The Drip, a novel by Michael Gullo
“Cody, you ain’t got the kitchen clean yet!”
“Meghan had to work, and Lonnie’s I don’t know where.”
“Truck’s here.”
“He ain’t.”
“I’m pickin’ up the girls, and we’re suppose to move their things in today.”
“You gotta git on Meghan’s car.”
“Don’t say it like that. Was you stopped me yesterday, don’t want Mrs. King come over, and we got the hood up.”
“Gotta git it today. She come back, and I ain’t got that fix.”
“I only lack like three minutes if you come hold the connector at the firewall.”
“Fine, let’s go. Get that hood.”
“I gotta get my fat ass underneath. That jack pressed into the dirt.”
“Fine. Git in thar n pass me the wire.”
“Don’t let it snag, Cody. Pull it easy.”
“Did you do that I asked you to do?”
“I did, but there ain’t nothin’ in all that. It’s legit, Cody.”
“Hell you mean, legit? Man’s a tax evader, and his old lady’s a cop. Did you even ask?”
“I did. I called the hotline, and they asked who I was and I told them I wanted to stay anonymous, and they just kep sayin’ they can’t give legal advice and tryin’ get my name. It’s not what you think it is.”
“He’s a thief. They put Pedro in jail for the same thing.”
“It’s not the same thing. Thread it away from the manifold so I can pin it to the firewall. Pedro went to jail for human trafficking.”
“Start with that 1099 though.”
“This isn’t a 1099.”
“That man gotta go.”
“Cody, he’s a guy building a house, and he give us a company so he don’t have to keep a payroll and all the paperwork we been doing to get our paychecks.”
“Ain’t that much work.”
“Because you did it for shit. Man made me resubmit both of your invoices.”
“I ain’t do that man’s work for him, he give away a company, brag all his friends how smart he is teach monkeys keep the books. Whole problem them Yankees come down here, got they fancy computers put a man on the rolls, won’t pay him cash.”
“The money is good, and he says it’s a two year build. Cody! You’re kickin’ the jack!”
“Oh – you shoulda seent the look on yer face.”
“Ida liked to see the look on your face when that Rottweiler come at you the way it did.”
“He got old. Last time I saw that dog, they was both of them, I’m up thar, get the sang, and that man come up with his mama in her Lexus atter they bought the place. Them dogs smell me up on that ridge, and I had all I could do git over the hill and up the tree stand.”
“Weird he kept them dogs – same dog?”
“Look like. Ain’t no dog of mine. How I know? You come fishin’ tonight?”
“Man, I gotta work, Cody. You and Lonnie every night up that lake don’t make no sense.”
“Other night we sneak in the holler instead, Lonnie got a Bullhead, and that shed light go off we gotta split.”
“Too cold at night be fishin’, and that man’ll fire you if you don’t show up to work.”
“Can’t fire me.”
“He can fire all of us.”
“That man’s a coward, won’t fire nobody, n now he need that house built.”
“He’ll just hire someone else.”
“Shoulda seen him today, got some Mexican up there, he’s speak Spanish just like them.”
“He speaks Spanish?”
“Yep, just like them. They’s talking along pretty as you please.”
“I hope he don’t hire Mexicans.”
“What do you care?”
“Cody, I need this job. We never had it this good. New machines, work at my own pace, every day I get the girls from school and there’s nobody got me on stress – except you.”
“I got you on a place to live.”
“And I thank you for it, but you act like you own a property, and you give me free rent or something.”
“Hell you mean?”
“Got me here with this car, act like I owe it to you. I’m your friend, Cody, and I’ll help you cuz we’re friends.”
“And I help you.”
“What are you boys doin? I hear you deep in them wooods.”
“Jesus, Deddy. You scar the hell outa me.”
“Boy, you need to pay attention, let a man sneak up on you like that.”
“You was over thar again, wasn’t you?”
“I was, and I see you, boy, about die in place that dog come at you. Why you just stan there like that?”
“Stan thar? I’s movin’ so fast the clock ain’t keep up.”
“Boy, you know that man’s dog’s a killer, Bonafide killer, and you just stand there lookin’ like you got no sense.”
“Hell you say.”
“Good thing you wise up. From up on that ridge, look like he just miss your foot you close that door.”
“That’s got her. Help me up. Cody. Help me up.”
“Rusty, how you? Place gonna lively right up them girls of yours livin’ here.”
“Heya, Lonnie. They’re real excited.”
“Tonight the night?”
“Yep, soon’s Cody cleans that kitchen.”
“Why I gotta clean, you just gonna mess it up for supper?”
“Boy, aintchoo got no pride?”
“You clean it, Deddy.”
“You lazy, boy. I heard you last night, Meghan tell you clean them dishes and bring them up the hill fore she get home from work today. Least you got on that car.”
