Chapter 28

We had just finished lunch when an out-of-breath lumberjack found me. They were ready for the backhoe, and they were more than willing to chop off roots as I pulled the stump out. It was a quarter to one when we started. By two, we had removed every stump from the trees they had cut, and some old, not yet rotted ones as well. The guys were really excited about those, since they had weathered in situ, giving a look to the wood that the new ones might take years to achieve. We moved the root balls to one of their trailers, dad came out and paid everyone in cash, and the guys took off by the time we had agreed, all of the wood removed and the site cleared.

Cool. Now I started. I was surprised when Paige went to the house, got a lawn chair that I didn’t recall them bringing over, and bundled in a heavy jacket, watched me perform my magic. Grandpa this time couldn’t inform me about her actions as he was running the transit while Dad was holding the mark but I waved every time I saw her arm rise.

We had the depth right at just the same time as I heard a dump truck turn into our drive. Perfect timing. Dad headed toward the house so he could direct them in. Apparently the guys had been warned by the big boss that they shouldn’t mar the approach since they were the ones who had laid it down in the first place, because they were very careful on the asphalt. They accepted Dad’s hand signals and soon, they had the first truck that was filled with aggregate ready to dump.

It really is a joy watching professionals do their job. By five, they had put in the various grades of rock and compacted it even better than we had on the initial gazebo build. I walked over to talk to Paige.

“Bored yet?”

“Not even! It’s sort of exciting.”

I remembered back to the first time I had seen Dad perform many of these same actions. “Maybe now, but after you’ve done it a while the novelty dies.”

“Then why are you all bright eyed and bushy tailed?”

I had to laugh. “You got me. It’s fun when you can do something like this in such a compressed time frame. We’re almost done for today. Tomorrow morning we’ll get an inspection, and then we’ll put in the forms. By noon, we’ll be pouring cement, and we’ll be finished by the time the sun goes down. After all is said and done, I’ll work on running power down to the gazebo so we can have it all lit up for Christmas.”

Oh, you have got to be kidding me! Christmas! We forgot Christmas in all the bustle of moving and the gazebo and everything. I really needed to talk with Dad.

“Why don’t you pack up and go into the house, Paige? We’ll be inside in just a few minutes and we can figure out what the rest of the day holds.”

She found my suggestion acceptable, folding up the chair and taking it inside. That gave me a chance to look for my father. I caught him jawing with Grandpa.

“Hey, Dad! Did seeing those trees getting cut down remind you of anything?”

He frowned, shaking his head. I walked over to where there was a two foot top of one of the lodgepole pines that had been felled earlier in the day. It made a remarkably good looking facsimile of a Christmas tree when I held it upright. “Lights, tinsel, garland, ornaments?”

He laughed when what I was saying dawned on him. “It is that time of year, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

He turned to his dad, “Do you think there are lots with trees still left on them?”

Grandpa was quick to reply, “You bet. Your mother sent me to get one yesterday.” He gave us directions to where we could find good trees.

“Thanks, Dad. It looks like we have our evening planned.”

Grandpa looked at his watch. “Then I’ll leave you boys to it. I’ll see you here at what, eight tomorrow?”

“Boots off, go take showers. You two are dirty and you smell.” Evie issued the orders as soon as we walked into the mud room. She showed that she didn’t mind all that much when she gave Dad a kiss.

I advanced on her daughter, arms wide. “Where’s my kiss, beautiful?” I leered.

She ran, leading me a merry chase all the way to ... my bathroom. “Clean up and I’ll be glad to kiss you.”

For that reward, I would happily take as many showers as she wanted me to. Ten minutes later, I smelled and looked a whole lot better. Dad beat me downstairs, already clean, and it looked like he had even shaved. I was going to have to find out someday how he did that. For now though, it looked as if he had been waiting for me.

“Okay, family meeting,” he boomed out, pointing at the couches in the living room. “Find a seat, sit in it, and be quiet!”

“Does this happen a lot?” Paige wanted to know.

I was still shaking my head as I sat beside her.

“It has come to my attention that we have been remiss in our seasonal preparations,” Dad stated at a much more normal sound level. “Evie, where did you put the Christmas ornaments?”

“They’re in the garage,” she answered, sounding confused.

“And the little LED lights?”

“Same place.”

“Do you buy garland new each year or reuse it?”

“Reuse. Why? What’s wrong?”

He waited.

“We need a tree,” she finally said joyfully.

“We do,” he affirmed. “How big do you think, and where should it go?”

She looked around the living room, the music room and then through the archway into the great room with the fireplace and the parquet floors.

