Page 8 of Ghost
Chapter Four
Mitch sighed and rolledhis eyes.“Listen, Mason, you can’t be up on a ladder with your head doing a disco ball impersonation and I can’t do it by myself.Paul is willing to help out for free as long as he gets the same deal as me.Free beer and food.”Mitch put a small plank over the hole where the broken step had been.“Besides, he’s really happy to get away from his ol’ lady and them four kids for a week.”
“Four kids!”Mason leaned against the wall, the world tipping just a bit.“I didn’t think he was that old.”
“He isn’t.”Mitch tapped in a few screws to hold the board in place.“He’s only like thirty-two or something.Not much older than we are.”
“Maybe you should have a talk with him and explain how all that works.You know, the birds and the bees talk?Or at least buy the poor guy a box of condoms.”Mason snickered at the thought of Mitch talking about some other guy’s dick.
“Yeah, yeah...laugh it up.Anyway, he’s gonna be here anytime now.You might want to tell him to pull his truck around the corner.They allow parking for workers during the week I found out.”
“I wish I could pay him something for his work,” Mason said.“It isn’t fair that he work for nothing.”
“He’s not.Remember, beer and food.”Mitch laughed.“He can drinkmeunder the table, and you know how big he is.”
“Maybe I should just give him money then.I might come out on the better end of that stick.”
Mitch pushed the extension ladder into place on the same step caused Mason’s fall, now covered with a plank.“You just might,” he chuckled.“Hold the ladder for me.We don’t need to have both of our heads bashed in.”
It didn’t take but a few minutes for Mitch to take out the old fixture and free up the old wires so that they could be pulled out.
While Mitch was up on the ladder, Mason noticed that a huge chip of paint had fallen off the wall, probably where the leg of the ladder hit when he’d crashed it.Looking a bit closer he could see that there were many layers of paint, but in the center of the gouge there was some colored print.He leaned in and instantly knew it was wallpaper.
“I think I hear a truck outside,” Mitch said as he stepped off the ladder and bent over to see out the front door.“I think I see Paul.”
Mason had also squatted down so he could also see out the front door.“Yep, that’s him.”
“Paul, pull your truck around the corner,” Mitch yelled out.
Paul Meadows, whom they’d both worked with before on other projects gave them a thumbs up and turned back towards his beat-up old Ford truck.
Mason snickered.“I guess you’ll be the one up in that crawl space.There’s no way Paul will ever be able to fit up there.”
Mitch looked at Mason and scowled.“You fell off that ladder on purpose, didn’t you?You just didn’t want to have to get up in that crawl space and get all hot and dirty.I know you did.”
“Yep, guilty as charged.”Mason shook his head.“Getting my head bounced down a bunch of steps was sooo much easier.”
“Hey, you guys,” Paul said as he entered the house.“Damn, this is some place you got here, Mason.Good to see you.Oh, and thanks for giving me a call.Glad I could help, but damn, them kids are driving me nuts with them not in school.”Paul put his hand out to shake.“Nice to have a little bit of a break.”
“Thanks for helping out, Paul,” Mason said after shaking the big man’s hand.“I’m really sorry I can’t pay you for your time.”
“Don’t worry about that, Mason.Like I said, I’m glad to have a working vacation,” he said laughing.“And I know if I were needing some expert carpentry work, you’d help me out.”
“Right, well it’s about quitting time,” Mason said as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet.“Why don’t you and Mitch run down and get some beer and food?”He handed Mitch a wad of cash.“I’ll lock up here and meet you back at the apartment.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Mitch said.“Anything in particular you’d like to eat?How’s the stomach?”
“I think I can eat just about anything.”Mason rubbed his stomach.“I’ve not felt sick much at all today.”He rotated his shoulder and wrist.It was sore but not too bad.Must have a slight sprain when he fell on top of dislocating his shoulder, which hurt like a son of a bitch.
“Yeah, sorry to hear about your fall,” Paul said.“But I’m lucky to be able to come down.The last big job I was on ended and the next one isn’t scheduled until week after next and like I said, two-plus weeks with the kids at home was more than I could handle.Love my kids but they were driving me nuts!”
“Come on, Daddy,” Mitch said, pulling on Paul’s shirt.“Let’s go get that beer and something to eat.I’m starved and ready for some suds.”
Paul scowled at Mitch.“Youdo not get to call me that.I hear enough of that at home.”
Mason laughed as the two electricians walked out the front door and down to the sidewalk, then he turned and began picking up the few tools they’d used and put the ladders away.As he walked down the hallway towards the back of the house to make sure that the back door and windows were locked, he thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye in what had once been the dining room.He turned and saw nothing.Shrugging his shoulders, he went about locking up the house for the night.
* * * * *
