The Boomerang Kid

by Jay Quinn

  Maura poured milk into her glass before carefully replacing the jug of milk back into the refrigerator and sitting down at the table once more. As she sat her glass of milk before her, she lifted her eyes to Matt’s face and said hesitantly, “No. I don’t think there’s any risk of that. I think he can handle himself alright. He just needs our support right now.”

  Matt leaned forward and rested his weight on his forearms. His look told her he was being serious when he said, “You’re absolutely right. He does need our support. But I think he needs some sense of self determination responsibility as well. It’s all too easy to just come home like a college student, but we’re kidding ourselves if we think that’s what best for him. I’ve talked with a friend of mine whose daughter came home after a bad marriage with her two-year-old daughter. He told me the best thing that helped her get back on her feet was to get her back out of the house as soon as possible.”

  Maura cut him a hard look, but took a long swallow of her cold milk before she said, “Tough love? I’ve never treated Kai like that. He’s sick the same as if he—”

  “I’m not disputing that, Maura. And I’m not saying you should kick him out into the street. Just wait a minute and hear me out, okay?” Matt demanded quietly.

  Maura nodded, but wouldn’t look at him.

  “I say we give Kai a couple of weeks to let his medicine get in his system and then we offer him my place in Lighthouse Point,” Matt told her.

  Maura looked up at him in surprise, “Are you serious? You’d do that?”

  Matt reached across the table and grasped Maura’s upper arm gently, “Of course I would. I don’t think he’d trash the place, and actually he could be doing me a favor.”

  “In what way?” Maura asked as she took his wrist gently to signal she wasn’t angry with him before letting it go.

  “I don’t like the house standing vacant,” Matt said decisively. “There’re too many teenaged kids in the neighborhood. I’m surprised the place hasn’t been broken into before now. Also, in this market, I don’t think it’s a great time to sell. I’m willing to let Kai move in if he’s willing to maybe do a little painting inside and out and keep an eye on the place. You know I don’t want to let you out of my sight, especially now, when you’re carrying this baby. I’ll be here with you and Kai’ll have some independence and still be close enough to keep an eye on. What do you think?”

  “I think you’re the most wonderful man in the world,” Maura said. “That’s a great idea!”

  “Do you think Kai’ll go for it?” Matt asked.

  “He’d be crazy not to,” Maura said without thinking. When the realization of what she’d said hit her, she laughed.

  Matt allowed himself a chuckle as well, then said, “Let’s watch Kai over the next couple of weeks to see how he handles himself and we’ll maybe bring the idea up to him weekend after next. How’s that sound?”

  “It sounds like a plan,” Maura said. “But the idea has to come from you. I don’t want him to think I’ve put you up to it.”

  “That makes sense,” Matt said agreeably.

  Maura took another long swallow of her milk and sighed.

  “What is it?” Matt asked.

  “I don’t know… , I was just thinking I wish I’d had you around before now. My life and my relationship with Kai would have been so much easier if you’d been in our lives,” Maura stated bluntly. “I’ve always had to do all this thinking and looking out for him on my own. I think he would be in better shape today if he’d had somebody other than his mother running interference for him.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Matt said reassuringly. “I think you’ve done a hell of a good job. Kai’s a good kid. He just needs to learn to stand on his own two feet.”

  Maura nodded. In some ways she knew Matt was right. But she also knew Kai worked awfully hard to stand on his own under some difficult pressures. But she couldn’t communicate that to Matt without seeming like she was making excuses for her son. Matt was being more than generous, considering he didn’t owe Kai anything. “Thanks, Matt.” Maura said and reached across the table to take his hand.

  “No problem,” Matt assured her as he returned the pressure of her clasp.

  Chapter Twelve

  THE TIME IT TOOK to run to the deli and then have breakfast with his mother and Matt quickly used up the time Kai had before he needed to get across town to see Bill Kellogg. It wasn’t very far, just a couple of miles down Nob Hill Road, and he spent the short time it took to get there giving himself a pep talk about how professionally he wanted to come across to this client who’d appeared out of the blue. Kai knew the money wouldn’t be great, but the work was what he really needed in order to feel like he was moving forward with his new life. He deserved a good job for a good price, but he didn’t want to take advantage of his mother’s boss.

