Chapter 15

Dad took the drawings in on Friday afternoon. By the same time Monday we had our answer – it was a go, and permits were issued.

Now that we had all of that taken care of, Dad insisted I get registered for High School. He put down the address of the new house as our home address, only to be told by the school secretary that she knew the area and there was no house there. Dad just grinned and told her there would be by Christmas.

My first day of school was spent getting to know the campus, and being called out on my funny accent by every redneck in the state. Really? Have they heard the way they talk down here? I simply ignored it, walking to my classes trying not to cause waves. It turns out that’s difficult when Trent Foster is a BMOC, star linebacker on the football team, and presumably in line for an athletic scholarship to UGA.

He found me right before lunch, although I took the initiative. “Hi Trent, still letting your sister tell you what to say? Where is she anyway? I need to say hello to her.”

That cut off whatever he was intending to do, and I left him at the lockers wondering what happened.

I spotted said sister walking down the hallway. “Gloria, Gloria Foster. Wait up.”

The black haired girl who I met at church and who later had been ogling me in her friend’s backyard looked around, trying to place the voice. Aunt June had been right, we measured and I was now 6’2”, having grown a full two inches over the summer. As a result I stood taller than much of the student body, enabling Ms. Foster to locate me fairly quickly.

“Tim McKenzie? What are you doing here?” She dropped her books and gave me a hug when I caught up to her.

“We decided to move to Macon, in spite of the attempts of you and Paige to scare me off with your wanton aggression.”

“Oh my God! Paige! Does she know you’re going to school here?”

I spotted her walking toward us, surrounded by a group of fellow female athletes. “She’s about to.”

“No, no, no! This isn’t good.” Gloria tried to get me to move off into a side alley, but she was smaller than her brother; if he couldn’t move me, no way would she be able to.

I stood there in the middle of the hallway, waiting for the inevitable collision. The athletic gaggle came to a halt when they realized a peon hadn’t stepped aside for them. I had a bright smile on my face as I waited for Paige to recognize me. I could tell when she did as her face went beet red, and then white. She simply began walking again, detouring around me.

Huh. That was unexpected.

I looked for Gloria, but she had vanished. A small mousy-looking girl approached me, handing me a note. It was instructions for me to meet Gloria by the flagpole after school. Alright, another couple hours and I hoped I’d have my answers.

Waiting for school to be over was agonizing. No, not because I needed answers so badly, but because they were still covering work I had done at the beginning of last year. I was supremely bored. To make matters worse, it looked as if Paige was part of the social elite here and she must have put out the word on me. No one would talk to me, eyes were averted, the whole social pariah effect. Even she was avoiding me which was difficult because I was in three of her classes.

School got out allowing me to mingle with the press of bodies heading for the exit. I found the flagpole by the simple expedient of looking around until I saw the flag, and then working my way over to its base. Gloria was waiting there with some of what I presumed to be her girlfriends. Before I could get to her, she stepped away. “See you tomorrow.”

She walked toward the parking lot, looking over to ensure I was following. When I hesitated, she slowed, caught my gaze and flicked her eyes toward the far end where there were some trees that looked like they could provide cover. I nodded to indicate I understood that I should wait for her there.

She showed up after making sure that there were no other members of the student body who might catch us. “Tim, what did you do to Paige? She hates you. She put out the word on you to the whole eleventh grade this afternoon, no one is to talk to you, help you, bandage you up if you’re gored by a bull.”

“Is that a possibility? Getting gored by a bull?”

She swatted at my chest, her hand lingering slightly. “Stop that, it’s not funny. I’m serious. I can’t even see you. I’m sorry Tim, but until you make it right with her, you’re going to be on your own.”

That wasn’t all that different from last year, so it really didn’t bother me too much. “I’m sorry to hear that, Gloria. I thought we were friends. But then again I thought Paige and I were starting to be friends. Just goes to show how wrong you can be. See you around.”

I spotted the Tahoe pulling into the parking lot, and sprinted to catch Dad before he had to get out and come looking for me. Behind me I didn’t see or hear Gloria sobbing, but Dad did.

