Chapter 50

Amanda stopped by Tom’s house to pick up Terry so that they could have a cup of coffee and talk. As she walked up to the front door of the house, she decided that the summer was not working out the way that she had wanted. Although she had never really thought about it, she had expected to spend a night or two with Terry and then a night or two with Tom every week. So far, she hadn’t had a chance to sleep with either one of them.

She had just reached the door when Tom’s mother opened it. Smiling at the younger woman, Tom’s mother said, “Come in, Amanda.”

“Thanks. I just came by to take Terry out for some coffee,” Amanda said feeling a little strange at talking to her boyfriend’s mother without him around.

Tom’s mother said, “We have coffee, here.”

“That’s okay. We don’t want to bother you,” Amanda said.

She was concerned about how the woman viewed the situation. She hadn’t yet figured out how Tom’s parents were dealing with having her lover live with them. She rethought that and realized that both of her lovers were living here. Her expectations were rather low since her mother hadn’t accepted Tom or Terry. Her father was dealing with the situation much better than she could ever have imagined, but it was obvious that it was a bit of a strain on him.

“Nonsense! It’s no bother. Terry’s in the kitchen,” Tom’s mother said with a smile.

She had just finished listening to Terry complain about not getting to spend any time with Amanda. It looked to her like Amanda had the same complaint.

“Just for a few minutes,” Amanda said. She really wanted to be alone with Terry for a little while.

Terry waved to Amanda rather than greet her with a kiss like she would have if they were alone. Being surrounded by strangers all of the time really put a crimp in being able to display affection for her lover. As if oblivious to the tension in the room, Tom’s mother set a cup of coffee in front of Amanda.

She said, “There’s cream and sugar on the table.”

“Thank you,” Amanda said. She looked over at Terry and sighed.

In a very cheerful voice, Tom’s mother said, “Well, girls, I’m off to the mall! I’ll stop at the grocery store on the way home and do my marketing.”

Thinking that Tom’s mother was intending to buy something for dinner that evening, Terry said, “Tom mentioned that we were going over to Dan’s house for dinner tonight.”

“I know. I’ll be back in about four hours. You girls have fun while I’m gone,” Tom’s mother said picking up her purse. She waved and slipped out the door.

“Bye,” Terry said watching her leave.

Amanda’s first reaction to the woman leaving so quickly was that she had said something to offend her. She stared at the closed door trying to replay the conversation in her mind.

Well after the woman was gone, she said, “Goodbye.”

Rather surprised by the sudden departure, Terry shook her head and said, “I wonder what that was about.”

“I think she’s letting you and I have a little time alone,” Amanda said.

Terry shook her head in amazement. Her mother would have been standing over them during the entire visit to make sure that nothing happened. Her stepfather would have been standing in the bushes outside her bedroom window, hoping that he could see her doing something with her girlfriend.

She said, “That’s one very nice lady.”

“Yes, I agree,” Amanda said. She looked over at Terry and said, “Now we know where Tom gets his good manners.”

“His father is a real charmer, too,” Terry said.

“My father speaks highly of him,” Amanda said nodding her head. She had heard all about how Mr. Eldridge was respected by everyone in the company where he worked. He described the man as one of the rising stars.

Terry looked at Amanda and then at Amanda’s coffee cup. She smiled and asked, “What are we doing in here when we could be in my room?”

“Good question,” Amanda said rising from her chair.

Hell is not at the center of the earth, and didn’t smell of sulfur. The devil’s name isn’t Lucifer or Satan. The devil isn’t a little red man with horns and a tail who carries d a pitchfork. Ernie had no idea how the Bible had managed to get so many details about Hell, wrong. It made him wonder if he shouldn’t read the Bible and double check some of the other details in it.

Ernie had discovered that Hell was a rooftop in the middle of summer, and it smelled like tar. The devil went by the name of Leo and he was a big bald headed man with a scar across his face and a gold front tooth. Leo did not appear to be a happy man. From Ernie’s perspective, that was not good. It was not much fun having the devil angry at you.

