“Good morning, Jessica.” Lucy called cheerfully as she walked into the kitchen twenty minutes before the diner opened for the day.
“You’re in a good mood this morning. When did you decide to call me by my first name?” Jessica gave her a broad smile as she continued to gently work the pie crust dough.
“I’m in a good mood because I slept very well for a change, I have kind and generous bosses and Mr. Clean the maintenance fairy came by to level my trailer and fix the roof while I was at work yesterday.” She put her purse in the locker next to the back door.
Jessica chuckled. “Mr. Clean?”
Lucy looked at the clock and saw that she had a few minutes before the front doors opened. “It’s a long story.”
“Get a coffee and sit. You can wrap cutlery while you talk.” Jessica waved a flour coated hand at the stool near the prep table.
“I wouldn’t mind hearing the story myself.” Alec called over his shoulder as he took another pair of eggs from the flat next to the stove to add to the buttermilk and oil he was mixing up to add to the dry pancake ingredients later.
Lucy wasn’t really sure she was ready to tell it all but decided to trust the Samuels with it. She glossed over the weekend where she got pregnant and started with John’s surprise visit the previous Monday evening.
She told the story quickly and simply and finished with “I told him I didn’t want his help if he begrudged it. It wasn’t until I kicked him off my land that I thought about what he looked like. He’s, I don’t know, like the perfect picture of what a Boy Scout should grow up into. Way too clean-cut for my tastes.”
Jessica tossed a knowing look toward her partner and husband, whose eyes twinkled in return. Suppressing the urge to tease Lucy, she said, “So have you decided that it will be okay if he helps you out?”
“I haven’t decided about John, really. But I did decide that I should call you Jessica because you’re right, I do need help. But I will only accept help from friends. So, I can accept help from Jessica but not from Mrs. Samuels.”
Jessica noted that she called John by his first name, too, so maybe her little pep talk on Sunday had helped. “And what about Alec?”
“I suppose he’s allowed to be a friend, too.”
Alec looked out of the pass-through window to see a small gang of regulars waiting for the door to open. “Well, Lucy, you’d better take your place soon. And Jess, you need to put that in the fridge. There will be a rush as soon as you get that door open.” Recognizing a couple of the regulars in front he started cracking eggs for omelets.
Jessica gently placed the dough in a big stainless steel bowl and covered it with a damp cloth before putting it away in the fridge. “Let’s go greet our adoring public.”
Lucy laughed and drained her coffee before following with the basket of cutlery.
John looked at the assembled crew of volunteers with pleasure at the size of the group. He reminded himself that they were just that, volunteers, and he wasn’t to try to frighten them off with his master mason glare or perfectionism. Jason MacDonald was looking eager but his two friends were sullen. Then he smiled as he realized that this was probably the first time since school ended that they’d been up before noon. There were six retirees, two younger men who were looking for something to do other than job hunting and Phyllis Plunkett from his Bible study group, a sixty year old grandmother who looked at the wall like it was a grand adventure.
John stepped forward at a nod from Jack. “Thank you all for coming. Today I’m going to give you all the Repointing Masonry for Dummies quick course. Normally, this time of year, I like to work from sun up until mid-afternoon. But the repairs here are all on the north side so there will be shade for most of the day. Anne MacDonald and her crew are prepared to keep us in cold water and Gatorade and to feed us lunch and snacks every day we’re working. I don’t know about you, but the thought of Mrs. Graham’s pies and cakes for dessert every day doesn’t hurt my morale at all.” There was a polite laugh from a few of the longer term parishioners.
“So first, we start with preparing the surfaces for the new mortar. I’ll show each of you how to use the various chisels and brushes. We’re only interested in removing about a centimeter depth of the old mortar, perhaps a bit more if it’s really crumbly. When all of you know what to do, I’ll be looking for loose bricks and starting to either reset or replace them. That’s where Jason and his friends come in. You guys will be helping to mix mortar and to set up the scaffolding with me. We’ll work from now to lunch cleaning and resetting, then we’ll spend the afternoon mortaring what we cleaned in the morning.”
“I expect we’ll knock off sometime around three depending on how quickly everything goes. Any questions?”