“There,” she said quietly, pointing off to the side of the stone hearth. “That would be perfect.”

“So it is written, so shall it be done,” he intoned. “Anyone object to a nice meal out, after which we’ll get a tree, bring it home and decorate it?”

No one did.

“Evie, would you mind if we take your car?”

She said that would be fine with her.

“Tim, you and Paige follow us in your truck.”

“Sure, Dad. Where are we going?”

“I don’t know. Follow us.”

The Audi looked out of place at the McDonalds that Dad led us to, although my truck didn’t. I had to laugh as I recalled what I had told him about my evening with Mandy. The old guy was going to try it. That was confirmed when we had ordered our food and Dad slid into a booth, his female companion across from him. When Paige and I tried to join them we were told to get lost – that booth was full.

“Come on, Paige, let’s find somewhere else to sit.”

We did, prayed, and opened our meals. They actually make a fairly good salad, so Paige had ordered that and a six piece McNuggets which she tore into pieces and sprinkled over the lettuce. She insisted on eating some of my fries, which I had anticipated, getting two large orders.

“So what’s going on?” She wanted to know, gesturing toward the back of the restaurant where the other half of our family sat.

“Promise you won’t be jealous when I tell you?”

“I think so.”

I took the chance, describing the lead-in to the date with Mandy. I had her in stiches when I talked about my demand to Mrs. Emerson, and then showing up for pictures at the Black household. Even the comment I had made to Mandy’s father when the LBD turned out to be backless amused her. Finally I got to the drive away from the house on our way to the church dance.

“You keep showing me your romantic side. So you think that’s what James is doing to Mom right now?”

“I’d bet it was some variation of that, yes. Let’s leave them alone until they come looking for us.”

“And what do you have in your bag of tricks, Mr. McKenzie?” she asked teasingly.

“Just this.” I held out some fries dipped in ketchup the way I had seen her do it and deposited them in her slightly opened mouth.

We had fun that meal, feeding each other and enjoying our time together. It took much longer with Dad and Evie than I had taken on my date with Amanda, but eventually they found us sitting and talking, and then we were all off to the Christmas tree lot.

We had high ceilings in our rooms downstairs which gave us the space to put in at least an eight foot tree. That’s what we were looking for, and we had each paired up with our significant other to prosecute the hunt. Paige and I played a little bit of hide and seek among the Noble Firs, reverting to younger versions of ourselves, and it was a fun way to go tree selecting.

She made it easy to catch her finally, as she was standing there looking at the perfect tree. It was a little over eight feet tall, which is what we measured by having me raise my arm straight up, and the needles were a deep green color, or maybe they just looked that way under the tinted lights. She texted her mom to find us since we had the objective in sight. The lot wasn’t that large, but they arrived a little breathless. They probably were doing what we just finished doing when we heard someone coming.

“So? What do you think?” Paige asked, proud of her selection.

“Yes, this is good,” her mom replied. “James?”

“Whatever you think.”

I was enlisted to drag the tree up to the front where it was shaken to remove the dead needles and branches that invariably find their way inside the canopy, and then fireproofed. I was having a hard time remembering if we had a tree stand that would fit it, and a skirt for around the stand.

Paige nudged me. “Don’t worry, we have everything we need at home.”

That sent a warm feeling through me, much the way I first thought of Grandpa and Grandma’s place as home at the end of summer, having only been here in Georgia, for a matter of days. I draped my arm over her shoulders and pulled her in close.

We let Dad pay for everything, watched the tree get netted up, and then once again, I got the honor of carrying it. The crown bent a little when I placed it caddy-corner in the bed of my truck, but it fit well enough that I didn’t need to tie anything. Dad told us we’d see them later, and we lost sight of the Audi as it roared away. My bet was that Evie was driving. What the heck. I tossed my keys to Paige and told her to take us home.

No, we didn’t put the tree up immediately. It was stood up in a corner of the heated garage, allowing it to come to temperature for a day. We did all go in and have hot chocolate, then sit around and share memories of our favorite Christmases. It was a little bitter-sweet for me and Dad as all of my memories, and many of his, included Mom. Still, I kept my reminiscing on the lighter side, and Dad managed to relate some stories from growing up here in Georgia. I liked those, and so did Paige, because they included both adults sitting here in the room with us, and many mentioned my grandparents.

It was getting close to ten, and keeping in mind that we were planning to put in forms and pour cement tomorrow, I wanted to get a good night’s sleep. I was sitting there letting my mind wander, thinking about Mom, the dance studio, music, her favorite waltzes and ballet scores when it hit me: we still needed to move the piano. I groaned aloud, prompting noises of concern from everyone.

