The Drip, a novel by Michael Gullo
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“You’re up early.”
“Clover’s got biscuits on the brain before daybreak.”
“We got foggy breath around here.”
“You gotta turn on the heat. Dr. McCormick said cold is terrible.”
“It does hurt. Makes me clench. Not when I’m sleeping though. The comforter’s super warm.”
“You gotta cut this out.”
“What I gotta do is get the heat rolling. The only time I’m cold is when I wake up and get ready.”
“If something happens at night, I won’t even know till the next morning. You’ll…”
“None of that happens. I’m fine. A little cold never killed anyone.”
“That’s exactly untrue, one hundred percent.”
“Not like this. I’m fine. And today the batteries will charge, and I’ll have all we need.”
“What took so long?”
“It’s a process, honey. It’s installed.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“It works fine. The TV is on – and DirecTV is coming today, so I’ll have NewsMix to entertain me.”
“Can an ambulance even get up that driveway?”
“So the boys got that money yesterday. Tanner is going to pay taxes and he was going to pay a couple of car payments, but he’s going to pay down the ring instead.”
“Don’t do it.”
“Oh, I’m doing it.”
“Michael.”
“Yup, I took out all that money. Cash too.”
“At least there’s heat in jail.”
“There she is.”
“Don’t play with me.”
“We did all this just last week and the week before and the week before. Doctor McCormick said stress is bad too.”
“Nope - no. He did not. Never said a thing about nagging.”
“He did. He said it when you left the room.”
“I never left the room.”
“It was really uncomfortable in that gown too with you staring at my legs.”
“Turn on the heat, Michael.”
“I get sun today. We should hit float, and I can start measuring the batteries with heat tonight.”
“I have firearms training today.”
“Is that a warning? I have bear dodging. Did you see them on the Ring last night?”
“I haven’t looked at the notifications yet.”
“There were like five pings and two different bears.”
“That’s scary.”
“Not scary.”
“Until one of them eats you.”
“They’ll bring me back.”
“What?”
“The hardest part is standing still long enough so they won’t run away before you get your fill. Poof, they’re gone.”
“Are we still talking about the bleb?”
“Nope.”
“You’re about to give me a list of boring stuff and the complications that you foresee. I’m telling you that your next complication is a side effect. If you don’t have heat tonight, we come up there, and we tie you to the hood of the car – you’ll be locked in Pooty’s crate in Mammy’s living room.”
“Whatever happened to the days of endless wool?”
“Sheep wised up, got sick of you plucking hair to get away with some Michael bullshit.”
“So when we finish the dam, Cody and Rusty will get back to the back driveway. The road needs drainage to the gully. The felled trees need bucked and dragged. I’ll have them place all the branches in a row along the side of the pond, and I can start mulching that out. We gotta clean up the trailers, sort and organize all the tools and bring all the extra stuff – the later stuff like the lathe tools – to storage. Basically, the next week or two is finish the spillway pipe, road building and enough solar to turn on the heat, which I have on right now because the guys got this floor covered in mud already, and I can’t wear my blanket around like Andrew Cuomo.”