Emend by EclipseChapter 2
- 3 years ago
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June 2, 1978
The weather was nice, but a little cold. It had in been in high 40s and low 50s all night. The wind was blowing, but not too hard. Sunset was around 7:00. Tim and Benny could grab eight hours of work on Tim’s house easily, even making allowance for the fact that they had to clean the office buildings. They could do the same Thursday. Friday afternoon would be spent putting out envelopes for curb painting and Saturday would be spent painting curbs. They would get a full day of work on rebuilding Tim’s house, Sunday. That would probably get the entire exterior off.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the four of them could get the plywood layer down without much effort if the weather held. That would at least close up the house so that any bad weather wouldn’t cause any damage. It was hard to predict when there would be a couple days, back to back, without rain. Water was the worst enemy of exposed wood.
Tim’s house was a simple two story, with both bedrooms upstairs, along with a bath. The master bedroom was about 25% larger than the other bedroom. The downstairs had a living room, a half bath tucked under the rear of the stairway, and a dining area that was attached to the kitchen.
The house was in the condition in which he had acquired it, except the roof did have some new shingles. There had been nothing structurally wrong with the roof. The roofers also did the porch roof. While they were at it, they threw in rebuilding the supports for the patio floor, free. Tim had suggested that they might get two more houses when the girls started working on theirs. There was a rumor that the niece of one of the girls was going to buy a house, and Two Guys Working was likely to get the contract to repair it. There was a ‘hint hint nudge nudge’ from the roofer about getting future contracts, which was answered with: “Who else could we get, who we can trust?” They liked that answer.
What all of this meant was that Tim was ready to start tearing down the exterior of his building and get it refinished. Leaving his parent’s house that morning, Tim climbed in his truck and raced to his house. He mentally corrected ‘house’ to ‘future home.’ He arrived there and looked it over with pride. He was nineteen years old, a high school graduate for a whole week, and a home owner already. As far as he was concerned, it didn’t get much better than that!
He stood in front of the house looking at the exterior, trying to judge just how much work they were facing. One of the unusual things about the houses here, were that the roofs ran perpendicular to the street rather than parallel. It almost looked like a shotgun house, except that it wasn’t. The exterior of the house had long overlapping planks that ran lengthwise. He was going to have to start at the top and work his way down the wall. It was a four person job requiring two to remove the planks and lower them down to the two below, who would then haul it off to the dumpster. They already had experience with it, having done the same to Benny’s house.
Tim went up to the front of the house, put on his work gloves, and grabbed one of the long boards that made up the exterior. It was loose and he started pulling on it. It came off fairly easily, but the board broke in the middle. He picked up the piece he had pulled off and walked over to the dumpster to toss it. Based on that, he didn’t think it would be too difficult to remove the entire wall.
He started erecting the ladders against the wall, one on each end. He looked over at Benny’s house wondering when he was going to come out. A car pulled up behind his. He turned to look at the green Datsun 210. Sandra got out, and looked over at the house. She remembered seeing these houses for the first time and how horrified she was at their condition. Now looking at how Benny’s house turned out, her opinion had changed significantly. This wasn’t a disaster, but a phoenix in disguise. It would rise from the ashes of neglect and become a place of value. She knew that it would be a lot of work, but that was okay. Her house was across the street and would be next.
“Where’s Benny?”
“I don’t know. I was waiting for him to come out.”
“Don’t you think you should check on him?”
“I will if he doesn’t come out soon. He’s probably thinking about something.”
“Probably.”
“How are things with you and Cathy?”
“Good.”
“Good? I thought they’d be great. You two are out of school. You can visit her all day any day.”
“Okay, they’re great.”
“That’s good,” Tim said.
His relationship with Sandra wasn’t as developed as he would have liked. They were friends, not lovers. He was getting the occasional handjob when things got too heated and she felt guilty about leading him on. The fact was, they weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. He, like Benny, was occasionally visiting Susan for more thorough relief. Now that school was over, he expected them to stop pretending.
Sandra seemed to read his mind. “I’m sorry, Tim. I’m just not wired that way. I’ve tried. I like guys, but Cathy is really all I need. At least, for now.”
“I understand.”
“You should probably start looking for a real girlfriend. We’re out of that whole high school scene. We can use the anonymity of the adult world to get around too much suspicion.”
“I know,” Tim said.
Sandra turned and looked at the house. “I bet you can’t wait to get moved in.”
Tim said, “My house is lower priority than yours. You’ve got to have yours done by the end of August since college starts. Me, I can take until January to finish up and move in.”