“You want to tell me how you made a girl cry on your first day of school?”

“What are you talking about, Dad?”

“That black haired girl in the parking lot when we were leaving. She was crying and running after you.”

“Oh.” I felt bad about it, but this was my problem. “That was Gloria. From church. Remember her?”

He nodded.

I lied, sort of, “Well, since I’m a late enrollee I’m part of the crowd that the cool kids can’t talk to. She was just sorry that we couldn’t be friends at school until I become popular. No big deal. On the upside, that means no school events to keep me from working on the house. How’s that coming, anyway?”

He gave me a glare that said he knew I was lying, just not what about. “It’s coming. We got the excavator in there today to dig the basement. I’ve got Georgia Pacific coming later this week to log, and I walked the back lot marking trees for them. If we can get them to take those first, we should have a little more room for supplies.”

“Oh, good. I’ll keep working on the building schedule. Has Grandpa said whether he and Jose will be able to work for us?”

“He did. They usually put in about thirty hours a week, so a lot of this is going to fall on you and me. I’ll need your help after school and on the weekends. Is that going to be a problem with your schoolwork?”

“I don’t think so. I was a lot farther ahead last year than they are right now. This week I plan to catch up on all the assignments I missed this last month. Next week I should be able to do the assignments through Christmas with the exception of the group ones and papers. I’ll finish up through the end of the year by the beginning of October.”

“Which class?”

“All of them.”

“They’re that far behind here? I always thought Georgia had a pretty good school system.”

“No, I just think I was that far ahead last year. If I had remained in that accelerated program, I probably would have ended up taking college classes in the spring.”

There was silence in the vehicle. “I never knew that. I guess I was focused on your mom, and I wasn’t paying attention to you.”

I was aware of that, but I never begrudged him his attention or lack of it. “Hey, since when is being ahead cause for remorse? Take me to the house.”

That’s how it went all the way through the end of the following week. I went to class, asked for the assignments I had missed as well as those for the rest of the year, turned them in fully completed, and otherwise daydreamed my way through school. The quarantine, as I had begun to think of it, was in full effect. It even translated to church, I was pariah there as well. Not very Christian, but also not unexpected.

The only person who went out of their way to talk to me was Trent Foster. It seemed that all he wanted to do was pick a fight though. He’d turn up with some teammates, make some stupid comment, dare me to do anything and then laugh when I walked away. I had enough one day, and it almost got me detention. He had just finished saying something dumb about my parentage when I turned on him.

“Trent, are you stupid?” I got right in his face to ask him.

His teammates took exception to that, but even though they were almost as big as I was, they couldn’t move me.

“Tell me, do you think you’ll be able to get a scholarship to play college football?”

“Oh yeah, gonna play for UGA.”

“What would your chances of a scholarship be if you came down with a case of a broken arm before Friday’s game? Better or worse?”

He wasn’t sure where I was going with this. “Worse, but they’d still look at me because of last year.” He took a step away.

“What about if they hear that you contracted your broken arm because you were stupid enough to pick a fight with a fellow student?”

One of the more obnoxious of the posse put his hand on my shoulder to intimidate me, “We don’t get into fights, we end them.”

I plucked the hand off, twisted the arm and began to apply pressure. “Really? Because it doesn’t look like you’re ending anything.” He was beginning to give in to the pressure when I released him.

“Any more dumb comments? No? Okay, let me tell you how this might go. You might be able to put me down, there are more of you than there is of me. But I’ll promise you, Trent will have a broken arm, and one or more of you may have busted ribs. It will be obvious you’d been in a fight. The college scouts will know, the coaches will know. Guess what? They don’t want troublemakers on their teams.”

I moved back in on Trent since he appeared to be the ringleader, “I’ll make another promise. If you guys manage to take me down, I promise that when I get up, every one of your bodies will end up too broken to ever have a college football career. I know who all of you are now, and you’re like a pack of rabid dogs. Think of me as animal control.”

Mrs. Demeter, my AP English teacher saw the tail end of that confrontation and called me on it. I just mentioned that they were wondering if I might try out for the team. As I walked away from her she muttered, “Didn’t look like recruitment to me.”

