The Drip, a novel by Michael Gullo
“Mornin’ boys! Welcome home.”
“Yeah.”
“So.”
“Sucks.”
“Nope.”
“Nope, you say?”
“Home is a warm bed – or at least a warm blueberry pancake.”
“Ya. We want Stef back.”
“It’s worse than that because you don’t even get calm patient Michael to fill the void. It’s right in. Rusty, Cody. Get the machines greased and fueled and get that pad site cleaned up. Make sure the benches shed water – that means shovels, Cody. Just like I promised.”
“Tanner and Devin, get the tape reel and walk down to the rough spot so we can measure for materials.”
“It’s 7:57. We got three minutes.”
“Do you want a priest? Last requests?”
“No. Peace is fine.”
“A moment of silence.”
“---”
“Time’s up. That may have worked, actually. I’m really proud of you guys. Stefanie said you were awesome and awesome to her. Let’s get at this day.”
“Do you want the retractable tape reel, or the laser?”
“I didn’t think about the laser one. Grab both.”
“On it.”
“As we go along, I’ll list off some stuff. Devin, keep notes. These are detail items that we need to get on top of. Like these leaning saplings and medium sized trees. They’re tangled and messy, and they need to be cleaned up. This briar patch where we drove the road right through the middle of it – this side at the equipment yard needs to be mowed down with the weed wacker, and that side of the road needs to be cultivated.”
“How do you cultivate a briar patch?”
“You knock down all the brown ones.”
“Are you saying to get in there and pick out all the brown ones and kill them?”
“Well, yeah, sorta. You’ll knock down green ones too while you’re at it, but the idea is to get the brown ones out.”
“And we have to do all of this by Monday?”
“No. Today’s work is to reinforce the rough spot in the high part of the road. On Monday there will be concrete trucks and workers and this site’s first commercial project.”
“Um, so, where are all these vehicles going to park?”
“That’s the other thing on my list. We need places to park that are out of the way so the hired crews can get through.”
“We’re hired crew, you know?”
“You’re family.”
“I ain’t holdin’ hands again, Michael.”
“Yes you are, buddy. Come on, give me your hand.”
“You two are weird.”
“Tanner, your hand is so soft. You sure you’re in construction?”
“I’m gonna need more pancakes.”
“I’m telling your wife.”
“Okay. Over here, this whole hillside was washed out when I first got here – keep it down in case the neighbors are sleeping.”
“We’re not sleeping.”
“Oh, hi!”
“I’m sorry I scared you. It was such a tender moment I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Let go of my hand, Tanner.”
“Nope.”
“Looks like he got you in a real pickle there, Michael.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I’m Betty. I suppose that was a little forward – every time you men are down here at the road working -”
“Are we real loud?”
“No, not at all. Just all these years, only Charlie and Bobbie come up see they place, Bobbie paints you know, she’s a lovely painter. Paints all them wild flowers up there. Her work is hung all over the school of nursing at UT… I’m carrying on.”
“Not at all --- Let go of my hand Tanner.”
“No way.”
“Tanner Haggard, you let that man go.”
“Yes, Ma’am. I don’t want to though.”
“You ain’t change a bit. Still one of my favorite boys. Course, I retire that year, so all you’s my favorites. I knew you make something of yourself. Got your own business.”
“How?”
“You and Cody Norman was down the roadside, put in that mailbox, and I hear all about it from my porch here.”
“That screen hides you pretty good.”
“Plain sight, Tanner. Open door policy just like always.”
“Well, I could let you go get back to work, but someday soon, Michael. You and Stefanie owes a new-neighbor visit.”
“Yes Ma’am. I’ll tell her right away, and we’ll come down and introduce ourselves properly.”
“We’d like that.”
“Us too.”
“Tanner, hustle.”
“Yes, Miss Betty.”
“Okay – we gotta get this measured and planned, and then we need boulders.”
“Like, boulders?”
“Yeah, we gotta reinforce this drop off, and we can’t create a big ugly concrete mass – no time for that, and Mrs….”
“Wiggins. She prefers Miss Betty.”
“Miss Betty deserves a more natural view from her porch.”
“Is this easement her land – you said it belongs to this creeper.”
“It’s his. Why you call him a creeper?”
“Long story.”
“Do you know him?”
“No. I’ve never met him. It’s a long story.”
“Fine. So we need great big landscape boulders. We’ll dig out the side of this hill, slope it a little, and we’ll armor it with the boulders. And we’ll use the soil to bank the road up toward this side, rip rap the soil, grade the stone down – two inch, one inch, and finally the three quarter. The boulders hold the soup back. The rock size layers drain the water shedding off this hill, and we got a road sixty-thousand pound concrete trucks can pass.”
“So, where we get boulders?”
“I would prefer to go direct to source in Newport where Peter and I got the bridge stone pallets, but that’s a two-hour round trip at least.”
