We're Making Progress
When Meg
shut off her alarm, she heard rain hitting the roof. She
enjoyed listening to it as she got dressed and headed for the kitchen. Half way
there, she stepped in cold wetness. She moaned. "Cooper, I'm going to ring
your neck!" She heard the thud of Cooper's feet hitting the floor on the
other side of a closed door. Then cool water dripped onto her head. She looked
up and another drip hit her forehead. She let the chocolate Lab out of Devora's
room, turned on the hall light then went in search of a bucket and newspapers.
"Jon, wake up," she said from the door. She took the
noise she heard for an answer. "The roof is leaking." That got a groan.
"Mom? Why's the floor wet?" Devora said.
"The roof is
leaking. Go let Cooper out and decide what you want in your smoothie."
Jon got out of
bed. "I'll be out in a minute," he said.
She and Devora made smoothies for themselves and strawberry
jam sandwiches for the boys. Meg put Jon's box of cereal, milk and a bowl
on the table. "Grant! Ryan! Breakfast!"
Jon sat down and made his breakfast. "I'll call Sam after
breakfast. He'll get it fixed in no time."
"Sam? Jon, are
you sure?"
"He's a handyman. He's your brother. He needs the
work. He'll be cheaper than a roofer and I'll score a point or two with your
folks." He shoved a spoonful of cereal in his mouth and chewed happily.
She looked at him and shook her head.
"Didn't Uncle Sam blow up the gas grill last fall?"
"It didn't blow up, it just caught fire," Jon
said. "I'm sure fixing the roof will be a piece of cake for him."
When Meg got home
from dropping the kids at their first round of weekend activities, Jon was
playing the piano. "Has Sam gotten here yet? Is the roof fixed?"
"He's gone to
the store to get some stuff." He looked out the window. "It's stopped
raining, so I'll bet he can have the whole thing fixed this afternoon."
Meg shook her head.
"What? You act like you don't trust him."
"I grew up with him."
"Yeah, and he introduced us."
"The one thing he ever got right."
Sam returned an hour later, and climbed into the attic. From
the noises over their heads, Meg was sure he would come through the ceiling any
minute. He came down and washed his hands. "Looks a little more extensive
than I thought at first. After lunch, I'll check the roof then go back to get
the rest of the supplies I'll need. I'll tell you though, it looks like you're going
to need a new roof." He ate lunch with them, then used their ladder to
climb up on the roof.
Meg shuttled the kids to their afternoon activities. When she
got home, a quarter of the roof shingles had been removed, but Sam wasn't on the
roof. The front window looked like an ad for a shark movie. Jon in the house,
so she called his cell. "What happened?"
"Sam was making progress on the roof when he
accidentally shot himself in the foot with the nail gun. He dropped the gun and
the electrical cord arced it into the window. We're the hospital. He's going to
be fine. He thinks he can have the roof done in the next couple days. He'll get
the measurements to take care of the window when we get back. He says they
should deliver it in 24 hours. Could you see if we have any plastic to put over
it?"
She hung up the phone. Twenty
four hours will make it Sunday afternoon. Are glaziers open on the weekend? She
went to the store and bought the plastic and tape she'd need, then swept up the
glass. She was nearly done putting up
the plastic when Grant came home. "Hey Mom! What happened?"
"Your uncle had an accident. He's going to be
fine."
Grant walked through to the kitchen. A moment later he
called, "Hey Mom, why's the light out in the fridge?"
On her way to the
basement she turned on the kitchen light. Nothing happened. "Grant, if
that light comes on, tell me." She went to the basement. There was a
puddle under the electrical box. Avoiding it, she opened the box and flipped the
switches. "Anything?"
"Nope."
She found towels and a bucket and cleaned up the water
then went back to the living room and finished the window.
Jon and Sam got back about a half hour later. "Got a
measuring tape?" Sam said.
"In the basement," Jon said and started down the
stairs. "Meg? Do we have a light bulb for the stairs here? It's out."
"The electricity is out," she said.
"Hey, Sam, want to take a look at this? Where's the
flashlight?"
Sam hobbled after him. He came back to the living room a
few minutes later. "Let me get the measurements then you can call them in
while I go get a new circuit breaker."
"A what?"
"A new circuit breaker. That one's shot." Ten minutes later, he handed her a piece of
paper. "And I'll pick up some paint for the hall ceiling."
He was gone before she really heard what he'd said. She
called his cell. It went to voicemail. "Sam. Do not buy paint. Absolutely
no paint, do you hear me?"
John said, "Meg, He's just trying to help."
"Really? What color is the hall ceiling?"
"I don't know. White?"
"Thank you for
proving my point."
Her phone rang. She glared at the screen. "Hi Mom,
what's up?"
"I just got a call from Sam. He says there've been a
few complications with fixing your house. Why don't you pack a few things and
stay here overnight? Come in time for dinner."
"Well," she said.
"You can't stay there
with no electricity. Bring whatever food you can from your fridge. There's
plenty of room."
"Let me check with Jon." She held the phone
against her leg. "Mom wants us to spend the night." She shook her
head and mouthed "No."
"That's a great idea," Jon said without looking up.
"You and the kids go to your mothers. I'll stick around to help Sam."