The other thing that happened was that I got a temporary nickname, ‘Animal Control’, or just plain ‘Animal’. Like everything else that happened at this school, I let it roll off my back.

Finally! The basement got poured and I was cleared to start working on the house after school. It was the second week of September already, and according to my schedule, we were a week behind. I called and got fencing for the supplies we were going to have to leave on site. It had to be big enough that in addition to lumber, we could park Dad’s trailer with all our tools, and if Grandpa wanted to leave his there, that too. I also contracted with a security company to put up video monitoring and have a guard drive by every hour, walking the site once a night. We posted no trespassing signs and did everything we could to keep ourselves and unwanted visitors from being injured.

I met with Grandpa and Jose that Friday after school, giving them a rundown of what I wanted them to work on each day. I could see that Grandpa wasn’t happy about being bossed around by his own grandson, but he held his temper. Jose was cool with it since he was an employee after all, and not a boss. It was no different than when I had to deal with subs, but since it was a relative, I would have to use some persuasion. I chose to let my actions speak for me.

I needed Grandpa and Jose to get the big beams from which we would hang floor joists in place and leveled with the steel poles you see in basements. The house was large enough that we couldn’t use dimensional lumber to span the entire gap; we ended up using engineered lumber which is much stronger and straighter. Once those were in, I could start on hangers and then joists. The house could really take shape after that.

The problem was that Grandpa wanted to do things his way, and not how I had scheduled them. I’d email him with the schedule each night, but he did what he wanted. I waited until he had the beams in place finally to start showing him up. They would work from nine until about four in the afternoon. I scheduled them so that they would be able to finish their work in the time they were on site. I also included the schedule I had set for myself. When I got there at three, having gotten out of school shortly after two-thirty, I got to work on my own task list.

Things were downright frosty for a while at Grandma and Grandpa’s when I saw them. Grandma was trying to play peacekeeper, but I wasn’t having it. Grandpa was trying to screw up the building schedule just to spite me. Dad couldn’t help because he was in Chicago for a while, supervising renovations to the various McMansions his new clients inhabited. So when Grandpa wouldn’t finish his jobs, I waited until he and Jose left the site then busted my butt to finish what I had, and the things they still needed to do. On top of that, I was logging hours and percent of completion and giving Grandpa a check each week as if he were meeting goals. He was responsible for paying Jose, but I wanted him to realize I was treating him as I would any sub. Well, not quite. I would have already cut loose any sub who was acting like he was.

It came to a head for me on a Thursday after three weeks of playing hardball when I got up in the morning, got dressed in my work clothes, grabbed Dad’s truck off the yard at Grandma and Grandpa’s and went to school. Why was that a problem? Well, Dad’s truck had tens of thousands of dollars of unsecured equipment, and I parked it in the student lot. I grabbed my tool belt and headed into school before I realized that something was out of place. Then I had to go back to the truck, getting into the driver’s seat and leaning my head against the steering wheel. I was burning the candle at both ends, and it had caught up with me.

I was sitting there, befuddled by the unexpected juxtaposition of my worlds, still trying to figure out what to do when my phone rang. Grandma was on the other end, a little bit frantic.

“Tim, where are you? Your dad’s truck is gone and the Tahoe is still here. Your Grandpa and Jose say you aren’t at the job site either.”

“It’s okay, Grandma. I was so tired this morning that I threw on my work clothes, grabbed Dad’s truck and drove to school. Now I’m here, and I can’t leave the truck because of all the tools and equipment. I’m just sitting in the school parking lot.”

“It’s your grandpa’s fault, isn’t it? That old goat hasn’t been doing what he’s supposed to because he doesn’t want to admit that you know what you’re doing or take his marching orders from his grandson. You’ve been finishing his work along with yours haven’t you?”

“It’s fine, Grandma. Dad comes back on Monday, and we’ll be able to catch up. I just need to figure out what to do right now.”

“Don’t you move, Sweetie, I’m coming down there.”

