! You are stuck with us!” It was a good thing I didn’t have food in my mouth because the second the words came out, I busted up laughing, and Theo and Charlie joined me.
26
When the laughter died down, Kevin sat forward in his chair and said, “Hey, I wanted to thank you for letting me help out today. I know I don’t have much experience, but this has been great. I don’t have the opportunity to work with my hands much, and this is fun.”
I looked at Charlie, and he gave me a silent nod. It was time to mess with Kevin.
“So what you are saying is that you are unhappy in your non-manual labor job?” I asked Kevin. His face turned sheet-white.
“No, no!” he said, his head turning from me to Charlie frantically. “That’s not what I meant!”
Charlie leaned toward him and said, “I’m sorry to hear that your job is unfulfilling, Kevin. I have some great contractor friends that I am happy to write you a recommendation for.”
“Charlie, come on!” Kevin’s face had gone from white to red. “I love my job! All I meant is that this is really fun and not an experience that comes along every day.”
“Oh, I hear you loud and clear, Kevin,” Charlie started. “It will be sad to lose you, but if opportunity is what you need, I’ll make the sacrifice and call some acquaintances of mine for you.”
“Dang, Kevin!” I said, feigning disbelief. “Ballsy move saying you aren’t happy with your cushy job, right in front of your boss!” Kevin looked from me to Charlie, then back again. He was totally speechless by that point. He caught Charlie and I looking at each other, trying to keep up our serious appearance before he finally caught on.
“You two are fucking with me, aren’t you!” Kevin yelled. “That’s just cruel!” He started shaking his head and laughing. Charlie and I were just howling. It had been a long time since we’d had the opportunity to pick on someone so serious in nature.
“Lighten up, Kevin,” Trevor said loudly over all the laughter. “Took you long enough to figure out they weren’t serious!” His statement brought almost instant silence to the group. Abe looked around, and I could tell he was embarrassed by the man he’d brought with him.
“Your turn to lighten up, Trevor,” Abe said in a deadly serious tone. “Kevin is one of the brightest young men you’ll ever meet.”
“I have no doubt,” Trevor replied sarcastically, obviously missing Abe’s unspoken message to shut up. Trevor stood up and stepped around his chair. “I’m going to grab another sandwich. Does anyone want anything while I’m up?” The five of us just stared in disbelief at his rudeness. Nobody answered him. After a few seconds, he turned and headed back to the truck for more food. When he was out of earshot, Abe started shaking his head.
“I apologize for my guest’s lack of social intelligence,” he said.
“Abe,” Charlie said sternly. “Don’t you apologize for another grown man’s actions. His behavior is not your fault.”
“He had been to several functions with me since he started working for me, and I’ve never had an issue,” Abe said. “The only time I’ve seen him even close to mannerless was when I asked him about a shipment of refrigerated goods that got messed up earlier this week. He got irritated but apologized later. I’d chalked it up to a bad day.”
“Did you get your shipment fixed?” Kevin asked, genuinely concerned.
“Yes, it got straightened out,” Abe started. “Somehow, the truck had been routed incorrectly a
nd was offloaded at the wrong site. A substitute order had to be placed and thank goodness the company had enough product to cover it.”
“Sounds like one big headache,” I said. “But why would Trevor be pissy about that?”
“I’m paying him quite the tidy sum to shore up my supply chain process. I wasn’t exactly happy when the problem popped up, and I confronted him about it,” Abe said. “I think he took it that I was questioning his abilities or something. The whole thing was weird, but I thought it was a one-time thing, his acting strange, I mean.”
“Well,” Charlie said, “no use worrying about any of that now. I don’t know about you gentlemen, but I’m ready to get back at it. I don’t get the opportunity to work with my hands much, so I’d like to take advantage of this time.” Charlie looked directly at Kevin and waited for him to catch his joke. Kevin wasn’t behind the eight-ball this time. He rolled his eyes at Charlie as he stood up.
“Hey, boss,” Kevin said. “If you need a break from your cushy job, just put me in!” He started laughing, and so did the rest of us. We all stood just as Trevor returned to the group.
“Where’s everyone going?” Trevor asked as he sat down with a new plate of food on his lap.
“Back to work,” Theo said flatly, then turned around and walked away.
“Oh, alright,” Trevor said. “I’ll be there just as soon as I’m finished.”
“Take your time,” I told him. I was hoping he’d sit there and eat for the rest of the day. The man obviously had no skills when it came to construction, and he was incredibly socially awkward. I was good if he sat this one out.
When the girls saw us stand up, they excused themselves from the conversation they were having with Bev, Gretchen, and Leah, and returned to work. The afternoon went quickly, and before any of us knew it, the sun was going down. The timing was perfect. As I hammered the last nail, the sun slipped away. We turned the headlights of our cars on long enough to put the tools away and step back to survey what we’d accomplished.
