'There's a whole sea of them down there.'
She nodded toward the stream at the foot of the property, where the woods began.
I looked at Farrell. He shrugged.
'I'm gay,' he said.
'Whaddya want?'
'What next,' I said.
'A lavender gun?'
Susan put a large takeout bag on the table and began to distribute food.
'Turkey, lettuce, tomato with sweet mustard on fresh whole wheat bread,' she said.
'There's a nice little sandwich shop in town. And some bread and butter pickles, and some spring water.
Does anyone want beer? Or some wine?'
'Rip-out guys don't do wine,' I said.
Farrell grinned.
'Whoops,' he said.
I settled for spring water, hoping not to sever a limb with the Sawzall, and Lee did the same. Susan had a Diet Coke, warm.
Farrell stared at it.
'Diet Coke? Warm?'
'I hate cold things,' Susan said.
'People clean battery terminals with warm Diet Coke,' Farrell said.
'That's their privilege,' Susan said and drank some.
'You working on that thing up in Port City?' Lee said.
'Yes.'
Pearl the Wonder Dog came loping up through the stand of wild flowers, jumped effortlessly up onto the table, poked her nose into the takeout bag, and held the point, her tail wagging like the vibrations of a tuning fork.
'She appears to have bayed the sandwiches,' Farrell said.
'Get down,' Susan said forcefully, and Pearl turned and lapped her face vigorously. I reached across and picked her up and put her on the ground and gave her half my sandwich.
'Isn't that rewarding inappropriate behavior?' Farrell said.
'Yes,' I said and gave her the other half of my sandwich and rummaged in the bag for a new one.
Farrell turned and gazed at the house.
'This is a hell of a project,' he said.
'Also long-range,' I said.
'You going to move in together when it's done.'
Susan and I said 'No' simultaneously.
Farrell grinned.
'Okay, we're clear on that. You got a plan?'
Susan looked at me. I shrugged.
'Outside,' Susan said.
'My plan is to cut almost everything down and start over.'
'Inside,' I said, 'I plan to rip nearly everything out and start over.'
'But no vision of what it will look like when it's done?'
'Step at a time,' I said.
'Part of stripping it down is learning about it. You get to know the house, and when it's stripped back to the essentials, it will sort of tell you what to do next.'
'Like an investigation,' Farrell said.
'Very much like that,' I said.
'Except the house doesn't lie to you.'
'Are they lying to you up in Port City?' Susan said.
'Yeah. Did you tell me that Sampson went to school on the GI Bill?'
'Yes.'