It’s sad that those were the nicest words I had heard all week. I was about done. Done with school, done with Paige and her stupid quarantine, done with Grandpa, and all I could do was sit here and wait for a sweet older lady who loved me just because I happened to be born to her son. I really miss you, Mom.

Grandma made it to school in record time, brushing past the security guard at the gate who tried to keep her out of student parking. She brought the Tahoe thinking that she could leave it and take the work truck back home, but one look at me slumped over the steering wheel and she abandoned that idea.

“Tim, you’re coming home with me. Get that vehicle in gear and you get back to the yard. I’ll phone the school and let them know you’re taking a sick day.”

I was too tired to argue; besides I still needed to run that old man into the ground tonight at the house. His work plus my work, a refrain that had been my constant companion for weeks now. But a nap would be nice. I started the truck and followed Grandma past the security guard who was still too cowed to object to a student leaving without a pass. We got home where she made me strip off my work clothes and get into bed. I don’t remember much after that except being awakened for supper.

“Where’s Grandpa?” Normally he was at the head of the table, but it was seven already, and he still wasn’t here.

“Don’t worry about him. He had a Come-to-Jesus meeting this afternoon and he’ll be home when he finishes the work you scheduled for him.”

I didn’t want to argue. I’d check the job tomorrow and revise the schedule to pick up the slack. Maybe I could work a sixteen on Saturday, skip church on Sunday and work another sixteen. That should just about get me caught up until Dad came home on Monday and he could deal with it. That was what I would do. I remember thinking that as I fell asleep again... in my mashed potatoes.

There were voices arguing outside my door.

“You stupid old fool. Are you so stubborn that you can’t admit that there are people in this world other than you who might know a thing or two?”

“No...”

“You drove your son away with your stubborn pride, and now you’ve near to killed your grandson. Are you happy with yourself?”

“No...”

“Didn’t you tell me that the work he scheduled for you and Jose was pretty reasonable?”

“Well, yes...”

“And didn’t you tell me when you get there in the morning, everything is still on schedule?”

“Yes...”

“Well who do you think has been doing the work you old fool!? The Benevolent Society of Construction Workers? Your grandson, that’s who. And he’s working so hard because he can’t fire you like he could a regular sub, and he loves his dad so much that he won’t let him down, no matter what, so he’s working himself to death to keep to a schedule that with his regular crew would be a piece of cake. But Tim could count on his regular crew to actually keep to the schedule, and you’ve proven to him that you won’t. Not can’t, won’t! He’s been proving to you every day these last three weeks that it’s doable.”

“But, Honey...”

“Don’t you ‘But, Honey’ me. Do you know that our grandson was mumbling into his dinner plate about working a sixteen-hour day on Saturday and then skipping church to work another sixteen-hour day on Sunday, just so he doesn’t have to tell his dad that he failed? That’s love and loyalty. You could stand to show some of that too.”

“You’re right.”

“And on top of that, Evie’s daughter blames Tim because James put up those carved scenes he made for her all those years ago, and that opened up old wounds. Because of that, Paige has frozen him out at school. So with all that going on, the only people he can rely on with his dad out of town are his Grandma and Grandpa, and he can’t rely on them either.”

“You’re right.”

“You’re darned right I’m right! Wait, you’re agreeing with me?”

“Well, you’re right. I’m sorry. The worst thing is that Tim hasn’t been treating me the way I deserved to be treated. He’s been keeping up payments just as if we were meeting our completion goals. That’s been sticking in my craw, because I know we haven’t.”

“Well don’t apologize to me, apologize to your grandson. Not now dummy, he’s asleep. Apologize in the morning, and then show him by your actions that you mean it. Make him proud of you again, just like you’re proud of him.”

“I will ... what did you mean Paige is freezing him out at school? What happened there? And how do you know?”

“Well, I still have hope for Evie, so I talk to her. Something you should try once in a while. When James and Tim finished that gazebo and James put up all those carvings he had done in high school, Evie fell apart and ended up crying for two days. Paige doesn’t know why, but she figures that James hurt her mother somehow, so she’s taking it out on Tim. Evie refuses to tell Paige what happened, so Tim is on the outs with the entire eleventh grade on Paige’s orders. I tell you, those two are meant for each other.”