“Yeah right, all I gotta do is connect this spade – there it is. Start her up.”
“Boy, what that man mean your two-thousand?”
“What, Pop?”
“’fore you storm off, that man ask what you do with your two-thousand.”
“So?”
“What two thousand is that?”
“Deddy, that ain’t none of your business.”
“Damn sure is. You my boy, and you skip’n work, got a satchel of gummies so big look fake, and now you put the lean on Meghan’s car like you got money to burn.”
“Deddy, this none your business.”
Boy ain’t got no sense. He get a job pay him more one day than I make half a month, and he piss it all away crazy-head-candy and damn fool contraption ain’t worth the clips he use stick it on there. And who keep pullin’ keys off my computer?
“He’s getting worse.”
“It’s all day.”
“Can he hear us?”
Hear them. Little assholes thinks I’m deaf too. That’s what’s wrong, these kids they sassin all day long, not bad enough that boy a mine, now he call in reinforcement. Next you know he bring the Yankee down here wine and cheese, and expect me I should bend the knee that man tear out my whole menu I can’t eat ’thout that holler. Put him up a mansion, don’t let me fish. I show him. I fish when I want to, and I get me them deers too, anytime I want, and nothin that man can do stop me. And now that Boyd come skull aroun’ and he put up a house the only way Lonnie know git into that holler quiet. He put it right there, only way. And even I get past that, they’s a killer dog, that monster ain’t no more’n reflection his owner.
“Boy, you call that tax man yet? Boy, you listenin’?”
“Deddy, I call ’em, and they say they need more information. Can’t tell ’em all I know they want my name, and they say they ain’t give legal advice.”
“You ain’t ask legal advice, you ask the reward turn that Yankee in, git us back that holler.”
“Deddy, they gotta write the check to someone give that reward. Who they write that to, you? Me? Can’t have that. We live on that 1099 money all our lives, and we ain’t file taxes. They just take the reward check against our own unpaid tax.”
Damn boy, got no stick-to-it, meet one wall, and here he is just give up easy come easy go. That’s the problem these kids. “Rusty, you ain’t no quitter, is you?”
“Naw, Lonnie. I got four girls keep me from quit. Them three babies all the motivation I ever need.”
“Hear that, Cody? Rusty know.”
“I hear it, Pop, but what you lack is real ground. You call I quit, n I never said I quit. I said ain’t easy as all that, just make a phone call, and the man leave in cuffs. And do it wrong, maybe I’m the one leave for the lockup.”
Come down here change it all about, damn the hokey-pokey play with our ways work all these hundred years ain’t nobody never complain how we get by don’t need they help all they do ruin everthin’. Change everthin’, make it like where they from, never realizin’ where they from is where they leff, and they left it for a reason.
“Deddy, don’t you wanna git ahold of your things you left in your room, bring em to your new room? The girls move in tonight.”
That’s it. Ever body and they change. Live in that room all his years, Mama raise him there. Leave it all behind git more high on the hill. And that boy can’t tell why. Ask and he say nicer trailer. Ask and he say bigger. Ask and he say better view. I say all I see is the roof of my home and some other man raise his family in it.
“Deddy.”
“Yeah, boy, I heard you.”
“You hear that motor, Cody? She’ll go forty-fifty mile a gallon now.”
“Show that Yankee.”
“Why you hate him so bad?”
“I do. I hate him. Come down here, tell us how we live, ain’t we want better. I git better without him. Ain’t him move me up the hill. Ain’t him. Ain’t him no how. I live my own life, find my own work. Rusty, why ain’t we just put that Facebook ad again, fix machines on site?”
“The ad’s there, Cody. Most the calls though are jobs too big.”
“What you mean too big?”
“Cody, we got no crane, we got no three-quarter drive set, we got no way to fix most the calls come through. And now we can’t take none of the calls because we’re already working.”
“Dip out. That man ain’t do nothin’”
“Cody, I can’t just dip out. I need this job. Hell, I like this job, and I ain’t messing it up so you can mess up your’n.”
“How you say like this job? You right there with me all of it, hit the trees, booger the machines.”
“No, Cody. You went on about too much grease tighten the tracks, and now you put me in the skid it’s like driving a rock down the road. I owe that man two-thousand dollars, and…”
“You ain’t owe that man shit. He dumb enough give you money, you take it. Advance pay, my ass.”
“Cody, I owe that man two thousand dollars of work, and now I gotta ride circles ferryin’ that dirt, rattle around the cab, got a sore back.”
“That leak start good on the idler though, ain’t it?”
“Stink give me a headache.”
“Be over soon enough. Man say man work, man get paid. Man wait for parts, man get paid. You’ll see. He’s a liar.”
“Ain’t gonna work, Cody. He’ll just put you on something else.”
“We’ll see.”