“The piano. Can we move that, or do we need to call specialists?”

Dad and I looked at Evie, who was looking at her daughter. “What do you think, Paige?”

She hemmed and hawed, and finally came out with it. “Not that I don’t trust you guys, but moving a piano isn’t exactly like picking up a heavy piece of furniture. That, plus the heat has been off over at the other place for a few days now, and if we move it into this warm space,” she indicated the music room with its heated floors, “without giving it time to properly adjust, we might end up warping something.”

“I take it you play,” Dad said.

Proud mother Evie spoke up, “Grade seven. Hopefully we can get her to play for us this holiday season.”

“How come I’m only hearing about this now?” I asked her gently.

“I don’t know. It’s sort of personal, and I don’t like sharing it with everyone.”

“I think it’s pretty cool, and I can’t wait to hear you play.”

Dad broke in before we got too sweet. “Piano movers then. Evie? You and Paige will take care of that?”

She nodded.

“Good. Then I think we have tomorrow all planned out.” He kissed Evie. “I’m going to bed. There’s a lot of work to do in the morning, and I haven’t been spending as much time on-site as Tim has. I’m a little rusty and things that shouldn’t be hurting, are. So ... goodnight all.”

Dad left, and the room seemed a little emptier. I followed a few minutes later, after giving Paige a kiss. It was a little weird to do that in front of her mom, but it was a nice feeling to have a kissable someone around.

“Goodnight.”

I heard dad’s Jacuzzi tub going when I finished my shower and stepped out of my room, clothed for the day in heavy work pants and a flannel shirt. My work boots were in the mudroom, although I’d have to call Grandpa and remind him that I left my rubber boots at his place. Evie didn’t beat me into the kitchen this morning, so I made a pot of coffee the way I liked it and put it in the carafe, and then got a weaker batch going. I put a note on the carafe so Dad would know which was which. He joined me fifteen minutes later, laughing when he saw the two pots.

“They have you trained already, don’t they?”

“Hey!” I protested, “I’m a quick study.”

“One day and done does not make you a quick study, it makes you a Java genius.”

“Oh? And tell me, if I hadn’t done it, wouldn’t you be making their blend right about now?”

We both laughed because we knew it was true. He grabbed a cup and turned the conversation to the day ahead of us.

“Do we need to pick up new lumber for forms, or do we still have the other stuff?” Dad asked.

“New. I used the other wood for bracing and other non-building uses. Do you have the plans so we can work off them, or should we see if Grandpa can print another copy?”

Dad grabbed the file folder he had been carrying and laid it on the breakfast table in front of me. I opened it to see the original documents from August, coffee stained, covered in cement dust on one corner, and altogether dog-eared.

I laughed at Dad. “Wow, even back then you had it bad.”

“Yeah. You don’t need to let her know that I kept these though.”

I just nodded before wolfing down the last of my cereal. I read the day’s devotional for both of us while Dad ate. When he finished the meal, we prayed and then cleaned up. We were out the door and off to the lumber yard by six-thirty where we were met by Jerry, my contact there.

“How’s it going, Jerry?” I asked as we walked in.

“Hey look, it’s my favorite builders. What can I do for you today?”

Dad let me handle it. “We just need to pick up some 2x6’s for forms, four sheets of that cedar lattice, and steel mesh for some cement work we’re doing today.”

“You’re in luck. Go on back and get what you need. I’ll start writing it up and you can tell me how many of each and then sign it on your way out.”

“Sounds good.” We walked back to the truck, then drove into the yard. It’s cool when they let you in to pick your own lumber since you can reject anything that’s not straight or won’t work for your purposes. The lattice went down into the bed first, and then the wood we’d use for forms. Dad also selected four twelve foot 2x4’s in clear cedar. We stopped at the desk again.

“We did some impulse shopping too, Jerry,” I told him. I had him add the clear cedar to the invoice, and gave him my business credit card to pay for it all. Dad was wandering around their inside floor, looking at the various cement-working tools, and comparing the cost of new to that of renting. He came back with everything we’d need for the day – floats, trowels, stakes, nails, the whole shebang.

“You need to bring your dad in more often,” Jerry told me as he wrote up the tools separately. I just smiled and hustled us out of there before my father could do any more damage to the credit card.

We got back home around seven-thirty, pulling into the drive just before Grandpa, who was coming from the other direction. He had apparently taken Dad’s truck and trailer tandem home yesterday and brought it back this morning with the tools we had offloaded at his place. He made a joke about cleaning out his shop, to cover when we thanked him. We sent him in through the mudroom for a cup of coffee as more tangible thanks. There were a couple of shrieks from inside, and he high-tailed it back empty-handed to where we were setting up, as red as I had ever seen him.

