Page 7 of A Light in the Dark
SEVEN
Now that you mention it, that would be nice.
My boss loved everything about my house, and he was so keen on learning about how I made my steps that I spent a full hour outside with him explaining the entire building process, showing him the empty bags of mortar, my tools, and giving him a demonstration with smaller pieces of stone I had kept after finishing my work. Halfway through, Joel strolled down the street and joined us, and he raised a brow. “If you teach the entire city how to do that level of stonework, you’ll run half the construction companies out of business.”
I laughed. “I’m nowhere near that skilled, but thank you. This is my boss, Mr. Accor. He wanted to see the steps.”
“They’re a work of art,” Joel replied before turning his attention to my boss and holding his hand out to shake. “We’ve met before, but it’s a pleasure to meet you again. I’m Joel. ”
“Humphrey. I tried to get Valerie to use my first name once, and she looked about ready to vomit, so I took mercy.”
I bowed my head and struggled to keep from giggling, as I’d been bordering on having an anxiety attack my first day working at the company. It shouldn’t have surprised me the pair had met before, but I found them reintroducing themselves to be amusing. “I can probably manage to remind you of your first name now and then if you’d like.”
“Now that you mention it, that would be nice.” My boss shook hands with Joel and pointed at my steps. “Did you witness her building this?”
“I saw some of it. She did all the steps except for mine, and she offered to do mine near the end of her adventures, but I’d already taken care of them by then. Mine are the easiest of the lot. The only thing she didn’t do on the rest of this side of the street was install the lift. I noticed that my foundation mysteriously cleaned itself this year.”
“I own a power washer, and I’m willing to use it,” I reminded him, and I picked up my miniature set of steps and held it out to Joel. “Here, you can now say you have a set of steps, too. You can install it in your garden and give your fairies a way into their abode.”
Every year, he set up a little fairy house made out of an old planter, one that was cracked beyond repair.
Joel grinned and accepted the steps, which were no more than six inches high. “I think I shall do just that, and I’ll make sure to bring in the fairy house and the steps before the floods hit again. I thought my previous one had been high enough to escape harm, but it’s gone.”
Damn. Judging from appearances, Joel had spent hours creating his little garden masterpiece. “We can go find a nice pot at the plant store so you can make a new one. Maybe you can show me what to do with my yard. I dodged any flood damage inside the yard itself. Mine’s a courtyard.”
I had no idea why the neighbor on the street behind me didn’t have a yard; beyond my fence was a two foot section of paved space that served as a drainage canal to handle water from the rooftops. I could only hope the owners had shored their foundations to protect it from the water that typically gushed down the hill between our homes.
“My courtyard escaped damage as well. I’d invested in a drainage system, as I got tired of being flooded on all sides and in my courtyard as well.”
Birds of a feather flocked together. “I might have cried a little when cutting the check for that work.”
“I know I cried, and it was more than a little,” Joel informed me.
“Would you say a hundred and twenty thousand for a shored property is a bargain?” my boss asked, and he pointed at the sigil marking my foundation. “It was done by this company.”
“Considering my shoring, by the same company, cost me four hundred thousand, you’re getting a steal,” Joel replied. “But to be fair, mine is more expensive because my property is the corner lot at the top of the hill, it has a garage and a habitable basement, and I have a shored courtyard as well. Valerie, is yours shored on all four walls or just the exterior?”
“All four. My neighbors aren’t as well shored, so my shoring also covers impact damage if there’s an issue with their properties. My courtyard’s foundation is shored, too.” I pointed at the change of coloration in the stone marking where my property ended and my neighbor’s began. “When I moved in, I asked about their shoring, and they showed me their sigils so I could look up who had done the work. I opted to pay more for better work.”
“Wise move,” my boss said, and he considered the steps for my home. “And these will just break away during a flood, right?”
“They will, except for the topmost step. There’s no point shoring anything other than the step closest to my door.” I went up the steps, opened the door, and showed the men my rescue rig. “I installed this on a whim, but that whim saved a woman’s life this year.”
“Can you send me the plans for that? We’ve had a few flood victims, and this would be invaluable.” My boss examined the braces for my feet along with the wrist strap. “You even have a life preserver.”
“I thought it was silly when I first got it, but it proved really useful. I don’t know if I need to replace it after use, though.”
“You don’t,” Joel informed me, and he lifted the bottom of the preserver to examine the sides. “It wasn’t damaged from the last use from the looks of it. These are designed to take a beating. I’d replace it every five years in an abundance of caution. The materials can degrade over time.”
I could handle replacing the preserver every five years if I were to stay in Stonecreek. “How did you know that?”
Joel grinned at me. “I paid my way through college working in search and rescue, so I’m pretty familiar with the gear. We replaced our preservers every five years or if there was noticeable damage to them from a rescue.”
“Search and rescue paid enough to get through college?”
