The Drip, a novel by Michael Gullo
“7:45, and all four here before me. All we lack is the burn barrel and three more inches of shoulder. Four vehicles parked in the slip, and I barely got this beast by.”
“Hey, bossman.”
“Mornin’ Cody.”
“This Devin.”
“Hey, Devin. Welcome aboard. Rusty, you want a ride up the hill while I’m heading that way?”
“Yeah, right.”
“Um, what about us?”
“All of you’s fine. Just he was stepping that way, and I wanted to stop him.”
“Ya, I’m up for that.”
“So, everyone, what’s on the agenda today?”
“You the boss.”
“Nope, I’m the homeowner. You’s the bosses.”
“Right, well, me and Cody got the pad started good yesterday, and the land bridge is level across the ravine. Looks a little down, but when the pad is cut just above the septic elevation, it’ll be level on both sides.”
“Close to done?”
“Probably get all the dirt out and over the dam-back today.”
“Arms and hands inside the ride the whole six-hundred feet. Tanner, is the shed insulated?”
“Um, Devin helped with that after you left super early yesterday.”
“Oh, I must have forgot to punch out or something.”
“Sign out at least. I was expecting you back all afternoon.”
“Okay, good point. At least tell sweety pie over here I’m leaving. Anybody else feel the absence, need an apology.”
“Nope.”
“Nope.”
“Not me.”
“Well, Sweety. I guess that leaves you to show your work – rather than my lack of it. Devin helped. Pick up there.”
“Devin helped with the insulation in the ceiling, and we taped every seam. The ceiling fan is in, and it’ll blow you right out of the room if you turn it on high.”
“My kinda ceiling fan. Alrightie, boys ride’s over. Get to your battle stations, and I’ll tour the site. Rusty. This dam looks awesome! Cleaned up my parking spot a little too, I see.”
“Yeah, it needed leveled in back so I don’t have to go around the Hummer with every load.”
“Once we finish the round trips, I’ll be parking near the shed anyway. We can scratch out a space behind the thing, and I won’t be in the way of work.”
“So, um, Tanner. The shed is up to date? I can see from here they lifted it up on the blocks yesterday.”
“Everything on your list done.”
“You guys were productive yesterday. Let’s everyone go down to the trailer. One last bit of site logistics before we go to stage three shed.”
“Do I need any tools?”
“No, Devin, this guy’s tool enough.”
“Ouch.”
“So, don’t question your whereabouts.”
“Right Tanner, or my whatareyoudoings either. Simply stated, you’re his boss, not mine.”
“I won’t do that again.”
“We’ll see. I got another round of reminders queued up whenever you need a fresh one. So, what we’re doing with the trailer is, get all the tools moved to one side or out, depending on the space requirements. Beauty is you get to play with all the things. Everybody works on the trailer so everyone knows what we have to work with.”
“Yeah, right.”
“This brings up the morning’s corporate lesson.”
“Spring cleanup as corporate office speak.”
“There’s Devin. Fits right in. Syllabus is, legal. Subject is the 1099 test list. Heading, does your 1099 have his own tools?”
“Bossman, you ain’t give all these tools…”
“Slow your roll. These tools are part of the subject, bu… work boys. It’s not a lecture hall. I don’t need eight sticky eyeballs glaring at me. Get the things and put them in the places. We need a whole wall of trailer free and clear so we can build shelves. Bucket brigade. I’ll sing while you work.”
“Hand me my ratchet sets first.”
“Cody ate eggs and bacon this morning, got the cynic fed up and firing on all the senses, with a last-nerve jiggle to sweeten the pot.”
“For Christ’s sake, Rusty! Get outside with that shit!”
“Toldya that boy could lay a fart.”
“No way I survive this. No way. Listen up, or I’m closing you in there with that. It’s exactly 7:53. We need the stuff moved out. Rusty and Cody will get back in their respective machinery – switch seats today. I wanna see Rusty dig. Tanner and Devin will build shelves, and everyone will reconvene here to put the tools back.”
“Yeah, right. I was tired of circles anyway.”
“I’m scared to get in that thing, way he farts. Might rather be trapped in the trailer with a fresh one than in that skid with a hundred old ones.”
“So the litmus paper asks, does your 1099 have his own tools. The answer right now is no. But, Tanner, today starts the affirmative. When you go to Home Depot for the morning run, I want you to get Cody here a ratchet set. And every day when we go get whatever the hell we forgot last trip, I want you to buy a new tool for the company. Soon enough we’re not full of shit anymore.”
“So, what about the autonomy question?”
“A fresh one’s the ask. I’ll accrue those for you. Repeat after me, boys. I will not over bill the nice man by fucking around with this throw away project. I will work diligently and professionally with an eye toward learning my toolventory and get back to priority work as fast as reasonably possible.”
“Cat’s going away. Don’t be mice.”
“Devin. Sharp as a tack. Rest of you got anything?”
“Sorry, bossman. I was workin’ ’n I miss that last bit.”
“Yeah, right.”
“We got a week to get this done. Then it’s all hands in Hardin Valley for two weeks packing. I’m going to the toilet. Backoffice is calling.”