The Drip, a novel by Michael Gullo
“Mornin’, Rusty. Those are some pasty white legs, brother. Where’s your little buddy?”
“It’s seventy out here. I dunno where he is. I called him like six times, and he didn’t answer the phone.”
“He don’t like working in the rain, that’s for sure.”
“True, but ain’t posed to rain till lunch.”
“He’s a planner. How’s the new place?”
“It’s good. We got the girls set up last night, and we’ll set up our room tonight.”
“You won’t miss sleeping on the couch, that’s for sure.”
“Floor.”
“You slept on the floor?”
“Yeah, my brother’s was crowded, and the motel only had two beds.”
“Buddy, you’re a better man than me.”
“I ain’t so sure, you ain’t in Hardin Valley no more, that’s for sure.”
“I’ll take this holler any day over a gravel lot motel listening to Chapman highway traffic all night long.”
“Man, you ain’t kiddin’. Been in that hotel near a month – with the neighbors and the constant noise, the girls up ten times a night, fall asleep in the cereal ever mornin’.”
“Those stupid rules don’t make sense. How’s it better leaving a crowded home with your brother to live in noisy drug infested motel?”
“Buddy, they was cops ever three days, two prostitutes live there and a bunch of desperate families tryin’ make ends stretch, never get past middle of the month.”
“Bureaucracy. It don’t gotta make sense if they can checklist the CYA.”
“Girls got a room now, and I can’t thank you and Stefanie enough. Nobody ever stepped in my life like that before. You saved our ass, Michael.”
“Insert feelings distraction here.”
“Yeah. Just know.”
“I know.”
“So, what’r we up to?”
“Pick up on the house seat cutting those high benches. Cut dirt, carry, and repeat.”
“That skid needs a minute. I was driving yesterday, and the track’s too tight. Gonna blow the seal on that idler if I don’t let off grease.”
“Why’s it so tight? Who greased it last?”
“I don’t know who greased it last, but whoever they was, they put a whole tube of it in there.”
“Glad you noticed.”
“Couldn’t miss it, run over that gravel like a shaker deck rattle my rocks right into the tailings pile.”
“Gold Rush. Great visual. What’s the fix, get the plate off and bleed the zirk?”
“More or less. Won’t take twenty minutes.”
“Best plans of mice and men.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Any bet Cody rides them Legborghinis to work?”
“He ain’t comin’.”
“That’s a shame. Get to it before the rain. I’ll be in the shed.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“What’s up with you boyzos?”
“I just got Rusty set up. Tanner and Devin just pulled in down there, and I have an email from the well man says he’s coming at 9:00 this morning.”
“Oh, that’s unexpected.”
“It’d be nice if he shows this time.”
“How long’s it take to drill a well?”
“It’s not long. If I can get someone here drilling.”
“It can’t be this hard to get a well.”
“It shouldn’t be, but it is. How about that Sampson company?”
“What the hell?”
“The well company, Samson.”
“--- Atlas, Michael. The name is Atlas.”
“Easy, Delilah. Did Atlas call back?”
“Nope, and the Corum lady doesn’t answer my calls anymore.”
“Which one bought Sterling Hair’s customers?”
“That’s the guy’s coming back today.”
“Wait. I only met one well guy up here, and it was that guy acted like he could start that week and never called me back.”
“I don’t remember him.”
“Big cast of characters up here.”
“Whatever. If we find a well guy, how long before we have a well?”
“It’s a well before the day is out if someone shows up with a drill truck. Only exception is the pump man – some of the drill companies install the pump and all, but some are separate services.”
“So, it’s complicated.”
“Yup. I got another GC at lunch. What’s your day?”
“Mine’s supervise the evidence collection at the warrant site and run the inventory.”
“I love a good defense attorney.”
“Until they make me inventory the post-its.”
“Whiner.”
“You inventory the post-its then.”
“Nope. I got my own troubles. Cody laid out this morning, and I gotta get this hole dug – you calling on the universe last night to get my worksite pink-slipped.”
“What the hell you talking about?”
“Made me talk out loud last night about digging a foundation without a permit. The universe don’t like a brag.”
“Cody laid out… that’s where you left off.”
“Yeah. Rusty called and the boy never answered.”
“Are you tired or something?”
“Do I sound tired?”
“Don’t make sense is the clue.”
“I was up a lot last night. Me and Bad Kitty were up watching TV, but she wouldn’t lite somewhere. Head pop up, look around, stare out the door, tail flitting.”
“Restless?”
“I mean, ordinarily five minutes into America, The Story of Us my elbow’s wet with drool.”
“I didn’t get any Ring notifications.”
“Me either, but kitty was blinging all night.”