“We should be signing the paper work on my house any day now.”
“Good. We should have the exterior redone on my place by then. We’ll get busy on yours and get it fixed up before school starts. I can work on mine when everyone else is off doing what they need to do for college.”
Tim was planning on getting as much of the house fixed as was necessary to get the certificate of occupancy. He figured that he’d live in it while finishing the place over the winter. He was also going to try to find a house to flip over the winter. He figured those two activities would keep him busy when the weather was cold.
Tim was looking around for a helper. He knew that he wasn’t going to be able to do all of the repair work alone. With Benny, Cathy, and Sandra in school, he was going to be on his own. Although it might have seemed like he was going to be abandoned by the others starting in September, the fact was that this was the plan all along. Benny would go to school while Tim flipped houses. Benny would help when he could, but the business was Tim’s.
Cathy pulled up in front of Benny’s house in her blue Datsun. She got and headed over to the front door before she noticed Tim and Sandra waiting in front of his house. She stopped and looked at them expectantly.
“Aren’t you two coming over for breakfast?”
Tim swore. “I forgot! I was so focused on getting to work on my house that I forgot all about that.”
“No one told me about breakfast,” Sandra said sounding a little irate.
“Sorry. I guess it slipped my mind in the midst of all of that excitement,” Cathy said with a wink.
“What excitement?” Tim asked.
“Never mind.”
“Oh.”
The three trooped into Benny’s house, entering without knocking. It was kind of accepted that that was going to be the status quo. They were going to keep an open door policy among the group. Benny came down from the stairs as soon as he heard the door open. He was smiling and dressed for work.
“We’ve got coffee and ... wait for it ... coffee cake.”
Tim asked, “The kind in the aluminum tray?”
“You bet.”
Raising a fist in the air, Tim said, “YES! I love that stuff.”
They sat around table with paper towels on which they placed squares of coffee cake. Benny poured coffee all around. Coffee was a recent addition to their diet, starting only after Benny moved out on his own. Tim took a bite out of the cake and then a sip of the coffee.
“Good, isn’t it?”
“Uh hum,” Tim mumbled positively around his food.
Benny sat down and grabbed a square of coffee cake. He looked over at Sandra and asked, “Any word on your paperwork for the house?”
“No. I even called my uncle about it. He doesn’t know what’s going on.”
“After breakfast you should probably call Leo Fischer, and find out what’s holding things up. I’d hate for you to have to move in before the interior is finished.”
“You and me both. I’m all for living rough, but I’d like carpet on the floor.”
Benny slowly ate his coffee cake while thinking about the problem with the house. He didn’t think it had anything to do with Mr. Martin, but you never knew. It was strange that a process that took him and Tim about a month, had now dragged for three months for Sandra. He wondered if it was because she was a woman. He was beginning to think that it was about time to bring in a lawyer.
Tim nudged Benny and said, “Finish up. I want to get to work.”
“I was getting lost in my thoughts.”
“I noticed. We can’t do anything more for Sandra until we know more. Right now, all we’ve got are guesses.”
All except for a small end piece, the coffee cake was consumed. Benny unplugged the coffee pot. It was still too hot to wash, so he set it aside. Cathy and Sandra straightened up the mess on the table, tossing the paper towels and wiping the table clear of crumbs.
Tim, Benny, and Cathy went out while Sandra remained behind to call the city office handling the sale of the properties. It wasn’t quite time for them to open, and she knew better than to call early. Even if people were there, they’d ignore the telephone.
The three of them got to work removing the exterior of the house. After a little discussion, they figured out a quick and dirty way to do it. Cathy kept back from where they were working. Tim and Benny would removed a plank using a crow bar to loosen it, they’d wrestle it off, and then it toss backwards. Once it settled on the ground, Cathy ran over, grabbed it, and dragged it over to the dumpster. They had to keep getting on and off the ladders to move them around to match up with the boards. The front was wide enough that there were two and sometime three boards on a row.
They had gotten four rows done when Sandra came out of the house with a worried expression on her face. She looked very upset, almost like she had received some bad news. Tim and Benny climbed off the ladder to see what was bothering her.
“I talked to Mr. Fischer. He said that he had to talk to me, to Cathy, and my uncle. He told me to stay here and not to leave. He would be here in thirty minutes.”
“I wonder what’s up.”
“What does he want with me?” Cathy asked.
“I have no idea.”
“What does he want with your uncle?”
“I figure he wants my uncle here to explain why I’m not getting a house,” Sandra said near tears.
