Truth and Humility (8 page)

Torsten chose the new kid because of his energetic and competitive spirit.  As a team, their win was all but a sure thing against the big guy with no speed and coordination whatsoever.

The electrical switchboard cabinets were set up much like lockers, approximately three vertical rows of doors, five doors per row.  The value was in the copper busbar located behind the switchboard buckets.  But in order to reach it, the buckets and side panels had to be removed.  The work consisted mostly of turning wrenches, removing screws and lifting extremely heavy buckets.  Alone, Mac had no chance, but then he chose his partner and the snickers floated through the crowd.

Danny bounded to the top of the loaded trailer as if she were on air.  That alone brought on a few comments.

And she hadn’t even started yet.

“Damn, that was almost freakish.”

“Didn’t you see her changing the light bulbs?  Talk about freakish.”

She whispered something to Mac, he nodded in agreement and the four competing members of the crew indicated they were ready.  As soon as Frank gave the yell, it was an all-out war between team-Torsten and team-Mac.

Though Mac didn’t appear to be doing much.  It was Danny who whipped out her drill, fit it with the right bit and began removing hinges with incredible speed.  Soon Mac was tossing cabinet doors to the ground as they were removed from the first, second, then third row.

Danny then replaced her drill with a twelve-inch screwdriver and tackled the larger screws that held the buckets in place.  Those screws were harder to get to, but she’d done this before.  She knew exactly where to look, exactly what tools she’d need and soon Mac was hefting out the freed 70 lb. buckets, tossing them over the side like they were made of cardboard.  The men on the ground stood with hands on hips and watched in utter amazement.  The woman sped along with such fluid grace it was almost beautiful.  She was working without a hardhat, which was against safety rules, but all the men were guilty of the same thing when the boss wasn’t around.  A few strands of sun-kissed hair had escaped from the loosely knotted bundle at the base of her neck and some of the men forgot about the race all together.

Torsten lifted his first bucket, hefted it over the side and looked around to see why everyone was so quiet.  His endorphins kicked in when he saw the princess tackle her fourth bucket.  The kid was just getting to his second, starting with the door, and Torsten realized they’d have to pick up the pace if they were going to beat the other team.

And losing was not an option.  He shouted at the kid to work faster.

Mac was enjoying his job immensely.  For the first time in years he was pumped.  With Danny turning the screws, all he had to provide was the man-sized muscle.

They finished the first row of cabinets, quickly moved to the next.

“Shit!” Torsten yelled, realizing it was no longer a neck-and-neck race.  Halfway through his lockers, he started to fumble in his haste.  His coordination was falling apart as he sank further into panic mode.

The buckets we Che ful.&nbre out.  Danny took the sledgehammer Mac handed her and they both began to pulverize the red plastic dividers that were in the way of the copper busbar.

“That’s cheating!” Torsten yelled, having wasted valuable time in the past meticulously unscrewing each one.

“That’s determination, ya pussy!” someone yelled back from the crowd, most likely a worker who’d bet on the wrong team.

As Mac continued to wield his sledgehammer at anything in the way, Danny sailed to the ground and tackled the side panels.  Her drill whizzed with precision until the panels came loose and fell to the ground.  Now the end of the busbar was exposed and she dove into her tool belt for two sockets.  Mac now made a slow, careful decent from the trailer and waited for Danny to need him.  The other team had two remaining buckets to go before they could even start clearing out the red dividers.  His heart was pumping with excitement and he hoped he wouldn’t have a heart attack before experiencing his first win.

Bolts were falling, and as they did, Mac pulled out the individual bars one-by-one.

Night was falling.  Austin was exhausted, realizing he’d rather be in bed than in his office finishing paperwork, but the practice had become habit.  They had begun gutting the interior of the old Minerva plant and, slowly but surely, they were making progress.  The light fixtures alone had taken all day.  It was a huge facility despite its age, and his salvage yard was piling up with anything that could be loaded on a truck and hauled there to be picked apart.  It was doubtful his crew could keep up.

“Here’s eighty dollars.”  Austin eyed the wrinkly stack of bills Danny placed on his desk.  “Put it toward my debt.”

Without another word, she was gone.  He hadn’t even heard her come in.

For the first time, Danny had company at lunch.  Mac sat down across from her, flicked a napkin open and shoved it in the v-neck of his exposed undershirt.  She briefly looked up at him in surprise then took another bite of sandwich.

He cut to the chase.  “So, what’s with the pink tools, Danny?  I mean, come on.  Is it really worth the razzing you get from these guys?”

The corner of her mouth twitched as she focused on her potato chips.  “They aren’t just pink, they’re
hot
pink.”

Mac raised an eyebrow, “Pink is pink, princess,” and plowed into his barbeque sandwich.

Danny swallowed the food in her mouth, leaned forward and spoke low.  “Tell me, Mac.  Have you ever h Fhe fu Road your tools borrowed or stolen, never to see them again?  No matter how many times you write your name on them?”

“Yeah, all the time.”

“Not me.”

After it sank in, he straightened and gazed at her in wonderment.  “Well, I’ll be.  She’s a goddamned genius.”  He regarded the top of her head while she ate.  “Something tells me you’ve got a whole bunch of tricks up your sleeve.”