Pointing at Ernie, Leo shouted, “Get your ass up that ladder, now.”

“Yes, Sir,” Ernie said even as he raced towards the ladder. The first time he had climbed the ladder he had been terrified that he was going to fall. Now, he didn’t even think enough about climbing the ladder to worry about falling down. Down there was Leo, and getting up to the roof quickly was preferable to having Leo shout at him. Ernie had discovered that Leo didn’t even need a reason to shout at him. It was his normal tone of voice.

“Get back down here, you fool. You forgot to take that roll of felt with you,” Leo shouted while pointing to a roll of tar felt. Ernie climbed down almost falling as he scrambled. Leo shouted, “Watch what you’re doing. Jesus H. Christ, do you what to die or something?”

“No, Sir,” Ernie answered picking up the roll of felt.

“Now get back up there,” Leo shouted pointing up to the roof. He figured another dozen trips up and down the ladder and Ernie’s legs would turn to rubber.

Ernie climbed to the roof and set the tarred felt on the roof. One of the men working up there gestured to it and pointed to the edge of the roof. Ernie picked up the roll of felt and carried it over to where the man had pointed. He stood there for a minute thinking about how he couldn’t even complain about how he was being treated. No one working with him except for Leo understood a word of English and Leo was the last person to whom he would complain. He shook his head realizing that he was running errands for people who probably weren’t in the country legally.

Leo turned his back to the roof and smiled. He had the kid for one more day and was going to make sure that he got a good workout. By the time he was done with him, the kid would appreciate working in a nice air conditioned building. He spotted a truck pulling up, and headed over to it.

James Vic got out of the car and looked over the construction site. As Leo approached, James asked, “How’s it going?”

“Good. We’re about three quarters of the way done on this job,” Leo said. He gestured up to the roof and said, “You can check it out, but I’d recommend that you do it a little later. It’s hot as hell up there.”

“I’ll check it out when it’s done,” James Vic said. He knew what to expect if he were to go up to the roof in the middle of the day. Until the gravel went down on the tar, it would be miserable up there.

Ernie looked down at Leo and the man with whom he was talking. One of the crew came over and looked over the edge.

Ernie said, “What’s up, Juan?”

Shaking his head, Juan pointed to James and said, “Big boss.”

“Ah,” Ernie said figuring that the man had just covered all of the English he knew.

“Big boss good man,” Juan said.

“I’m glad,” Ernie said wondering why Juan was talking about the man like that.

Ernie didn’t know that James Vic had asked Leo’s crew to do a special rush job two weeks earlier and had promised that he’d cater lunch once a week for a month if they came in one Saturday. Grinning over at Ernie, Juan said, “Food come.”

Ernie looked at Juan and asked, “What do you mean, food come?”

“Big boss bring food,” Juan said with a smile.

“Get down here you maggots!” Leo called out to the roof. He’d seen everyone looking over at James. They knew what was coming and he wasn’t going to get any work out of them until after they ate.

The whole crew scrambled for the ladder. Ernie was the last in line to get down. He couldn’t remember any of the crew ever moving that fast. A car pulled up and a person got out carrying a box. Looking over the edge of the building he spotted a very familiar tee-shirt just as Miguel said, “Pizza!”

“Dan Parker Pizza,” Juan said giving Ernie a thumbs-up gesture.

“You know Dan Parker?” Ernie asked staring at Juan.

“Si. Dan Parker work here. Good man, Senor Parker,” Juan said with a nod of his head. He let loose with a torrent of Spanish that Ernie didn’t understand.

Ernie followed Juan down the ladder trying to figure out what Juan had said. He had just reached the ground when the Leo scowled at him and said, “I forgot about you. Go ahead and get some food. After you’ve eaten, get back to work. I’m not paying you to daydream.”

