by Weeks, TJ
“You said you had to get an early start today, so I figured I would come and help with breakfast.” She told him pulling the biscuits out of the oven.
Josh nodded and headed back down the hall. He grabbed a pair of jeans and t-shirt instead of the polo shirt he usually wore, knowing that it was going to be hot today. He pulled on socks and boots, brushed his teeth and splashed some water across his face. He peered into the bathroom mirror and rubbed his hand across his
defined jawline.
“Another day, another dollar.” He told himself. He started back down the hallway pushing open each door to the
bedrooms.
“Get up, get up, get up!” He
hollered flipping on lights.
Walking into each room and pulling on their blankets. He sat down at the dining room table and tried to wake up just a bit more when his mom put a huge plate of biscuits and gravy down in front of him.
“Damn mom, I know that I am a big guy, but making me fat is not the way to go.” He told her.
“You have to have something that is going to stick to your ribs. I know you don’t eat any lunch half the time you are working.” She admitted.
Josh started digging in to his plate. “Y’all better come and get it before dad eats it all!” She yelled out. All three stumbled into the kitchen with their backpacks in hand and dropped them to the floor before sitting down and waiting for their plate.
They all ate breakfast together before Josh had to tell them goodbye and told them to have a good day. They all waved with a mouthful preventing them from talking.
The rumble of J osh’s truck shook the neighborhood as he started it to let it warm up, the crew began to arrive and park in their normal spots to jump in with Josh.
“Morning guys, y’all ready to get this done today?” He asked. They all had tired looks on their faces and nodded still trying to wake up. Josh stopped by a convenient store every morning to buy enough water bottles for all the workers and the separate trucks going to each job.
With the deck finished, minus the two railings that had to be custom made. They were ready for some lunch. The group took a break and gathered their food from their lunch sacks and sat down to eat. Josh continued working to finish up the custom made rails that the customer requested. By the time the crew was done with lunch, Josh was ready for the installation of the rails and to weatherproof the deck. He assigned each crew member a special job in order to have the deck done today so that they were all able to get paid.
After two hours, it was all
completed. Josh inspected the deck one last time and high fived each of his guys as he walked by them. The customer arrived after an hour of letting the weather seal dry and came to see the deck. The crew made their way to Josh’s truck knowing that he would be doing the business deal.
“Wow, gr eat job Josh. I love it and the railings are just what I wanted.” The millionaire man stated. “I think you are the guys I want to do the guest house. I am wanting a full four bedroom three bath guest house with a pool and deck. Here is a credit card for the materials and I will pay
whatever is needed once completed for labor. You seem to know what I like, so it is your call on the
floorplan.” The man handed Josh a platinum Visa card along with the money for the deck that they had agreed on.
Josh thanked his new customer and made his way to the truck. He paid all of the crew with the cash payment that the man had given him and then showed them all the credit card he had provided him and explained the new job they had. The crew all looked at each other and smiled, knowing that this job was huge and it meant major money for them all.
The crew loaded up and made it back to Josh’s house.
“This is a big deal!” One of the workers stated. “Yeah, if we can get this done in the next few weeks, I know he wants at least two other big buildings built on his land. We could have those as well. Great job guys, thanks.” Josh expressed.
Picking out the floor plan he thought his new customer would like, Josh quickly began a list of materials needed and called in to the local Lowe’s for pick up the next day. He wandered around in his shop out behind the house and gathered extra tools to make sure the guys had everything they needed when his phone rang. Josh pulled it out of his pocket to see that his ex-wife was calling.
“What do you want?” He answered. “I just wanted to tell you congrats on the big job at the ranch outside of town.” She told him.
“Wow good news travels fast, doesn’t it?” He stated. “No you are not getting any of the money from this job. You already took half of my shit in the divorce. This deal was just made and we are already divorced.” He assured her.
“I can’t believe you think that is why I am calling.” She became insulted.
“Okay, why are you calling?” He asked. “Just wondering if there was any way that I can see the kids.” She stated.
“After all this time, you want to see them now? Get off the gas, you only want to see them because you know how much I am going to make off of this job. Not happening. Pay me child support and I will set up a day for you to come by and see them.” He spat at her and hung up.
He punched the wall in front of him, angry that she would even call with her bullshit. She had not wanted to see the kids since she left until she heard he had such a massive job. He drew in a deep breath and blew it out then focused back on his search for tools.
With an armful, he pushed the shop door open. He walked over and dropped the tools into the back of the truck. He grabbed a beer from the ice chest in the back of his truck, popped the top and took a swig. He looked up into the clouds and ran ideas through his head of the house he was getting ready to build. He had free reign to show his skills off and gain a
customer that could bring him
millions of dollars in business over the next few years with himself as well as word of mouth advertising.
He drank the last of his beer and made his way inside. Dinner was laid out on a plate on the counter for him and the house was dark. His mom was lying on the couch fast asleep. Josh covered his mom with a blanket, made his way back to his room and started his usual routine of showering and climbing in bed. He laid for a long time with the thought of building plans on his mind. With ideas flowing he finally drifted off to sleep.
