We're Making Progress (A story, just for fun)

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?"