“Did you know that there are two half-naked women sitting around in your kitchen?”

“Really? That I’d like to see.” Dad took a step toward the house before turning back, laughing. “Come on, Pop, bathrobes doesn’t constitute half naked.”

“True, and I wouldn’t have said what I did if they were wearing them. No, I caught a pretty nice glimpse of long legs, half-covered cheeks and midsections.”

Dad cocked his head to the side and muttered, “Lucky bastard!”

We got to work shortly after that, cutting forms, nailing them to stakes, finding some rock we could put under the mesh to raise it off the ground, and then tying the wire together for strength. We had gotten almost everything done, when two Java angels appeared with a snack. Grandpa couldn’t look them in the eyes.

“Lionel, come on. You’ve seen all of that before,” Evie berated Grandpa.

“Yeah, but it’s been a while, and even then it wasn’t as young or as firm.” He caught Dad’s glare and then mine, causing him to turn even more red than he’d been before.

“Forget I said that.” He looked at Dad whose glare had softened into a grin.

“You say anything to your mother, boy, and you’ll find out I can still whoop you.”

He turned to me, the larger of his two relatives here this morning and said, “That goes for ... Never mind. Just don’t tell your grandma. Please.”

“Don’t worry,” I reassured him, “I already got you back for our pizza incident. You stop ogling the women, and you’ll be fine.”

“I wasn’t ogling ... Evie, did you bring me some coffee?” he finished up in a plaintive voice.

“Here.” She handed him a mug and filled it with the brew from the carafe, smiling at Dad as she did.

Our inspector showed up at ten, allowed that we had properly compacted everything, signed off and headed on to his next assignment. The cement truck turned down the drive shortly after he left and was guided in, stopping in a position where his chute extensions would be able to reach almost the whole pad. Evie and Paige had retreated close to the house when he appeared. Dad was puzzled.

“Why are they all the way up there?” he asked me.

I fell down laughing when I realized why. When I could talk, I told him.

“Remember in August, you made Evie stay about a hundred feet away when we were working? Look how far they are from us. You might want to walk over and make things right.”

“Oh, Lord,” he bemoaned, beginning the walk up the hill to the women, “I’m about to pay for that.”

I couldn’t watch since the driver just about had the mix to the right consistency, so I donned the rubber boots Grandpa had brought, and got ready to walk around the pad, pulling the chute with me. I noticed a pair of calf-high, fashionable, yellow rain boots join me around the edge.

“How’d she take it?” I asked Paige.

“Oh, she’s mad right now,” she told me giggling a bit, “but she can see the humor in it too. She sent me down here to keep an eye on you guys until she can find more appropriate footwear and join us. So what do we do?”

“We don’t do much at all until the mix is ready. Then, we’ll start at the point furthest from the truck, and walk the chute around filling in the forms. Every so often I’ll pull that wire mesh up,” I pointed to where it lay a couple inches off the gravel, “so it’s in the middle of the mix, and then it’s a matter of screeding, tamping, floating and finishing.” I looked at her fingers. “Do you have a pair of work gloves?”

She nodded.

“Go get them. Concrete is really hard on hands, and I don’t want you to regret coming down here to help.”

She ran back to the house in her ridiculous yellow boots – it was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Unfortunately, the driver cleared his throat and asked if I was ready. By the time Paige came back towing her mother, both of them wearing rubber gloves more suitable for washing dishes than working cement, the pour was half finished.

“Come around here,” I directed, pointing out a path for them that wouldn’t get them hurt. “Both of you grab the end of that board that Grandpa is holding out. He’ll show you what he wants, but basically you’re going to be moving the board back and forth on the cement and pulling the excess concrete into the middle of the pad.”

I gave them the least technically challenging job, although it was one of the most physically demanding. I knew that if they worked it long enough, their arms, shoulders and abs would be screaming, if not today, then by tomorrow. They surprised the three of us though, and kept working until Grandpa told them they could stop. By that time we had pretty well finished the pour and it looked like once again we had calculated the amount needed almost perfectly.

I told the driver that I’d show him where he could clean out, hopping on the passenger running boards and directing him out to the road and down to our equipment gate. I unlocked it and allowed him to clean up, then relocked the gate behind him, and headed back to the house.

When I arrived there Paige and her mother were sprawled on the wet grass, barely moving.

“What’s wrong with them?” I pointed.

Dad took me off to the side. “They’re totally wiped out. Mom is coming to put them in bathtubs and see to it that they don’t die on us today.”