*** Josh opened his eyes to the smell of bacon rummaging through the house. He raised his head from his pillow, ran his hand over his scruffy face, swung his feet over the side of the bed and let them fall to the floor. He shook his head trying to gain focus and stood, grabbed a pair of clean jeans from the basket on the floor and slipped them on as well as a shirt and pulled it over his head. He slipped on socks and his boots and rubbed his bald head. He could hear the
bickering over the bacon from the kitchen. He opened his door and the bickering quieted down instantly.
“I get the last piece!” He grabbed the piece of bacon left and took a bite. All of his children looked up and watched him eat the full piece of bacon with jealousy.
“DAD!” they all yelled before another full plate was put on the table. Josh sat down with his kids and ate breakfast with them, knowing that he would be tremendously busy over the next few weeks. He thanked his mom as he stuffed his last piece of toast into his mouth and hugged and kissed all of his children goodbye. He quickly explained to all of them about the new job he had been offered and that he would be home to see
everyone as often as he could. They all understood, including his mom who offered to just stay in the extra bedroom until the job was completed, Josh agreed, waved a goodbye to them all and headed outside.
The full crew was waiting by the truck and were all raring to go to get started.
“Thanks guys for showing up. We are taking my truck and the flat bed. This is a big deal for you, me and the company. Let’s get it done quickly but get it done right.” He gave a pep talk.
He instructed the other crews on the other jobs and sent them on their way. They all loade
d up and headed out. They quickly unloaded all the tools and quickly began on the slab for the house. Josh and all of the workers worked hard throughout the day, barely stopping for the pizza that Josh had delivered.
“Alright guys, let’s call it a day, nothing we can do until the slab dries.” Josh told them all.
He made it back to the house in time to drop everyone off and head to grab some more materials from the store.
He pulled a large cart from the parking lot into the store to load it up. After an hour of wandering the store, he was ready to check out. Josh pushed the big cart to the front of the store, pulled the credit card from his wallet and swiped across the card reader. He pulled the cart to the truck and began loading the large amount of materials into the back. He climbed up in his Ford F350 and pulled out of the parking lot. He pulled into the house and left his truck in the
driveway when his phone rang, pulling it out the picture ID of Gizmo shot up on his phone flipping him off.
“Hey buddy, what’s up?” He asked. “We g ot ice chests of beer and food!” Gizmo shouted over the music from the other end of the phone.
“I’m there, give me a few.” Josh told him before hanging up. Josh loaded his ice chest from the back of the truck into his white Tahoe. He made sure and put the receipt for the materials in a folder to keep everything organized. Josh stood and looked at all of the materials he just bought and could not believe how awesome this payment would be once the job was completed.
Josh suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be on his way to Gizmo’s and was going to celebrate his good luck. He jumped in the Tahoe and backed out of his drive and away from his small neighborhood. He turned out to the highway and headed to Gizmo’s house.
He knew he needed a bit of a break from the thoughts of money, building and work. He turned down another road and headed out of town. The sun light was diminishing from the sky as he turned on the old county road. He stopped by the last convenient store before he got to the back roads he had to take and got some ice and another pack of beer, knowing how everyone drank when they were in the drinking mood. He poured the ice into his ice chest and got back on the road. He turned onto the last back county road before getting to Gizmo’s subdivision.
Josh saw a shadow in the grass out of the corner of his eye as he turned, he turned his head and saw a man down on his knees. Josh pulled past him and stopped. The man’s head shot up towards the stopped vehicle. He tried to rise to his feet and fell
forward to his knees again. Josh jumped from the Tahoe thinking that the man needed help. He stood for a moment and peered at the man. He watched him crawl for a moment then jump to his feet and glare at him through hazed eyes. He stumbled towards him, both of his feet were turned inward. He stepped one over the other slowly as he walked. His arms swung clumsily down by his sides trying to balance his stumbling swagger. His skin was a dark brown and grey color. Blood covered his hands and dripped off of them as he walked. Josh saw the blood smeared across his face and started to back up from the man; which led him around the front of the Tahoe. Josh focused on the man and tripped as he walked backwards. Josh fell on his ass and began to scoot backwards. A woman laid at his feet and Josh jumped up scanning the woman’s body. She had blood pouring from her neck puddling beneath her and wasn’t moving but her eyes were open. He looked at the man and then again at the woman. The man let out a deep growl that frightened the hell out of Josh. The woman suddenly sat up and spun her head to stare at Josh. Blood covered the sundress that partially covered her body. She slowly flattened the palms of her hands on the ground and stood stumbling a bit before she figured out how to balance while the man came to her side, bumped her throwing her off balance and making her stumble some more to her left. They bumped into each other again trying to make their way to Josh and stumbled away from each other as they both took a step forward. Their arms flailed from side to side with no control. The woman growled in unison with the man and their jaws opened and closed as they staggered closer to Josh. Josh
continue to move backwards away from the two undead.