“The college had some programs that cut my tuition down a lot, and what search and rescue didn’t pay for, I paid back with every spare cent after graduation. I killed that bill in five years, after which I started saving up for my house.” Joel leaned out my door, and to my astonishment, he flipped his middle finger at his home. “She was expensive, and I resent how needy she is.”
Upon realizing he worked to keep the mood light, I laughed. “I can’t say I’ve flipped my house off before, but I might have to start doing that when it comes time to do repairs next year.”
“It hasn’t done much to deter repairs, but I like to think I’m making a point.” Joel shot his house another sour look before saying, “My garage has to be inspected.”
That explained a lot. If his shoring with his garage needed any maintenance, he’d have quite the bill ahead of him. “I thought about having a garage, but the reality of needing to shore it every year convinced me otherwise.”
“I have certain regrets right now. Are you going to be available on Saturday morning to go to the garden store?”
“I will be. What time?”
“If we leave here at eight, we might escape before the place becomes a madhouse or a furnace.”
Within a few weeks, the city would become a steaming swamp, especially if people insisted on refusing to clean out the puddles in their yards. As the waters below the city evaporated, we’d deal with air so laden with moisture breathing became difficult at best. If I stayed, I’d invest in solar panels and a battery to help run my AC.
Life without AC in Stonecreek needed to be deemed illegal.
“On that note, I need to get back to the office to finalize the papers and make sure the accounting department knows they’ll be cutting a check to the bank tomorrow. My boss has informed me we’ll be putting Madeline up in the hotel near the office until her new home is ready. I’d like to teach her about the flood schedule personally.”
I wondered if my boss was aware of the true number of deaths and, like me, did what he could to prevent others from perishing. Rather than ask, I smiled, nodded, and said, “If there’s a problem with the hotel, I can open my guest bedroom.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, but I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I waited for my boss to leave and head up the hill to where he’d parked his car in one of the public lots before heaving a sigh and saying, “I hope that wasn’t a bother, Joel. I don’t usually bring work home with me.”
“I try to avoid bringing work home with me, too. May I ask who you’re buying a home for?”
“I’m getting an assistant at work. We poached a refugee from one of our clients. Apparently, I need the help, and my boss thought she’d be a good fit.” I heaved a sigh and bowed my head. “I do need the help, but it’s been a whirlwind since my boss met Madeline and decided he wanted to poach her.”
I wouldn’t mention anything about a raise until it actually happened, but if I did get a raise, I’d be set. Not only would I be able to renovate my basement, I’d be able to have my dream garden and pursue my hobbies with wild abandon.
“How unusual.”
No kidding. Rather than express my misgivings, I said, “How bad was the damage to your yard?”
“It was about the same as usual, but I need to have all my shoring checked. I expect to lose my sanity by the end of the week. They’re coming tomorrow to give me an estimate on the repairs if any are needed. My garage is going to need some love, but I might escape another year or two without having to redo the front.”
I leaned out of my door to regard my foundation with a frown. “Mine came with a twenty year warranty.”
“I have a five year warranty on mine, and I’ll probably upgrade to twenty this year. It’s because it’s a corner lot and takes the brunt of the flood waters. It’s worth the price I pay, but I stayed on five year policies for now because of how much damage it takes. It’s painful. Worth it, but painful.”
Ah. That made sense. “And your neighbors on both streets?”
“If they would shore up properly, I’d be a happy man, but they seem to believe I shore so they don’t have to.”
Every year, people wondered why houses washed away from the foundation and collapsed, often taking the neighboring buildings out with them when they went. “I think I’m going to dish out to have my walls shored, too, just in case.”
“I did that the year I moved in. Of the houses on this street, yours and mine are the only ones I trust not to go on a trip down the hill if the going gets truly tough.”
“How much do you think the wall shoring will cost me?”
“It’s roughly ten grand per side. It’s not bad, and it’s a fifty year warranty on the walls. It’s a lot easier to set up than the foundations. The shoring just has to bounce off the debris during the initial collapse.”
I’d do all four sides as a precaution; while I would only need to do two, if something did happen, I would be prepared. The investment would make it more likely I stuck around, however.
I hated wasting time, effort, or money, and I’d be investing all three into my home.
Heaving a sigh, I regarded Joel with a pout. “They’re going to laugh at me when I request they do all four exterior walls.”
“They didn’t laugh at me when I requested all my exterior walls be done. Have them shore up the weight-bearing beams in your home at the same time. They’ll usually toss it in for a pittance when they’re doing the exterior walls.”
“What’s a pittance?”
“They did mine for two hundred a room.”
I could afford that without even thinking about it out of my rainy day fund. “Good call. I’ll try that. I hope your fairies like their new steps.”
Joel grinned at me. “I’m sure they will. With steps this nice, the fairies are getting a true mansion this year. It’ll be a work of art, one so nice people come to see the fairy house instead of the flowers.”
“I wish you the best of luck with that. You’re going to need it.”