Tim said, “I don’t understand. They’ve sold two houses. The only house they have paperwork submitted on is yours. They’ve got a ton of houses to sell and nothing is happening. They should celebrating that you want a house.”
“I know.”
“Did you call your uncle?”
“He had already left the office. I assume it was to come here. The people at his office couldn’t say why he left or where he was going.”
“That’s weird.”
They stood around waiting for Mr. Fischer to show up. Tim kept looking up at the four feet of cleared wall and wondering if they were going to get any work done today. The apex of the wall was 26 feet high. With them removing only 4 feet, they still had 22 feet of wall to clear out on this side of the house and there still three more sides to go.
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September 5, 1975 It was 9:30 at night and they had just finished cleaning the office buildings. They’d had to let their regular crews leave at their normal time, which had dumped all of the work on the backs of Benny, Tim, Cathy, Sandra, and Terry. They were tired and hungry. They were at a chain restaurant waiting for an overworked waitress to show up and take their orders. Benny and Tim had to admit defeat. There were too many lawns to mow and not enough time or people to mow them. They...
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February 14, 1976 Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year in which couples in love are expected to demonstrate their attraction in some romantic manner. For many, the demonstration should be in a public forum where others can see the expression of romantic love, at least as much demonstration of it which can be performed in public. Flowers, chocolates, and dinner out are classics only because so many lovers choose to do it that way. Or course, that inflates the price of it all. Earnest...
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August 17, 1976 It was nearing noon and the temperature had just hit 91. Benny had been walking around the property since 10:00 and he was nearly dead from the heat. He headed back towards the house, wanting to cool off in the air conditioning. He spotted another plant and stopped to hit it with a couple blasts of weed killer, known as Agent White, which the State Police had provided him. He continued on his way to the house. Reaching the back door, he put down the canister next to the door...
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November 14, 1976 Cathy placed the plate with the pot roast on the table with pride. It was a crock pot recipe with celery, potatoes, carrots, and onions cooked with it. Mrs. Parker had given her the recipe and watched her prepare it. The dish looked great and she hoped that it would taste great as well. She took a seat at the table next to Benny and across from Sandra. Mrs. Parker was seated at the head of the table with Benny and Tim to her sides. It was a simple gathering of friends for...
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July 20, 1977 Benny graduated and, as a result of his parent’s demand, he walked the stage and received a roll of paper that was supposed to represent the diploma. Tim told him that he had walked the first time through, but he didn’t remember it. It was highly unlikely he would remember this time, either. He had spent the walk mostly staring off into space thinking about things. After the ceremony, he went to the office and picked up the actual diploma. With the high school diploma, and his...
July 22 1977 After one day of taking Darvon, Tim swore he’d never take another one. It wasn’t because it made him nauseous or ill. It was just that the light headed detached feeling it produced reminded him of each time they increased his pain killers while he was dying of cancer. For a day or two, he’d feel the drugs, but then the pain would return, and remind him again that he was dying. That was a memory that he’d rather not recall. At the moment, he was carefully painting the trim...
August 17, 1977 It was at 11:14 on this surprisingly cool Tuesday morning when Benny finally received the certificate of occupancy for the house, and he was legally free to move into it. He looked at the slip of paper and put it on the kitchen counter. With a wad of bills in his pocket that was large enough to choke a horse, he and Cathy got into the van and headed to the largest department store in the area: Wal-Mart. Sandra and Tim followed in the truck with Sandra driving. They parked the...
October 19, 1977 The university’s semester was half over and Benny had mid-terms this week. He wasn’t exactly stressed out by them. His math class was a snap. He did have some concerns about the English class, which was taught by a woman who was in love with poetry; and the history class, which was taught by a ‘memorize the event and date’ type of professor. His chemistry class was something new for him, and was requiring him to work at learning new material. He was also taking a government...
November 24, 1977 An odd kind of emotion appears in parents of young men and women who are about to venture out on their own. It is most pronounced during holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. There’s this sense that the family is starting to fragment with a child leaving the nest. As a result, there is a tendency to demand all of the children appear at home during the holidays. Sandra’s parents were coming to the realization that their daughter was already testing her wings in...
February 8, 1978 Snow is a rarity in Oklahoma City. It doesn’t take much snow on the ground to bring ‘the world’ to a halt. It’s a result of not having salt trucks, or snow removal equipment. Unfortunately, it’s seldom just snow, alone. It’s often preceded by drizzle, rain, or sleet. If the ground is cold enough for the snow to stick, it’s cold enough for water to freeze. The result is ice covered by snow. The primary hazard of that kind of weather isn’t trip and fall accidents - although...