“Who, Paige and Tim?”

“No, James and Evangeline; those two just drive each other crazy like I’ve never seen before. It’s been that way since they were children. What she was thinking when she married that fool, I don’t know. But that’s in the past and he’s long dead.”

“It sounds like you’re also describing our Tim and Paige. You’ve fixed my problem, see if you can fix Tim’s too. James and Evie, leave alone, only time and God can fix that.”

If I’m dreaming, that’s the oddest one I’ve ever had. I’ll deal with it in the morning. Gotta fix the schedule...

For the first time in two weeks, I actually awoke feeling refreshed. I headed into the kitchen to find some food. For some reason I was really hungry this morning. Instead of food, I found Grandpa.

“Tim, sit down please, you can get your breakfast in a moment but I need to talk to you first.”

I sat, wondering what Grandpa would spring on me now. Maybe Jose is ‘sick’ today and he won’t be able to keep to the schedule.

“Tim, I owe you an apology. I’ve been acting like a spoiled brat because I couldn’t believe that my grandson could do a good job with scheduling and running a project. But you have been. And you’ve been putting up with garbage from me that should have gotten me canned after the first week.”

I began to wonder if my dream last night wasn’t a dream at all.

Grandpa was still talking, “You’ve put together a very realistic schedule, and there’s no reason why Jose and I can’t do our part. I promise you that we’ll show you we can. And just so you know that I know what you’ve been doing, here’s a check for the work you had to do to keep me on task.”

I looked down at the paper in his hand. It was the equivalent of a week’s payment that I had made out to his contracting company. This one was cut to me, personally.

“Tim, I didn’t want to admit it at first, but you’re worth every penny of what your father pays you. He knows that, and now I do too. I’m sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me.”

I got up and walked to the back of Grandpa’s chair; my arms circled around him, “Of course I forgive you, Grandpa. But just so you know,” I said in a joking tone, “next time this happens, you’re fired.”

“Fair enough, boy. You’d better get your breakfast and then head to school.”

The Tahoe took me back to the parking lot. This time I had no problem leaving my vehicle.

School itself wasn’t a problem either, I was so far ahead that the teachers let me sit and doodle, or daydream. I didn’t realize it, but that annoyed some of the people in my class, well, one really. Ms. Paige Goddard, she who controlled the social fountain at school seemed to find something about me every day with which to be annoyed. My haircut, buzz on the sides, short on top, was a continuing source of irritation. My accent or lack of it, the fact that the teachers didn’t call on me, the fact that when the teachers did call on me I had the answer, the fact that I didn’t come to the football games, but especially the fact that I didn’t attend the volleyball matches that showcased her ability.

I think that was what annoyed her the most, that I wasn’t fawning all over her in an attempt to end the quarantine. It wasn’t fun to be a social outcast, but I had the house to work on after school, so I didn’t really care. After overhearing Grandma and Grandpa last night, yes I had realized it wasn’t a dream, I put two and two together to figure out that Dad had been in love with Evie in high school (he told me that too), he had started a labor of love with his still-life carvings but never got the chance to present them to her, and that he had finally given them to her as part of the gazebo in an attempt to ... what? Take revenge? Rekindle a romance? Apologize?

Whatever it was, it sent Mrs. Goddard into a tailspin for which I was now currently paying the price. Well, if Paige didn’t end this soon, I’d start playing dirty. An incident at lunch decided my course of action.

I was sitting alone in the cafeteria, eating the leftovers Grandma had packed for me in my Igloo and drinking coffee out of my thermos when there was a presence beside me. I looked up and was lost in violet eyes.

“Why can’t you be normal?” Her voice was loud enough to attract attention.

“Well, hello, Paige. It’s good to see you again. I’m fine, how are you? Won’t you have a seat?”

“You come to school and mock us. You won’t come to any games, and you don’t talk to anyone. What’s wrong with you?”

My anger surfaced, “I won’t talk to anyone? Who was it that declared me to be off limits Paige? Who told everyone to stay away from me? Go away, you’re annoying me.”

She started screeching at that point. I had taken as much as I could take.