“Dogs rule, cats drool.”
“Kitty works just fine. She simply doesn’t treat you like you don’t got sense enough to listen.”
“Agreed. Kitty’s subtle.”
“No need to bark and bounce all over the place. Something’s out there.”
“Something or someone?”
“I don’t speak cat.”
“Clover would tell me.”
“Easy, Berkowitz.”
“It’s just an uneasy feeling. Not just last night either. I was out with her a couple times, and she’s staring up the ridge, turns around wants in the shed.”
“That’s creepy.”
“Has its moments.”
“Nothing actual, though?”
“Nope. I’ll have Tanner finish the deadbolt install today for all the good that’ll do.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Yeah, but it’s French doors, Stef. A little latch on one side and a deadbolt on the other.”
“Did you just snap at me for your own security failures?”
“Maybe. I’ll call Bill today --- Hey Tanner, come on in.”
“What’s up?”
“Hey. No Cody today. You’re…”
“Do you want me to call him?”
“No. I mean that’s your thing. I was just explaining what I was about to explain about your day.”
“Alrighty, then.”
“Swap places with Rusty. You’re in the skid steer today. Put Devin on erosion fence.”
“He won’t --- Michael. Let me off the phone and call me back.”
“I was going to have you tell Tanner about Boyd.”
“That’s you work.”
“You asked a dozen questions.”
“No longer pertinent.”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
“So, me on skid. Devin won’t get much done without a second man.”
“He can pound one stake and measure and pound in the next.”
“I’ve been off the dig crew long enough – where the spoils going?”
“Last instruction to Cody was, as long as it’s shale-top-crumbles, stack out the road up there. Have you seen it?”
“Yes. So I take it, and I just store it on the forest road – in stacks like Cody has them?”
“More or less. Eventually, Robby will come along and he’ll install that septic field over there just above the equipment yard, and we’ll place the solar poles in the open field that he creates in doing it. That shale storage will be used for the high road here to the switchback turn to come into the garage in the back of the house.”
“So, shale to piles like Cody has them.”
“Yeah. Like I said. We’ll be using those to create the road through the forest up here, and what’s left behind will be the base for the road to where we’ll install the permanent solar.”
“I’ll get Devin started on the erosion fence.”
“Don’t dawdle. Warm weather this early and rain coming in means a stormfront this time of year.”
“---Who’s that?”
“I dunno. Well guy’s due at nine, but it’s only 8:30.”
“It’s a work truck.”
“First clue?”
“Busted grille.”
“Coming in hot.”
“He’s scared he won’t make the hill.”
“Serious – hey, slow down, slow down!”
“Jesus!”
“Hey – HEY! Slow down, buddy.”
“My god, are you nuts?”
“Holy shit, how’s I supposed to know there’s a pond up here?”
“Drive like you got sense, maybe.”
“He’s right.”
“Even your own man sees it.”
“I’m Don. This crash test dummy is my son, and he just about learned his lesson for once and for all.”
“Hi, Don. I’m Michael.”
“This is Tanner. Y’all gonna get outa the truck, or’d he scare you?”
“Can’t get out fast enough.”
“Son?”
“Johnny.”
“Heya, Johnny. Ya know, we’ve had a few people come all the way up, but that was commitment. Everyone else brought a fishing rod rather than catch ’em in the engine bay, though.”
“Spit gravel, baby. Got a road like that, man’s gonna ride it.”
“That explains the grille.”
“So, um, I’m gonna go call Cody.”
“Don’t do that for me, though. Left up to me, I’d let him fade away.”
“How’s that work?”
“We’ll get to it later. I call it the Porfiry principle.”
“There’s a name.”
“There’s a whole academic world, but Cody won’t come up defeated, numb and stunned.”
“So, it’s dirt hauled off in piles.”
“Yep, and we can talk about Cody at lunch.”
“You got it, bossman.”
“Dick.”
“Lookie there, Johnny. It’s just like home.”
“Yeah, ’cept you’re bossy.”
“He’s bossy too. Just different.”
“Oh great, we’re back to that again. Listen. Let me get started with Don. For now, it’s gonna rain, and we need to get the spoils out of there and get a grade in it, or we’ll be sitting on our hands while it dries out.”
“Where’s that well going?”
“Up that way, I’ll show you.”
“This a big site. Are you doing all the work yourself?”
“Me and the guys are doing the dirt work, but we’ll hire a GC for the actual house build, and I’m definitely no septic man.”
“Who bored in all those red pipes?”
“Buddy, that story’s longer than the walk. Short story. We couldn’t get power up the driveway, so we threw in a little bore work from over there to over here for solar power.”
“And this stake ribbon?”