Finally, he made a full circle
around the truck and turned to climb into the driver’s seat. Before he was able to close the door, the woman dove forward and bit his wrist that he had on the door to close it. Josh pulled his hand out of her mouth and back handed her across her face. She fell to the ground and Josh used his bloodied hand to reach for the door a second time. He pulled it closed and shook his hand and peered at the bite that covered his wrist and part of his hand. He put the Tahoe in drive, grabbed the steering wheel and tried to take off towards Gizmo’s.
The man jumped out in front of him and Josh stopped pulling his bloody hand from the steering wheel and trying to put pressure on it. The dirty man lunged forward and hit the hood of the Tahoe. He bounced off and lunged forward again. He finally made his way around the Tahoe to Josh’s door, he rammed his face into the window trying to get at Josh. Josh stomped on the gas pedal and lurched the vehicle forward.
Almost to his next turn off, a small child appeared in the middle of the road. She was wearing a matching blue and white short set with a blue bow in her hair and blue and white shoes.
Josh was starting to feel a bit light headed, but stopped as he saw the child. The small little girl started limping towards him. Josh thought of his children as he sat in the car trying to decide if he should help the child or move on since he was starting to feel bad. Josh took his foot off the brake and let the Tahoe roll slowly, he came to a stop next to the little girl as her head shot up and her eyes were glazed over, her jaws opened and closed at him and she reached her hands
towards him. She approached the side of the vehicle and her tiny hands smacked the bottom of his window. She growled louder than he thought she should be able to.
Blood poured down the steering wheel and dropped onto his lap as he drove slowly past the little girl and turned down the old county road that led to Gizmo’s. His stomach began to turn and he felt like he needed to vomit. He stopped the Tahoe, flung open his door and began to throw up. His vomit looked like black tar as it splattered on the ground. Josh sat up, wiped the remains of vomit from the side of his mouth and pulled his hand away in a black sticky mess. Josh stayed hunkered over dry heaving, trying to get the rest of whatever was in his system out. When he was finally able to sit back up, he closed the door and drove on. His head began to pound and his eyes became blurry to the point that he was having hard time seeing the road. He pulled into the subdivision, turned onto the small dirt road and let the Tahoe roll down the hill towards Gizmo’s driveway. Josh vomited again onto the steering wheel, not having the time to open the door and it landed across his lap covering up the blood that had dropped earlier. His
breathing became shallow and his chest started to hurt as he saw
Gizmo’s driveway. He pulled the steering wheel to turn into it. His hand that had been bitten had already gone numb and he was unable to control it; he tried to grab the door handle but was unable to grasp it. He tried to grab the handle with the other hand and it would not work. He leaned his head back onto the seat and closed his eyes. He couldn’t seem to focus or function and started feeling very woozy, to say the least. He began to feel tired and his head dropped forward and hit the steering wheel. He quickly brought his head up and it dropped back forward. He tried to stabilize his neck to hold his head but it would not hold steady. He could see shadows coming his way from outside of his Tahoe. He wanted to tell them to not open the door, but all that came out was a growl.
Gizmo tapped on the window hollering at Josh to answer him. Josh opened his eyes as wide as he could and stared at gizmo as he continued to tap on the window. He knew what the outcome of this was going to be and that his friends would not want to kill him, but he knew they would have to. TJ came down the steps of the porch telling Gizmo to wait to open the door as he grabbed a gun to take down the steep driveway with him.
As TJ made it around the back of the Tahoe, Gi
zmo flung the door open and Josh bailed out of the driver’s seat and landed on top of TJ. Justin hauled ass down the driveway as TJ held him suspended in the air by his huge neck to keep his clattering jaw away from him. Justin and Gizmo each took an arm trying to pull their two hundred and fifty pound friend off of TJ.
Drool dropped and covered TJ’s face, he was hollering at Gizmo to shoot Josh; Gizmo finally pulled back and grabbed the rifle. Josh had cuts all over the baldness of his head from hitting the steering wheel and skin hung down over TJ’s face as his arm weakened from holding him up. With Josh mere inches from being able to bite TJ, the gunshot echoed.
“You just shot Josh!” Justin hollered. TJ pushed Josh off of him and to the ground. Gizmo still held the gun up in shock that he had to shoot one of his best of friends.
“I killed Josh.” Gizmo whispered over the still shouldered gun. Everyone ran from the house hearing the shot and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Josh lying on the ground.
“That wasn’t Josh! I am telling you, we are in the middle of the apocalypse.”
SANDRA SHREWSBURY
Her dark brown hair blew in the breeze as she waited. She pushed it out of her face and peered at herself in the double glass mirrored door of the school. Her grandchildren should be booming out of the doors to her at any moment. Sandra noticed that her hair needed to be cut and made a mental note to do that next week when she got paid.
The kids hurried out of the school just as she figured they would and hugged her waist.
“Hey gramma!” They hollered in unison.
“Hey guys, how was your day?” Sandra asked them. They both mumbled something as they pulled her to the car knowing they were always in for a special treat when Sandra picked them up.
“Ice cream today?” Sandra asked. Both of them nodded and jumped into the back seat. Sandra slid in, started the car and waited for the long line of yellow buses to pull off.
“Okay, ice cream, home, and homework. Understood?” She warned them.