“Yes, Sir,” Ernie said as he got into line to get a slice of pizza. The rest of the crew was really enjoying the pizza. They were standing around eating, talking, and laughing. It struck him that he had never really thought about the effect pizza had on people. They sure didn’t act that happy when they ate their sack lunches.

James Vic said, “I don’t recognize him. Did he just join your crew?”

“No. Dan Parker sent him over to learn how to work. Tomorrow is his last day,” Leo said looking over at Ernie.

James Vic asked, “Dan sent him over here?”

“That’s right,” Leo said speaking loud enough for Ernie to hear. He said, “Dan decided that a week of honest work just might help him set his priorities right.”

“He must have really been a problem for Dan to do that,” James said looking over at Ernie and shaking his head. He wondered why Dan would send someone here rather than just fire him. He had discovered first hand that Dan often had less than obvious reasons for doing things. His position as the number two man in Foreman’s General Contracting was a result of Dan helping a friend.

Ernie couldn’t believe what he was hearing. People were standing around discussing him as if he wasn’t even there. It would be okay if they were saying nice things about him, but they weren’t. He realized that he would have a difficult time moving into construction since the big boss already had a bad opinion of him.

Frowning, Juan stepped over and asked, “You bad to Dan Parker?”

“I screwed up,” Ernie said shrugging his shoulders. He didn’t think there was a good way to answer that question without sounding like a complete jerk. It didn’t help that he had come to recognize that he had been a complete jerk. Jimmy had explained that life wasn’t fair, but Dan had given him a chance to make it a little fairer. Ernie knew that he had blown it. Blowing it accidentally would be one thing, but doing it intentionally was quite another matter.

“Not good. Dan good man,” Juan said and then turned to walk away.

He had worked with Dan for a week and had been impressed by how hard he had worked. There hadn’t been the normal tensions when a white man joined the crew. Rather than look down on the crew, Dan had been polite and helpful. He even gave some of them a ride home in his car after work.

Ernie stared at Juan as the man reported the conversation to the other members of the crew. They glanced over at him and shook their heads in disgust. He realized that he had just disappointed a bunch of people because of how he had treated Dan.

Having left Kevin in charge of the store, Dan sat in the office of Mr. Harrison, watching as the man examined the sales charts he had generated for this meeting. He felt a little like he was at a doctor’s office waiting to hear the results of some medical test. The business looked good to him, but he didn’t trust his own judgment.

Mr. Harrison looked over the figures that Dan had provided him and nodded his head. Looking up at Dan, he said, “It looks to me like your business is taking off. If I’m reading this right, you are a year ahead of where you thought you’d be by now.”

“Right,” Dan said.

“I could say that I told you so,” Mr. Harrison said smiling over at Dan to take the bite out of his words.

“I think you just did,” Dan replied with a smile.

“If this trend continues for a couple of more months, I think you’ll be in an excellent position to open another pizzeria even if your business levels off after that,” Mr. Harrison said. He knew that Dan would approach this decision in a very considered fashion. He wouldn’t have made this suggestion so early to most of his clients, but knew that Dan would take a lot of time to plan his next business move.

Dan stared at Mr. Harrison as he considered the suggestion that he was to open another pizzeria. Frowning, he said, “I’m still working the bugs out of the pizzeria I have. I’m not ready to start another pizzeria.”

“I’m not saying that you should open another one in a month or two. Give it a year and then decide. Until then, plan out what would be necessary to open your next store,” Mr. Harrison said.

“There’s no way that I can run two places,” Dan said thinking about the amount of work that would be involved.

Mr. Harrison said, “I agree. You won’t be able to run two places the way you’re running your pizzeria now. You’re going to have to change your management style in order to do that. It’s time for you to start training someone to manage your current store. When you’re ready to start a new store, you’ll have to train someone to manage your new store.”

“I’ll have to think about it,” Dan said with a frown.

“I know you will. That’s why I mentioned it now,” Mr. Harrison said with a smile. He looked down at the figures thinking that Dan’s concept for a pizzeria had really taken off better than he had thought it would.