“Summer at the old pond, Halloween at the pumpkin patch, holding hands in the peach orchard, watching the star...” I was describing the carvings Dad put up in the gazebo, but I was saying it softly enough that it took a moment for it to register with Paige.

“I ... you ... AARGH!” Her hand shot forward to slap me.

I’m not big on being abused, so I caught her wrist as I stood up.

“Let me go!”

I guess this was the opening Trent had been waiting for, the grand rescue. He moved pretty quickly for a big guy, and his fist connected with my jaw. If he managed to put me on the floor, he could claim that he was only trying to save Paige. I shook my head in response.

I looked at her, she was still held fast in my grip, those violet eyes wide. There was no longer any need to keep restraining her, I could see that in her reaction. She was scared, sure, but not of me, for me. That made me feel good for a second, before I remembered why that look was there. Right, Trent. Sucker-punch me, will you?

“Which arm, Trent?”

“What?”

“Which arm do I break? Your left or right? Are there supposed to be college scouts at your game tonight?”

“No, not tonight’s game.”

“Okay, we’ll do the arm on a game day when the scouts are supposed to show up.” With that I gave him a little love tap to the sternum. I didn’t hit him particularly hard, but I provided a reminder that he didn’t want to mess with me.

The posse started forward, incensed that I would have assaulted their teammate, “Nuh, uh boys. Animal Control, remember? You need to help your fearless leader; it looks like he’s having trouble drawing deep breaths.”

They assisted Trent into a seat, sending someone to go get the training staff. I really didn’t care, I just wanted to get out of there. I packed my Igloo back up, my thermos of coffee only half drunk. There was a nice sunny secluded spot in the courtyard where I could spend the remainder of lunch.

Surprisingly, the rest of the day passed uneventfully; no one was called to the principal’s office, no detention, nothing. I left on time, making it to the job site by three. Grandpa had been true to his word, the work on the schedule having been completed. In fact, he and Jose were starting on the framing I had assigned to myself. I didn’t say anything, just chipped in beside them and we were able to get back on task in time for everyone to leave at five-thirty, including me.

Last night’s football game made the Saturday morning paper. I know, in this digital age who still prints papers? Macon, Georgia, that’s who. I was at breakfast with Grandpa, eating a very large bowl of cornflakes and feeling every chewing motion in my jaw where Trent sucker-punched me. Grandpa looked over the top of the sports section at me, noticing the bruise.

“You know anything about this?” He pointed at the article he was reading.

“What’s that?”

“Your star linebacker was out with an injury last night and your school lost.”

I rubbed my discolored jaw with enough intent that grandpa couldn’t help but make the connection, “Nope, first I’ve heard of it. Let me guess, bruised sternum?”

He knew I hadn’t read the paper yet. “Remind me not to get you mad at me.”

“No problem, Grandpa,” I said brightly, “I love you.”

We put in an eight hour day on Saturday; no reason to be gluttons for punishment since we were back on schedule. Grandpa alerted me to my visitor shortly after lunch. For an old coot, he still has pretty sharp peepers.

“Trouble coming, three o’clock.”

I was popping sixteen penny nails into 2x6 studs with the pneumatic nail gun, framing an exterior wall. This was the last one for today, and then we could tie this end of the house together. I looked up after the final nail went in. Sure enough, trouble by the name of Paige Goddard, and she was headed toward the scrap heap we had been making all day.

Grandpa and I had patched things up between us, and so today we were actually having fun. Every time we had a piece of scrap, we’d throw it over the side of the house, aiming for this big rut I hadn’t smoothed out yet. If this were a commercial site, I would have had a couple guys with shovels filling that hole in to make sure no one got hurt. Problem was this was a private site, and we were goofing around, not expecting company. Well, we got some.

I was off the floor of the house and onto the dirt before my brain had time to make a conscious decision. I scooped Paige around the waist and out of danger just before she had the chance to sprain an ankle and cost me a ton of money in OSHA and insurance violations. Of course, that’s not how she saw it, giving me an earful. Grandpa was just standing there chuckling at me. Why can’t this girl leave me alone?