“That’s where the surveyor started – his home station.”
“Will those solar panels do the whole house?”
“Déjà vu, I feel like I’ve had this conversation before.”
“I bet ever body asks.”
“It’s cool, actually. We put that split in the road down there just a couple weeks ago, and the idea is to pull that road you took up the back of the dam and start pushing people toward the house instead.”
“What’s cool about that?”
“Well, we put in the split, and everyone still chooses the right branch and comes up the hill to here.”
“This road looks more established.”
“Yeah. I’m working on that. This fork leads here and logically along the edge of the pond – walk this way – it runs along the edge of the pond, and you can see we’re mulching this out with the forestry mulcher – keep it natural.”
“Smells great though. Is that Sourwood?”
“Poplar saplings too. There’s some Sweetgum in there.”
“When’d you mulch this?”
“Over the past two weeks.”
“I wish my mulch smelled like that.”
“Yeah, but yours isn’t huge chunks and half stripped logs in the mix.”
“Good for the road though.”
“That’s kinda the point. We’re mulching this so the space between the house seat and the pond stays natural.”
“Is that what you’re digging up there on the left?”
“Exactly. Just getting the benches in now, and then we’ll drop it hard into a basement hole once they’re in.”
“I see that. Gonna be a walk-out basement though, right?”
“Yes here on the pond side. On the side up the hill it’ll be underground.”
“This a beautiful place. Little uphill though, ain’t it?”
“It just keeps on giving.”
“Is that --- is that a Directv dish, like working?”
“Johnny, I forgot you’re back there.”
“Buddy, you gotta love off roadin’ up here.”
“We’re a little more peaceful than all that.”
“Your loss I guess. What’s with the dish cable all coiled up, like do you bring the tv out here and watch it in the mud?”
“Wow. I hadn’t considered that. You see how they’re digging and hauling the spoils up there?”
“Well, yeah.”
“That shed at the end of this little mulch stretch, that’s where I live. We roll up the couple hundred feet of cable in the morning so we don’t drive over it when we’re hauling spoils, and then at the end of the day they unroll it and run it to the shed.”
“I mean, I get it, but how did you convince them to install your TV like that? I can’t get those installer guys to do anything if the house ain’t exactly ready yet.”
“You build houses, Don?”
“Me and my brother keep pretty busy. Started out drilling wells, and we built him a house, and then we built one for Mama, and one thing led to another, and now we build more houses in a year than the wells we drill.”
“Does that put you real far out on drill dates?”
“I mean, we have a backup, but we try and get the ones under pressure for the certificate of occupancy and the easy ones.”
“This one easy?”
“Probably pretty easy. It’s all water up here.”
“Lots of springs.”
“Do you know where you want it yet?”
“We’re coming to that. Just past the shed here.”
“Do you really live in here?”
“Hundred percent.”
“Cat in the bottom window’s a nice touch.”
“Hang on. She only stands there like that when she wants out.”
“You just cut her loose?”
“Yup – come on, Kitty. Get out here. Don’t stand there all day. Kitty, we have visitors, and I’m busy – come on, buddy. Out --- Do you see this?”
“I see it. And I’m telling.”
“Telling what?”
“You’re pussy whipped.”
“Booooo. Who you gonna tell anyway?”
“I spoke with Natalie at Rose Drilling. She told me you called them too, and Corum. You want a well pretty bad, ha?”
“That’s a little creepy.”
“It’s a tight group. More work than we can handle, and we get on a conference call every Monday to divvy up the load.”
“That’s a lot creepy. So all the customers are frustrated, and you people sit around laughing at them on Mondays?”
“No, on Mondays we set up to service the huge need and get to the priorities first – then if we’re in a particular neighborhood, and there’s a customer nearby’s been waiting, we grab that one too, then we just work down the list.”
“So not first come, first served?”
“There’s a couple guys out there ain’t in the committee, but for the most part all of us with listed numbers, we’re covered all the way up. We got a guy here on Dripping Springs this week though.”
“The well needs to go here. The house seat spreads a little because of the hill, but this area is outside the dig.”
“You’ll need to level this.”
“Don’t your truck have augers?”
“Leveling feet, yes, but we like it pretty clean and ready when we get here.”
“No problem, we can get it level before the day’s out.”
“I doubt that.”
“Buddy, we’re pros.”
“I been up the driveway.”
“Not this again.”
“I doubt we’d be able to get a drill rig up that road.”
“I mean, we get fully loaded rock trucks up here.”
“Ever had a concrete truck?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, I guess we’ll see. Call me next week when you get a level pad here.”
“I can have a level pad here in an hour.”
“We’ll see. Call me when you have a level pad. Does that pond have fish?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Anything big?”