  Bill Kellogg’s house sat on a pie-shaped lot at the end of a cul-de-sac in the Jacaranda Lakes subdivision. Built in the late 1970s, it had a typical look to it that all houses built by South Florida developers possessed. It was easy to tell they had looked to design trends from Southern California to emulate. Still, it was a good-sized house in what had been an expensive and favored area. Kai noted that the neighborhood had aged well. The houses were all kept up and the landscaping was lush and well-tended. Still, the number of toys, bicycles, and Big Wheels scattered in the driveways and open garages of the neighborhood testified to the fact that the neighborhood had turned over more than once as the original owners aged, their children grew up and left home, and younger families moved in. It was obvious that Bill Kellogg, like Kai’s mother, had resisted the urge to capitalize on the real estate boom and move elsewhere.

  Kai parked his truck on the driveway made of brick pavers and locked it behind him. Though the neighborhood appeared safe, Kai remembered he was back in South Florida and not up on the beach in North Carolina. Down here, someone would steal your car in the blink of an eye. It was prudent to help keep people honest. Kai, clutching a pen to sketch with and a legal pad to take notes on, made his way past the low, trimmed ixora and ficus hedge that led to the home’s front door and rang the bell. No familiar sounds of music or television made it outside to the small stoop. Kai checked his watch to make sure he was on time before he rang the bell once more.

  No sooner had he rang the bell for the second time than Bill Kellogg himself opened the door. He looked Kai over quickly, before he stuck out his hand and said, “Kai. You’re right on time. Come in.”

  Kai stepped into the home’s living room, shook Bill’s outstretched hand firmly, and said, “I appreciate a chance to look at your job.”

  “I was sitting out by the pool,” Bill said as he released Kai’s hand and took a step back. “Can I offer you coffee or a soft drink?”

  “Um, no thanks,” Kai answered awkwardly. “I’ve been drinking coffee all morning. I’m fine.”

  Bill nodded and said, “In that case, why don’t you follow me and I’ll show you the room. I also have some photos from a couple of magazines to give you an idea of what I’m thinking about.”

  “Excellent,” Kai replied. He followed Bill through the living room to a hall that ran toward the rear of the house. As he followed along behind him, Kai noticed that Bill was dressed in a bathing suit and a polo shirt. The few times Kai had ever met him, he’d always been dressed for the office or for a party. It seemed strange to see him relaxed and casual at home on a Sunday morning.

  Bill arrived at a door at the end of the hall and opened it before striding in. Kai followed him inside. The carpet had been ripped out along with its padding, leaving bare concrete. The room was painted a sage green and was devoid of any trim save for the inexpensive three-inch baseboards builders were prone to put in. A set of French doors was along one wall that opened onto a corner of the lanai and pool area. On the rear wall, a bare double window gave a view out onto the lushly planted backyard. The wall opposite the French doors was blank. The remainder of the wall t
hat held the door they’d just entered through also held a smaller door that led to a walk-in closet, then a bathroom. It was a good-sized room. Kai estimated it to be about fourteen by sixteen feet. Considering its placement at the rear of the house and its adjoining bath, Kai asked, “Isn’t this the master bedroom?”

  Bill nodded and looked around before he looked at Kai and said, “It was. When my partner was ill, I moved to one of the other bedrooms and put a hospital bed and a cot in here. As you can imagine, there are some sad memories in this room. That’s why I’ve decided to keep the other bedroom and completely change the function of this one. As sad as some of those memories are, I still love this room, and I want to enjoy it. I just don’t ever want to sleep in here again.”

  Kai nodded sympathetically and said, “My mom told me you lost your partner a few months ago. I’m sorry to hear it. I know I only met him that one time at your Christmas party what was it? About three years ago? He was a very nice guy.”