One of the teenagers asked, “Are there power tools we can use to grind out the old mortar?”
John replied, “With newer brick I’d say yes. But these bricks are almost a century old and softer than what we normally use these days. And the mortar is the old fashioned limestone based stuff and it’s pretty soft too. It’s too easy to take out too much material with a grinder even if you have the guards set properly and these bricks chip at the corners too easily. So that means hand work with chisels and brushes, which by the way, is a better method than using a grinder if you have the time. And we do. But if you’re interested, I’ll teach you how to use the masonry saw and the sandblasting equipment. Devon, right?”
There was a spark of interest from the teenager. “Yeah, I’m Devon. Sandblasting sounds like fun.”
John shrugged. “It’s noisy and dirty but it does a really good cleaning job when it’s done right. So, who’s first up?”
Mrs. Plunkett put up her hand first. “How about me, John?”
“Sure, Phyllis. You can be first.”
He led her to a corner of the wall and marked out a four foot wide section with chalk. “We start right at the bottom.”
He handed her a new pair of safety glasses, a thin wire brush, a narrow chisel with a movable guard and a mallet. Then he showed everyone what to do, starting with the brush and then the chisel and mallet, finishing with the brush again. Then he stepped back to watch her work, slowly and meticulously. “Good work, Phyllis.”
Phyllis smiled and said. “How many rows do you think we’ll do today?”
He checked his watch. “Each row is called a course, for the sticklers out there, and I think we’ll be good if we get five, maybe six courses properly finished before lunch. But it will depend on how crumbly the surface mortar is. I’ll adjust the width of each of your sections after I see how quickly you work. Oh, and make sure you have the second horizontal finished before you start on the verticals. It’s much easier that way.”
He got out a tool and tested each of the bricks in Mrs. Plunkett’s section. He marked four of them for resetting and said, “When you get to one that I’ve marked, call me over.”
He repeated his instructions for each of the other volunteers then called the younger men over. “Do any of you know how to run a backhoe?”
The other teenager held up his hand. “I help Papa around the farm all the time. We’ve been putting in new tile drainage the last three seasons, so, yeah, I’m okay with a backhoe.”
John smiled. “Isaac, isn’t it?”
Isaac nodded.
“Then let’s start measuring for the concrete pad and the garden wall. As they announced on Sunday, Archie landed us a grant from the Senators Foundation to put in a regulation sized outdoor rink, so we have to go down about fifty centimeters to put in the foundation and the insulation under the finish concrete. And we have to put in footings for the wall.”
The three teens said, “Awesome. A full sized outdoor rink?”
John accepted the high five. “And I’m donating the boards and the window protectors so you guys won’t have to worry about anything except losing a puck in the snow bank. We’ll be putting down rubber mats in the church basement so you have somewhere warm and dry to put on your skates. And it will have
a nice high brick wall to protect everything from the wind.”
“Cool,” came a chorus from about half the volunteers.
John watched with crossed fingers as Isaac expertly maneuvered the tractor over to the construction zone and set the stabilizers down. “Real smooth, Isaac.” He accompanied that with a thumbs up gesture.
Isaac got a wide smile. “Where do we start digging?”
John called back, “It’s just like any construction. Measure twice…”
About seven voices responded, in unison, “…Cut once.”
John felt his worries about his crew evaporate. “Jack, do you have the approved plans? And the permits so I can post them?”
Jack looked wildly around then said, sheepishly, “Umm. They’re in my car. I’ll be right back.”
A couple of the older men laughed before everyone returned to their assigned task.
Lucy sat at the stool in the kitchen watching the clock creep toward three thirty. “You don’t mind me calling from the office at five? I’m pretty sure I forgot to leave him my number.”
“If you’re that nervous, why don’t you text him to see if he’s available now?” Jessica asked in a kind tone as she was rolling out pastry.
Lucy blew out a deep breath and nodded. “I think I will. It would be nice to get home and see if Bruno is doing okay.”
Jessica swallowed her smirk. “Send him a text.”
Lucy pulled out her cell and John’s card to send him a text.
Just off work. R u available?
She pressed send and waited. About thirty seconds later there was a reply.
finished 4 day. w8ing 4 ur call
She picked up the office phone and dialled.