Her smile was brilliant.  She was beginning to seriously love Mac.  “Comes from a whole bunch of experience.  I have my own crew at home.”

“No shit?”

Well, he didn’t have to look
that
surprised.  Of course, what the hell would she be doing here, right?  “Depends on the job, but I’ve supervised up to seven guys.”

“And they don’t mind taking orders from a woman?”

“Some do...at first.  But there’s this kid, Shaw, who has enough respect for me to keep a nice balance.  He’s assigned to most of my jobs.”

Sounded more like a raging crush to Mac.  “Boyfriend?”

A chip hovered below her mouth.  Why did everyone assume that?  Going with it, Danny regarded him like a best girlfriend at a slumber party.  “Sure, why not?  He’s certainly hot enough.  Great bod, great smile, tons of skill...and he’s got this really cute birthmark on his left butt-cheek that looks like a portrait of George Washington.”

Instantly put off, Mac reared back.  “Really?”

Her laughter carried through the commons room, earning her several fascinated looks.

The next morning, Mac emerged early from his room, tool belt thrown over his shoulder filled with his own tools instead of the expendable damaged ones owned by the salvage yard.  He entered the commons room whistling and hung the belt on a bracket next to Danny’s.

The bathroom beckoned.

Moments later, Austin walked in to grab a bagel and coffee.  Sue followed shortly after and caught sight of her boss standing in the middle of the empty room with hands on hips, a perplexed look on his face.

“What’s up, boss?” she asked, then shifted her gaze to whatever had captured his attention.  Her mouth split into a grin.

“Since when did this turn into a romper room, Sue?”

Sue produced a throaty chuckle and shook her head.  “Why, isn’t that just the prettiest shade of pastel purple I’ve ever seen.  Next to the pink it looks like Easter.”

“Don’t laugh,” Austin replied dryly.  “That’s your brother’s tool belt.”  He could hear her teeth click together behind him and he glanced back at his assistant.  “Is there something about Mac I should know?”

Her
brother?  With
purple
tools?  Throwing her hands up, Sue hung her head and began to back away.  “As far as I know, I’m the only queer in my family, boss.”

“Then I can only assume Danny had something to do with this.”

“Maybe so.  She’s a clever one, that girl.  Had these boys practically calling her ma’am last I looked.”

Austin frowned.  “And how did she accomplish that?”

The man didn’t look pleased and Sue was amused.  “Oh, you should probably hang around more. 
Observe
to get the full effect.”

Just then, the young woman in question emerged from the restroom, worn ball-cap pulled down low to hide the dark circles under her eyes...and the pink in her cheeks from being interrupted by Mac.  The stalls had doors, but there was something about sharing a restroom with a man that was embarrassing as hell.  Danny’s demeanor instantly changed when she caught Austin glaring at her.

“Whatever I’ve done wrong, it’s probably due to lack of sleep,” she muttered and moved to the breakfast bar.

“Morning, boss.  Sis.”  Mac strolled in, wrapped an arm around Sue’s shoulders and stood with her to admire his purple tools.

Danny looked up from the oatmeal she was preparing and finally realized what everyone’s problem was.  Her tone was incredulous.  “Mac, what did you do?”

“Took a page from your book, Monkey.  What do you think?  Pretty?”

She choked on a laugh and shook her head.  “Adorable.”

Monkey?  Took a page from her book?  What the hell was going on?  Austin was suddenly uncomfortable with the camaraderie between two people he considered close friends – and the Bennett who should be suffering.  “Sue, my office.”

Sue knew what was bothering her boss.  When he closed the office door behind her, she opened her mouth to speak.  “I gotta tell you, boss – ”

“What the hell is going on, Sue?”  They spoke over each other, but Austin held up a hand, silencing her.  “Tom’s gone.  He took his last two weeks of vacation and split.  Without my spy, I’m as good as blind.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything!  I have no clue whatue, Klueou s transpired here, let alone if Bennett’s in communiqué with her brother.  For two nights in a row, she’s marched into my office and thrown money at me.  Last night it was quite a wad and I can only assume she’s taking the members of my crew for all they’re worth.”

“And earning every penny.”  Sue shrugged and leaned against the desk while Austin paced.  “Mac’s been filling me in.  Her job performance was about as weak as everyone else’s until she found out she could capitalize on her skill.”

“Wagering?”

“Mostly.  But folks quit betting against her, so she’s been helping out anyone willing to pay her.  Not afraid to get in people’s faces if they pull a stupid move, either.  I can see her supervising her own crew.  Easily. 
There’s a lot of male pride in that yard, boss, and her presence alone keeps 'em busy just so they can claim to measure u
p
.
”

Bennetts worked.  So what?  Should he be impressed just because she was a woman?  “What about this
monkey
thing?”

“The girl likes to climb shit.  I won’t even go into how she changed the lights in the equipment building.  But, a wind kicked up and blew Frank’s Powerball ticket out of his hands and into that big elm by the house?  Danny practically walked up that motherfucker and rescued the ticket before the next gust came along.”

“Oh.  Come. 
On!
”  The nickname wasn’t even meant as an insult!

“Torsten made some rude comment about her ability to ‘bend’ and she shot him down with some comeback about his limp prick.”  Her shoulders shook with amusement.  “Even my brother blushed.  Would’ve loved to seen that.”