“It’s too little for all that --- so when I get the pad done, you can drill the well?”
“We’ll look at it once you got the pad. That brook run like that year round?”
“I don’t know. I just bought it in November, but it’s been like that the whole time I’m here.”
“Such a pretty sound.”
“It’s like a bubbling fountain all day long.”
“You’re a lucky man.”
“When you say that the second time, knock on wood. I waited all my life for this.”
“Worth the wait.”
“I love it here.”
“Musta been messy putting in that bridge.”
“Wasn’t easy, but we had a bit of luck the first day when we had to dig in the stream, it was so cold, and the little stream was frozen --- at least until we dug into it, then it flowed steady steady right down the middle between the footer stones, and it ran clean and steady under the frame we built to set the rocks on for the arch build.”
“That water under the dig is a good sign we’ll hit water early.”
“I’d like a deep well.”
“Why’s that?”
“I like em holding water in the pipe.”
“Why? Your pump is sized to the refill rate?”
“Yeah, but surface water gets in, and a little water in the pipe dilutes the silt on the way down to the pump.”
“I see what you’re thinking, but if it’s cased and grouted correctly, surface water shouldn’t come near it.”
“When I whisper that to God, I’ll tell him you said so.”
“So, when’s the house gonna be ready?”
“We don’t even have a GC yet –-- unless your home building division has an opening.”
“Do you have a floorplan?”
“I do.”
“Do you have it here?”
“I do.”
“Do you want me to look at it?”
“I do.”
“Where’s it at?”
“Let’s get the cat inside, and I’ll get it.”
“Does she just sit on the porch like that all day and watch?”
“No, normally she sits inside and watches through the bottom window pane in the door – judging.”
“So y’all built the shed too?”
“The guys did. They’re pretty bright kids. Come on, Kitty, inside.”
“They went a little wild on the cedar shake, but they did a real good job --- oh wow, you really do live in here.”
“All day.”
“How long?”
“I’ve been here just about ten freezes.”
“The ceiling’s insulated, did you do the walls?”
“Yeah, but twenty is twenty.”
“Sheesh, you got a little heater and a fridge. I could do this.”
“Johnny --- ya know what, you’d love it. Do you need a take-off lumber list?”
“What?”
“A take-off, son. Like a bid.”
“I’d build it from our scrap.”
“Look out, Don. He’s got a dream --- here it is.”
“Johnny, light somewhere.”
“Grab that folding chair, buddy.”
“Roll it out here. What is this box?”
“It’s the batteries.”
“The whole thing?”
“Does it look big?”
“You got like, what, a sixteen-foot shed here, and you live in it. An eight-foot plywood box – it’s big.”
“Yeah. But it’s a good desk too. Just shut that computer and slip the roll under it.”
“That’s a big place.”
“It’s a two-bedroom.”
“Still, sixty-five feet by sixty-one feet, that’s almost four-thousand feet.”
“Wait, that’s with the sixteen-hundred feet of decks.”
“So, twenty-four.”
“That’s fair.”
“I think the plan calls it twenty-one-hundred.”
“Two-by-six framing. That’s good. Can I take this one?”
“That one’s mine. It has the survey bound into the back.”
“It’s a good plan. Houseplans dot net. The internet ones ain’t this good usually.”
“Have you got time to bid it?”
“Well, yeah. Did it come with a take-off?”
“I’ll email that.”
“Do you know any changes?”
“The foundation will need a garage in the basement.”
“Are you going block or poured?”
“ICF.”
“That’s a slick system.”
“Have you done it?”
“Not yet.”
“What’s IFC?”
“ICF. It’s like hollow Styrofoam forms, like Legos with rigid plastic frames in it. You run the rebar in the plastic frames, and everything fits together snug and tight, and you pour the concrete right into it.”
“I’ve never seen that.”
“Cuz you’re always on that phone with the TicTok and whatever.”
“How about the well? Have you got an idea when you can get to that?”
“Give me a call next week when you get that ground leveled.”
“I can have it leveled in a couple hours.”
“When you get it done next week give me a call.”
“You keep saying next week, and I’m thinking you got a well truck in your back pocket. I also get the impression you think I can’t get a simple level pad cut.”
“It’s not that. Most people say they’re ready, and we waste a lot of time show up and nothing’s ready.”
“Fair enough. But if I send pics, can I get on the schedule?”
“You don’t even have a house yet.”
“I live here though.”
“You have that water cooler there.”
“Yeah, but you see that toilet? It’s pond buckets, man. I need a place to shower. I gotta have water.”
“I mean, just call me next week when you have the pad ready.”
“Alright. I’m listening.”