“Hello, John MacLeish here.”
“Hi there, it’s Lucy Wilkinson.”
John sat back in his parked truck. So she was Lucy. “Thanks for calling. I was wondering if I could come by some evening this week to discuss a few things with you.”
Lucy was unprepared for the warmth in his voice. “Actually, I’m not in a position to have you do any work for me. I can’t really afford to have any repairs done right now.”
John was prepared for her hesitation. “You can pay me for the materials when you’re back on your feet but I wasn’t expecting any payment for my labour. So far I’ve used about six bucks in materials and the rest was my free time. I like doing that kind of thing for friends.”
Jessica’s raised eyebrow reminded Lucy that she shouldn’t refuse his help out of hand. “Well, as long as you’re certain.”
John felt a rising hope. “I’m certain. And most of the things I have on my list can be done with materials that I have in the barn left over from other jobs. It’s all been paid for already.” There was a pause. John waited a couple of seconds and asked, “What’s a good night for you?”
Lucy thought for a second and said, uncertainly, “Any night is good,” She hoped that he’d give her at least a day to think about things.
“How about Wednesday night? I have a client to meet tonight in North Gower and Tuesday is my Bible study night.”
“Wednesday sounds about right.”
“Good, I’ll see you then.” He paused, “Is there anything I can pick up for you?”
Lucy said, “No, that’s alright… No, wait, yes there is. You have that honkin’ big pickup, right?”
John smiled at the description of his truck. Rob had used the exact same words. “I’m a mason. I need a honkin’ big pickup to carry everything. Stone and sand are heavy.”
“I found a couple of chairs for the porch but they won’t fit into the hatchback.”
“Where are they?”
“At the Sally Ann in Smiths Falls. One is a Muskoka chair and the other one is a really nice wicker rocking chair. I’ll pay for them on the way home tonight.”
“Okay. Two chairs at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Smiths Falls for Lucy Wilkinson.” His voice slowed down and Lucy could imagine him writing everything down in his neat printing. After a short pause he said, “Can you let them know I’ll be picking them up on Wednesday for you?”
“Yes. I’ll do that. Thanks, John.”
“You’re welcome, Lucy. See you Wednesday.”
Lucy’s voice reflected the smile on her face. “Wednesday it is.”
“Have a good night, then.”
“Bye, John.” The smile was still on her face when she hung up the phone.
“Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Jessica was still busy rolling out dough for tomorrow’s pies.
“No, not hard at all.”
Jessica stopped rolling the dough. “Give him a bit of a break when you meet him again, Lucy. He’s probably one of those strong silent types who buries himself in work when he’s grieving. Is he married?”
“I didn’t see any rings, but he had that long time bachelor vibe going.”
“Oh?” Jessica began cutting out circles of dough.
“I don’t know how to explain it. When he came out to my place, everything was clean and pressed but if he was married he’d … dress differently, I think. He’s in his mid-thirties I think but it looks like he’s still dressing like a younger man. I think if he had a wife or even a steady girlfriend there’d be some kind of evidence in the clothes.” She snapped her fingers. “He’d probably smell like fabric softener or fresh scent laundry detergent if there was a woman in his life. He probably doesn’t care about that sort of thing.”
“Typical man.” Jessica laughed. “Alec buys the cheapest detergent going. I only use it to wash his uniforms and aprons. He hasn’t figured out that I use something else for the things he wears at home.”
Alec called over from where he was mixing up a batch of bread dough. “I do now, you sneaky old woman.” He said it with a fond smile on his face. “But don’t bother to use the expensive stuff on my uniforms. I smell like bacon grease twenty minutes after I start work.”
Jessica gazed fondly at her husband and said, “Okay, sweetheart.” There was a palpable aura of shared love between them.
Lucy felt hollow in her stomach, like something important was missing in her life, but rather than dwell on it she pushed herself up to standing and said, “Well, I’d best get over to the Sally Ann and hope they still have those chairs I saw on Saturday. See you tomorrow.” Lucy had a spring in her step as she left.
Jessica called, “Tomorrow.” Then she said a quiet prayer of thanksgiving for Lucy and John asking that the Holy Spirit watch over them and to give them both reasons to hope.
Chapter 7