  “Thank you, Kai. I appreciate that,” Bill said quietly. Then, stepping to the French doors, he opened them and said, “Why don’t we sit out by the pool and talk about what I’d like done?”

  Kai glanced around the room once more to try and fix it in his mind before he said, “Sure,” and followed Bill out to a glass-topped table by the pool. He waited for Bill to sit first, then sank into a cushioned chair opposite him and laid his legal pad and pen on the table top.

  “First, I wanted to ask if you did painting. I want to change the color of the room and I’d prefer to have it painted before you start adding in bookshelves and trim work,” Bill said.

  Kai thought a moment He didn’t usually do painting, but he had nothing but time and it would mean a few more bucks for the job. He gave Bill a level look and said, “I don’t do painting as a rule, but it looks to be a relatively straightforward job. I think I could do it for you. It looks like one day, maybe two days, depending on what color you want to paint over that green.”

  Bill smiled. “I was rather hoping you’d say that. I hate painting and I’m willing to pay somebody to do it rather than do it myself. I’m also going to ask you if you’ll paint the bookcases and trim once you have them in.”

  Kai gave him a sly smile and said, “You are looking to spend some money, aren’t you?”

  Bill laughed in reply with genuine good humor. “Well, before we talk about how much, why don’t you take a look at what I have in mind,” he said as he slid a manila folder across the table’s glass surface to rest by Kai’s legal pad.

  Kai opened it to find pages torn from home design magazines that featured different versions of classically appointed libraries. The photos of the rooms differed in degrees of complexity and color, but all of them featured ceiling-to-floor bookcases and elegant dadoes and moldings. Nothing he saw was beyond his capabilities, but he was a little dismayed by the range of finishes represented on the carefully-torn magazine pages. The rooms varied in style from a beachy, all-white scheme to a dark walnut-stained Edwardian look, with some dark red and dark blue lacquered looks thrown in as well. Finally he shuffled the pages neatly back together, placed them back in the folder and said, “I can do any of these looks. But what you want determines a great deal about time and materials.”

  Bill nodded, but asked in complete innocence, “So what you’re saying is, what look I choose will ultimately determine the cost.”

  “That’s right,” Kai explained patiently. “For instance, if you choose the deep lacquered and painted look, I can choose cheaper wood because it will be painted, but what you’ll save in wood costs will be eaten up by the extra time to paint and achieve the high-gloss lacquered finish.”

  Bill reached across the table and took the folder of photos from Kai. Opening it, he thumbed through the pages to find the photo he was looking for. At last, he pulled out a page and handed it to Kai. “I really like this dark blue room. Can you do this and achieve the same effect?”

  Kai examined the photo closely. The bookcases and everything on the walls was lacquered a deep royal blue. “Yes, I can do this. In fact, it would be easier because I can build the bookcases directly onto the walls rather than having to create a case first and then affix the individual units to the walls like cabinetry. I’d recommend doing that if you want to showcase the wood grain. I’d also have to buy higher grade wood to work with.”

  Bill leaned back in his chair and smiled. “Good man. That’s exactly what I would do if I wanted to do this myself. As it happens, I really want the dark blue. The exact color name is printed on the page. The paint is Benjamin Moore. Now let me ask you, how would you handle the wall with the window on it?”

  Kai said, “Hold on, let me sketch this out in plain view and ask you some questions and we’ll rough it out.” Working from memory, Kai drew an accurate floor plan of the room and showed it first to Bill, who nodded approval of his sketch. Then Kai asked “Do you plan to put a small sofa or anything under the window, a desk maybe?”

  “Actually, I have a loveseat I was going to have recovered and put under that window,” Bill replied.

  “Okay,” Kai said. “Now, do you want a knee-hole desk anywhere or is it all to be bookshelves?”

  “I have an antique pedestal table I’m going to set in the middle of the room,” Bill answered, and watched as Kai sketched in place both the loveseat and the table.

  “Do you plan to put any stereo or video components on any of the shelves?” he asked.

