She sat by the coffeepot, desperately waiting for it to finish so she could have her first cup. Did she even have food to eat? She looked in the fridge and was thankful she had enough to make an omelet. And a hefty-size one too. She pulled out the ingredients and started to get it ready but didn’t want to until she had her first cup of caffeine. With that done and the first cup poured, she opened the back door and propped it ajar.
As she walked out, she smiled because this would be her last day with this tiny deck. Of course it could be worse. She might have no deck; she hadn’t considered that because, before anybody could build a new deck, the old one had to come down first.
She sighed and said to Mugs, “The things you do to improve your life.” He woofed a little but was basically telling her that he didn’t give a darn. She could relate. She walked down to the creek with the animals, Goliath appearing out of nowhere and shooting right down to the creek ahead of her. Once there, she looked at the water but didn’t think it was any higher. Yet from the wet ridge a little bit past where the water level was now, she noted it had gone higher during the night. She walked to check the hoses, and there, every once in a while, water gushed out.
“So the pumps are working,” she said out loud. It also meant that the creek was that much higher and that the groundwater was soaking backward toward the house. But still, everything was doing what it needed to do. And, with that thought, she plunked her butt down on the grass and sighed. “I want to go back to sleep,” she announced to the world. But, of course, nobody was listening.
She sat here for the longest moment, sipping her coffee and enjoying the fact that she had at least gotten up a little earlier, so she didn’t have to deal with Mack right in her face for the moment. He’d be here soon enough. As long as she had a chance to get where she needed to be first, which mentally meant she needed to get her engines turned on, then she’d be fine. With the coffee, she sat for a little bit longer and then got up and walked back to the house.
As she walked in, Mack came around from the side of the house, entering her kitchen. She stopped, stared, and said, “You’re early.”
“I am,” he said. “You look like crap.”
She glared at him, and he shrugged, but she could see his grin slipping sideways. “Hey, I’m just saying.”
“Well, if you’re expecting any coffee, you better not be saying,” she snapped.
He stopped, looked at her, and asked, “Any problem?”
She shook her head. “No,” she said. “I’m just tired. I had a bad night.”
“Good enough,” he said. Then he went back out toward his truck. She followed.
He had dropped a bunch of stuff on the ground. “Is that all the stuff you bought last night?”
He nodded. “Make sure you eat,” he said. “And make sure there’s coffee for me too.”
She groaned and nodded, then headed back inside and poured herself a second cup of coffee. She poured him one too and knew they would need a second pot anyway, so she put that on now. She then started to make herself a hefty omelet. When he clumped up the stairs ten minutes later and walked in with a couple flats of beer, she stared at the beer, then at him.
He looked at her omelet in appreciation. “Wow,” he said. “You keep telling me that you’re making omelets. I’m really glad to see that you’re getting a little more creative.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but I don’t know how to be creative. I don’t really know what goes with what.”
“Everything goes with anything, as long as you like it,” he said.
She groaned. “I added zucchini to my sandwich yesterday.”
He stopped, then looked at her and said, “Well, okay, maybe not that far.”
She chuckled. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“It’s just another vegetable,” he said with a shrug. He walked over and picked up his cup of coffee, then took a sip of it. When it’d cooled enough, he took a bigger drink.
“Did you get all the shopping done last night?” she asked.
He nodded, walked over, dug into his pocket, and pulled out some bills and coins. “That’s the change from the materials and the booze,” he said.
She was surprised to see over $40 left. “Do you think you’ll need more?”
He nodded. “Just leave that accessible,” he said, “and we’ll see what else we might have to get over the weekend.”
“What we know for sure is that we’ll need more stain,” she said.
“Yep, so don’t spend that in your mind.”
“No,” she said. “I won’t. I’m wondering if we’ll have enough for the rest of the deck without spending everything that was in the bowl.”
“We’ll give it a good try,” he said.
As soon as she popped the last bite of omelet into her mouth, she stood and cleaned up the kitchen, then grabbed her gardening gloves and turned to him and asked, “How do we start?”
He grinned. “The best part,” he said. “We take it all down.”
“I was thinking about that this morning,” she said. “That doesn’t sound like much fun.”
“It’s actually great fun,” he said cheerfully. “And most of it is rotten anyway.”
“Is it?”
“It is.” He took her out to the deck and said, “We’ll make you a way to get up and down into your kitchen, but we have to take all this off.”
She sighed.