“There’s that rock yard out in Alcoa near the airport.”
“Good eye, Devin.”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
“So, are you talking like big boulders, like man size?”
“Man or bigger.”
“You sure? Those things cost hundreds each.”
“I know, Tanner, but this isn’t my land. I showed up here one day with a deed in hand as it were, and I never said hi to a soul. I started cutting in a road as fast as I could because I didn’t want to ask permission to get to my land.”
“Forgiveness doctrine.”
“Doctrine, ha? I might use that.”
“Fifty cent royalty.”
“Won’t be able to afford the boulders I beg forgiveness so much.”
“So, boulders. How are we getting those here? Do you want me to go get that dump trailer’s been sitting in the sales lot since New Year’s day?”
“Well, yeah, I wanna get that, but we just haven’t had time. And we don’t have time today. We’ll use the garden trailer I bought the day I got the lumber for the shed.”
“You need a lot of boulders here. That thing can’t carry more than ten or so, I can’t imagine.”
“We can make two trips – or three even in less time than it would take to go to Lenoir City and pick up the trailer.”
“You’re in charge.”
“Plus, we have to excavate this, and we can do the nurse’s bed sheets thing.”
“You mean the Michael doubles the work thing.”
“Sheesh, I thought we were family.”
“You think that one burns, you should hang out with my sister.”
“Okay. Devin get down in the stream edge and measure the length of this curve. Tanner, measure the height. I’m going up to the equipment yard, see where the hell we’re parking these tool trailers.”
“Seriously, did you really buy three enclosed trailers for six thousand dollars apiece – like, I know you did, but that ain’t normal here.”
“Well, yeah. Look around. Poverty everywhere because they waste and don’t plan.”
“That’s a little harsh.”
“Yeah, that was, dickish.”
“Straight dick.”
“Bent dick.”
“Dickish. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that I have to move the house. I didn’t expect to sell it, but now it’s sold, and I gotta move. I need a whole thousand square-foot building to store my two thousand square feet of tools and shit and supplies and materials. I need space, now. Those trailers are barely a hundred and sixty square feet each, and they’re packed to the sunroofs with shit, not one thing wasted. When I’m done with them, I sell them, and they cost me a few thousand dollars. Probably be less than we’re paying for the storage units, and we have our tools on site.”
“I dunno, a whole tote full of lathe tools and face mask. I don’t see a lathe up here.”
“Where you want me to measure from?”
“Sorry, Devin, right there is best. Hook it on that stick and go that way. Tanner, shoot the laser down to the water. How tall is this wall? That’s it, Devin. Couple more steps. There. What’s that?”
“Fifty-one feet.”
“Okay, come on back up. Tanner, what’s your measurement?”
“Eighteen feet.”
“No way. Did you start here at the ground?”
“Oh, no. I didn’t think of that. Thirteen feet, nine inches.”
“Okay, that’s the footage.”
“That’s a lot of boulders.”
“Big boulders. Let’s head up and get this day rolling. So the trailers.”
“Where do you want the one on my hitch?”
“Same spot, right next to the other two – right there at the base of the hill before you walk up.”
“So park the trailer, hook up the other, and go to the rock yard?”
“Yes. Here’s the credit card. Take Devin.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“How’s it going up there?”
“This is getting familiar.”
“Yep, next you’ll tell me something new and absurd, and I’ll be genuinely shocked or excited.”
“Jealous.”
“Jealous, ha? This’ll be good.”
“So, I’m…”
“Seriously? Now you’re Tanner, starting with, so?”
“Ironic, I met their teacher today.”
“Whose teacher?”
“The dodgeball coach. She’s our neighbor.”
“Their gym teacher is our neighbor?”
“I was anchoring.”
“Down with the ship. Start over.”
“Even more ironic. I think she’s their English teacher or something, and she was way nicer to them than you’re grading me right now.”
“You gotta do better. Get the information and stop mangling the delivery.”
“Stops and interruptions.”
“Parables.”
“So, our neighbor at the end of the driveway, on the left as you come in, was their teacher.”
“I got that already.”
“Are you shitting me? You met her and never told me?”
“Oh my god! How is it possible you’re this dense?”
“I’ll show you dense. She caught me and Tanner holding hands, and she’s mad at you because you never came down to introduce yourself.”
“---”
“Oh, cat got…”
“It’s not your turn. Don’t you take my turn. I was thinking.”
“I’ll wait.”
“Why were you holding hands with Tanner? No, not that one. How did she catch you holding hands with Tanner?”
“I’m so glad you asked. You obliterated my authority with your pancakes – blueberries, that’s ridiculous – and they let me know it. They called you the nice one. Asked if they could have you back. I had to do something.”
“So you made him hold hands?”
“Yup.”
“You have to be better. You’re insufferable.”
“Wait, there’s more. I was right about the blackberries sign that first day. There’s this screen around the porch…”
“I’ve seen the screen.”