April 22, 1978 The prom is a special occasion, particularly for seniors. It’s the last hurrah of high school. This makes it the social event to cap off the entire education experience which — as everyone knows, or should know — is more social than intellectual. It is a big deal and no one wants to show up without a date. Those without a date are more likely going to stay home rather than suffer the social embarrassment of showing up alone. Young men worry and fret if the young woman they ask...
April 25, 1978 Reading the newspaper, Robert Kane sat behind the desk at the pawn shop in his high tech wheel chair. This one, the latest of many, had a motor that pushed it along and a little knob that he could use to steer it. He had lots of things that allowed him to overcome any difficulties posed by his lost legs. It wasn’t that he was lazy, but it did allow him to move around while holding things in his hands. He heard the jangle of the cowbells above the door and lowered the paper to...
August 6, 1978 Tim and Benny were sitting in their office chatting. It was one of those few occasions when it was just the two of them. They had felt a need to sit back and assess what was happening. There was a tendency for everyone to gather at Benny’s house to discuss business, but Benny objected to that. It was his home, his refuge, and he didn’t really want business intruding into it. Tim understood. Tim said, “It appears that I’m now a general contractor.” “Don’t you need a license?”...
August 19. 1978 Sandra finally chose to buy a very plain set of furniture for the living room. She managed to find a middle ground between ‘middle aged stodgy,’ furniture and the trendy fashion furniture which was favored by people her age. She avoided the ugly browns, oranges, and greens that seemed to dominate the furniture world, and ended up with a cream colored living room set with matching end tables and a coffee table. She had picked up a cheap dining table from Target. Her father,...
September 2, 1978 Tim woke up and scrubbed the sleep from his eyes. The birds were making such a racket, that sleep was impossible. He glanced over to the other side of the tent, and noticed the empty sleeping bag. Benny was up already. Tim poked his head out of the tent. Outside the tent was a remarkable tableau. Benny was sitting on the bench of the picnic table, appreciating the view of the lake. Three does were standing within twenty feet of him. One was eating some grass at the edge of...
November 11, 1978 This year things were very different for Benny. In the past, he would have worked at the office building every evening from 5:00 until 7:30. It was as regular as clockwork, and brought the four of them together every workday. The four would often eat dinner together after work, but without exception Benny ate dinner with Tim. Since they had sold the business, Benny didn’t have that hanging over his head. Sandra and Cathy were still working there, but were now answering to...
December 2, 1978 For early December, the weather wasn’t that cold. At 10:00 am, it was in the sixties although the wind was blowing at 20 mph with gusts up to 26 mph. The wind made it a lousy day to move. It seemed like anything bulky tried to take off on its own during the short trip from the van to the house. This was a major moving day for three of the four members of the group. Having made the decision to rent out her house, Cathy was moving into Sandra’s place. Tim, having finished his...
January 9, 1979 It was a Tuesday and college was out for Christmas break for another week. This meant that Sandra, Cathy, and Benny were available all day. Tim and Benny had decided that it would be a good time for a business meeting. Everyone was getting antsy about the price of silver. It was oscillating around $6.00 and everyone, with the exception of Benny and Tim, was hoping that marked the beginning of the take off in silver. It was a dollar increase over the past year. Tim and Benny...
January 16, 1979 It was cold that day, but not horribly so for January. It was a Tuesday and Tim was inside the house with his crew working on drywall. It seemed to Tim that his life was settling into a rut. First he’d tear out the walls, fix the wiring, put up new walls, tape them, paint them, and then put on the fixtures. Once all of that was done, the carpet layer would come in and install the flooring. Then it would be on to the next interior. It wasn’t that simple. There was also the...
April 13, 1979 Ted Brooks peered over his half rim glasses to examine Tim and Benny. They had opened their books for him so that he could prepare their tax forms. Their records were first rate and he enjoyed working with them, although the quality of their books was due more to Cathy’s efforts than either of the two young men. It was hard to believe that two guys so young were worth so much. He had watched them slowly grow the net worth of their businesses. He looked over the page that...
June 10, 1979 Happy to be ready to leave, Benny slammed the trunk of his car shut. He had finished packing for his trip to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area where he was going to camp for the next seven days. He had been planning to start this trip back on June 1, but the weather forecast had predicted rain for the next day. He figured he’d put it off for a day or two until the weather cleared. It was a fortunate decision since the weather had been terrible since then and he would have...