She rolled her eyes. "Sure, Mom, we'll be there around dinner time."
After she hung up she stopped at Grant's room. "Pull out
some clothes and stuff to take to Grandma's for a couple nights. Take what you'll
need for school on Monday."
"Grandma's?
Couldn't I stay with the Millers instead?"
"Not tonight. Grandma's expecting to see you, and it's
too late to start making plans with the Millers. Maybe next weekend." She
continued on to her own room to pack. While she was packing Ryan's bag, her phone
rang. "Hi Dev."
"Mom, Uncle Sam just called. He said his phone is
dying but he wanted to know if I'd like a hanging chair in my room. Can I, Mom?
It sounds cool."
"I don't think it's a good idea. No. I'll tell
him."
"It really sounds cool."
"Yes, I know, but he has other work he has to finish
first." She finished packing. As she was backing out the driveway, she saw Grant looking at her in the rear view mirror. "What's up?"
"Are you and Dad getting divorced?"
She laughed. It sounded manic to her. "No, we're not
getting divorced. I'm - we're - No. It's the house." I said until death do us part, she thought. At the moment, that's a tempting thought.
Late
in the evening, her phone chirped. She read,
"Things going OK. Might take
longer than we thought. Do you need me to bring clothes for the kids for school
on Monday?"
"No, we're good 2 Monday."
"Good. C-U then."
Monday after she dropped the kids off at school, she went
home. About a third of the roof was stripped of shingles. They lay in piles in
the garden, and scattered across the yard. The front window was still plastic. Cooper
started barking so she let him out of the car. He ran to the door. She tried to
open it. She peered through the crack. The
sofa?
When she opened the back door, Cooper pushed past her and darted
around the stove in the middle of the room. High pitched yikes erupted from the
other end of the room. She raced over and rescued a puppy from the Lab's exuberant
greeting. Cooper whined. From the
kitchen door, Jon said, "Oh, Meg. I see you've met Chloe. Sam saw her
at the pound and thought it'd be a good way to make up for the inconvenience
the repairs have caused. You'll be happy to know that we're making progress.
There've been a few missteps, but we're making progress."
She looked at the studs that were supposed to be the west
wall, where the stove was supposed to be. She crossed the room and looked in
the living room. The wall had been removed there, too. The lights were still
out. The sofa was pushed over against the front door.
"What?"
"Well, Sam was worried that there might be water damage
from the leak and the new
circuit breaker didn't fix the electrical problem. He says the problem must be
in the wiring, so he took out the wall to kill two birds with one stone. We'll
have to have an inspector out to check it before he can seal the wall again and
on Monday he's going to pick up the licenses. He picked up the window but they
got the measurements wrong, so we have to wait for them to make one the right
size. He got a piece of carpet to replace what was water damaged. Come
see." He moved the baby gate aside and picked up a flashlight. He shone it
down the hall to near Devora's door. In the middle of the sea of taupe, there
was an island of sand. She noticed a ladder further down the hall, and smelled
the paint.
"Shine the light on the ceiling, Jon."
"Yes, well, his phone died and he actually got back
here and started painting before I told him about your wanting to pick out the
paint." He shone the light on the ceiling. Part of it was white. The other
sky blue.
"He didn't notice the difference?"
"Of course he did! He thought it would look
better." He looked at her, then put a hand on her shoulder, "Look,
Meg, I know he's not doing things quite the way you'd like. He's making some
changes, and things aren't going very smoothly. I'll talk to him about the
carpet, but I think it would look good if we just cut a few more patches so
that there's a pattern. You know, so it looks like it was done on purpose. And blue
ceilings will be a nice change. He's talking about doing a faux finish to add
just a hint of clouds - just a hint. He's called a friend who's going to come
help. He's really working hard and we're making progress. By the end of the
week the kids will have new computers to replace the ones the electrical short
out damaged-"
"What?"
"and he's thinking maybe we should return the roofing
tiles and get solar panels. We'll be helping the environment, reducing our
carbon footprint."
Can I plead temporary
insanity? She closed her eyes and counted to ten while he explained that
the new stove wouldn't be in until Wednesday. "OK, Jon, I am going to go
pack for the rest of the week, and go back to Mom's, with both dogs. You have
until Saturday night." She handed the puppy to him and hurried down the
hall.
Thursday morning before dawn, her phone rang. "Jon?
What's wrong?"
"Well, which do you want first, the good news or the
bad news?"
You mean there might
actually be good news? "The bad."
"Sam accidentally started a fire. The house is gone,
but we're both safe."
"That's - good."
"No, that's the bad news. Well, no I suppose that's
bad and good news, but it's not the good news."
"There's more?"
"Yes. It's actually rather exciting. Sam put our story
up on a web site called "GoFundMe" and we've already raised two
hundred and fifty thousand toward building a new house. Sam's going to talk to
an architect he knows tomorrow. He says he thinks we can build a smart house in
a Post-modern style. He says it will be a show house that might even make the
cover of Architecture Digest. He's
thinking we should do some landscaping, too. You know, plant a garden so we
have home grown organic food. He thinks we could grow enough to feed three
families the size of ours. Doesn't that sound great, Meg? ... Meg? ....Hello?"
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