  Bill thought a moment and said, “I’m only going to put a nice CD player and radio on one of the shelves. No TV or anything.”

  “Do you plan to shelve any CDs in this room? If so, how many?” Kai probed.

  “I must have a couple hundred CDs, and I’d like shelf space to store more,” Bill replied. “Listening to music is kind of a hobby of mine. I’ll be doing a lot of it in this room.”

  Kai nodded and asked, “What about your books? Are they mostly novels, or do you have a lot of large art and photography or design books?”

  “Mostly novels and biographies,” Bill said. “Why?”

  “Art books require deeper shelves,” Kai explained. “If you had a large collection of art books, I might suggest making some of the shelves sixteen or eighteen inches deep.”

  “Oh no, I don’t need anything deeper than twelve inches,” Bill said. “I don’t want to eat up my floor space with a lot of deep shelves.”

  “Good,” Kai responded. He bent his head over the sketch and quickly drew in the shelves, then turned the page of the legal pad and began to sketch each wall to show how it would look with the shelves in place. He drew the eight-inch plinth the bookshelves would rest on, and also included a bit of extra molding at chair rail height and topped them off with a neat six-inch crown. The effect was elegant and restrained. At last, he finished the pages and handed them to Bill.

  Kai watched as Bill studied each sketch in turn. At last he looked up with a grin. “It’s like you read my mind,” he said. “Everything has a place. I love how you’ve put in a bookcase for CDs on the wall between the room’s door and the door to the closet and bath. I suppose that’s why the shelves there are so narrow. I won’t have to move a stack to see what’s behind them. Excellent.”

  “And you like the proportions of the design and the extra trim?” Kai asked cautiously.

  “Yes! It’s classical, very nice,” Bill responded. “When can you get to work?”

  Kai laughed and shook his head, “You are eager. Fortunately, I have nothing else going on but some appointments to show my work. I could get started as early as tomorrow. But we need to talk about cost.”

  “What are you thinking?” Bill asked.

  Kai reached for his pad and quickly ran some numbers, separating labor from materials. At last he finished and handed the pad back to Bill.

  Bill looked over his estimate and asked, “You didn’t mark up the paint, or lumber or anything else, I see.”

  Kai shook his head and said, “For anyone else, I would
mark it up twenty percent. But you’re a friend of my family from way back. I just warn you the materials might be more than I’ve estimated. I’m used to thinking in North Carolina prices, not South Florida.”

  “I can understand that,” Bill said evenly.

  “I’ll give you receipts for all the materials on the day I buy them, and you just reimburse me at cost then and there,” Kai told him.

  “I want to do right by you, Kai,” Bill said sincerely. “Are you sure you can live with your labor costs?”

  “Absolutely,” Kai told him.

  “Then I think we have a deal,” Bill said and offered his hand. “If you really can start tomorrow, that would be great.”

  “I’ll need a key and your alarm code,” Kai said. “Plus, if you don’t mind, I’ll be leaving my tools here while I’m working. It’s a bitch to pack and unpack my table saw and compound miter saw everyday. I promise I keep a neat work site,” he said as he took Bill’s hand firmly.

  “Of course,” Bill said agreeably. “Let me get you a key now.” With that, he stood and left the lanai by way of the kitchen door.

  Kai sighed, closed his eyes, and turned his face up to catch the sun. It was a nice little job. He had given a lot of thought to how long it would actually take, considering not only the construction of so many bookcases, but the degree of high finish Bill was looking for. The walls alone would take two coats of high-gloss paint, and the wood for the shelves would have to be primed with a tinted primer and one coat of paint before he even began to cut it up and assemble the shelving. After it was all built, he’d have to caulk and lightly sand all the nail and screw holes, touch them up and then give it another coat of high gloss paint before he applied two coats of clear varnish. There was no doubt about it, it would look rich and expensive. Kai had calculated it would take nearly two weeks to finish. He wanted to be done, and he wanted to be paid for it, before Robin flew down. For the time Robin would be in Sunrise, Kai didn’t intend to work at all.