June 16, 1979 Tim drove into the park and had to drive around the campground to find the spot where Benny was holed up. He drove around for thirty minutes before he noticed the tent tucked up out of the way. He parked his jeep and walked over to the tent. Benny was lying there, staring up at the sky. A golden eagle was circling above. Benny was watching the magnificent bird. Tim sat down, lay back, and looked up at the sky. The golden eagle was gone. A turkey neck buzzard had taken up in...
August 10, 1979 At 11:00 in the morning, the temperature was already 82 degrees but it felt like 92 and the forecast suggested that temperatures would be reaching the high 90s by the late afternoon. Tim was seated on the step before the front door, waiting for their university guest, Dr. Frank Hennequin, to arrive. The visiting professor was an historian specializing in studies of the French support of the American Revolutionary War. Tim wasn’t sure what to expect, but the professor was...
September 3, 1979 It was Labor Day weekend and, with the exception of Benny, the usual suspects were planning to participate in the annual Labor Day parade. Tim had missed last year since he had met up with Benny who was camping. This year Benny had taken off for lands to the south, for a change. He was heading towards Texas rather than the eastern end of Oklahoma. He didn’t have much experience traveling south like that, except to visit Tim once, in his first life, when Tim lived south of...
November 22, 1979 Benny walked into his parent’s house without knocking. After all, this was his family home and he had been invited for dinner. It was his first visit in nine months. He had begged off on other invitations using the excuse of school or working on houses. There just weren’t too many excuses one could use to escape Thanksgiving. He did manage to surprise the whole family by being early. Not everyone was happy to see him. Upon entering the house, Lana screamed at him, “You...
January 16, 1980 On Thanksgiving day the price of silver had been a respectable $16.19 and everyone in the business of investing was talking about the scarcity of silver. Your average person on the street was becoming aware that something quite unusual was happening in the silver market. The CBS, NBC, and ABC were now talking about the price of silver during the evening news. On Christmas, the price of silver was $24.60. If Thanksgiving dinners had quiet conversations about the price of...
February 22, 1980 The dust was starting to settle as far as silver was concerned. Silver had hit its peak at $49.45 an ounce on January 18, then started dropping precipitously. After thirty days, the price had dropped to $30 an ounce and was still falling although it wasn’t plummeting. People who had waited to sell their silver were upset they hadn’t sold it earlier. People who had bought silver at the high were cursing the drop. Today, Tim, Benny, Sandra, and Cathy were meeting to assess...
April 1, 1980 Tim and Lily drove up the road. Tim knew that he had gone too far when he saw the steel bridge. There was almost no traffic on the road, so he did a U-turn right there on the highway. Coming back they found the dirt driveway to Benny’s property. Tim slowed down and turned onto it. There was a cattle guard across the drive so he didn’t have to deal with a gate. The cattle guard was new. The posts of the barbed wire fence were wood tree limbs cut to size. The barbed wire was...
June 22, 1980 The male half of the wedding party was gathered in the back of the church. Tim was the groom. Benny was the best man. Robert was the groomsman. It wasn’t a very talkative group. Tim was thirsty, but afraid of drinking much of anything lest he needed to go the toilet in the middle of the ceremony. Benny was lost in his thoughts about his new house. It was finished, but the second one for the help wasn’t. Robert was just watching the two of them amused by it all. It was amazing...
September 11, 2001 The landscape around the house had changed significantly over the past 21 years. It was a lawn worthy of a golf course, front and rear. The lawn ended at a gravel path that led down to the river. To one side of the house was an orchard with apples, field pears, peaches, and pecans. There was also a little garden that was still producing vegetables, including tomatoes, bell peppers, beans, squash, and corn (despite the best efforts of the raccoons). Over 21 years, Benny...
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IncestAll too soon summer was over and it was back to school. Ellen was a senior and I was a sophomore and just turned fifteen. Ellen was pretty cool for the first half of her senior year. We were fucking a couple of times a week. She would let me sit with her at lunch and told everyone I was her friend. She never said boyfriend in front of her friends. I didn’t question her because everything we did at her house was a secret. I may have been a bit disappointed but I certainly was not going to...
Welcome to the year 2525! Earth has been a member of a rich galactic community for 200 years now. Still fledgling by many species standards but well known and liked by the majority of galactic citizens. Around 10,000 different sapient species exist in your resident galaxy, the Milky Way, spread across a million different habitable worlds, some much more habitable than others. Technology has progressed to where with adequate energy and materials food and most objects can be replicated, space...