“You can’t see in. Apparently, she sits there and watches the world go by. Name’s Betty. There’s a Mr. Betty…”
“Their last name is Betty, or her name is Betty, and you are doing that mangle thing again?”
“Interruptions. They said the last name, but I didn’t metabolize it.”
“Not this again.”
“No need to run this one – worst she ever did was double dip at the PTA meeting.”
“That’s assault.”
“This lady’s so sweet I can’t imagine she curls her hair for fear of hurting its feelings.”
“That’s us. It’s how we getcha.”
“Us?”
“What?”
“Nevermind. So we’re down there measuring for boulders, and I tell the boys keep it down for the neighbors, and this beautiful voice calls out, “We’re not sleeping.” as if from that Blue-Bird box on the porch rail. Just there she was, talking to us right in the middle of me talking to them. Like she’s been there the whole time, and my surprise is unfounded.”
“Whitman, you’re holding hands.”
“That’s a city poem, honey.”
“Fast grep.”
“So, you got my guys all, “It’s 7:57,” and this the first time we got a professional company depending upon our unfinished work between them and their pay, and I don’t want to be embarrassed.”
“Let me get this straight. You didn’t want to be embarrassed, so you stroll down out of the deep woods a quarter-mile to the public roadway holding hands with another man because of blueberries?”
“That’s about it. The shocker is that somehow I lost my power play.”
“You don’t say.”
“We’re talking to the sweet old lady, and he won’t let go of my hand. Death grip, fingers intertwined. He knows her. They’re talking, and I tell him to let go, and he says, nope.”
“Jesus!”
“Guy’s got nothing to do with this devil. So, like I said she was like a teacher of his or something in high school. So, she’s used to his shit, and he’s not at all embarrassed, this is just between classes fuck all for this kid.”
“Give that boy a raise. That’s an order.”
“And they’re pulling back in the driveway right now with the first load of boulders.”
“First load? They charged like twenty-two hundred dollars. How many loads are there?”
“You’re watching..? I gotta go. Chat in a bit.”
“Rus, walk that excavator down to the washout in the road. You should be able to get around all the stone deliveries. The rip-rap is out there in the middle of the road more than the other two – be careful you don’t get sideways on those rocks, you’ll throw a track for sure.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Cody, you’re just about done here. Just get it good and clean, and when you’re done feather in two or three buckets of gravel to keep the mud down.”
“Will do.”
“Okay, kids this is it. In and out. You only got two pallets there, like ten boulders.”
“Can’t get more than that at once. It’ll crush the trailer. That was already too heavy.”
“It is what it is. I’ll work this wall. You go back and get more. Do you need Devin?”
“Not really. I pay, they load.”
“Good. Get going. Devin, run up to the trailers and get all the DOT straps. We’ll need those to place these boulders. Rusty hop out of there. That’s me work.”
“You sure?”
“It’s me work. I’ll show you the bottom cut. Can’t block off this waterway, or the water backup will flood Betty’s yard.”
“Yeah, we best get back on that dam pipe, or Betty’s yard be least of the worries.”
“Sort of. That dam’s almost a quarter mile upstream. Even if it popped all at once, by the time that much water spread out over this distance, it wouldn’t be much more than two, maybe three feet deep.”
“Still flood the yard.”
“Yeah, but not much more. So, you cut back at the bottom’s edge here.”
“I see it. Reach down, scoop the bottom next to the creek and place foundation stones the length of where the washout was.”
“Exactly. Once they’re in, you’re digging out pockets along the slope to place the stones one after the other.”
“Heavy accumulation at the bottom courses, and just stagger them up the face of the hill.”
“That’s it. You got the eye for it. Do you have the hand?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay, change. You do it then. Once you got these ten in, dig this patch out of the road. Stack it all here. Have Cody start with dumping in the rip rap then some of this patch material, then some two-inch, then top course.”
“Dig creek side. Place boulders. Dig out patch material. Stack it here. Rip rap, patch material, Two-inch, Road top.”
“More or less. Looks like Tanner will be on the road back and forth all day. This’ll be ten times what he bought the first trip.”
“It’s a big job. We should have started this Monday.”
“The concrete trucks could have gotten past the patch with a spotter. My only fear was the edge of the high side. We get as far as we can, as best we can, and if we can’t finish, we patch back up what we couldn’t get right, and we spot on Monday. Who can work tomorrow?”
“---”
“No takers. It’s a sweet pot. I’ll go cash-pay and forty an hour.”
“Me.”
“Me.”
“There’s two.”
“I’ll go ask Cody.”
“Yeah, right. That boy don’t work weekends.”
“Yeah, Meghan. I know. But she doesn’t work until four.”
“Good luck with that. I’ve never seen him work a weekend, and since he’s had a job, he has money to do stuff on the weekends now too.”