This wouldn\u2019t be a bad job if it wasn\u2019t for that bitch,\u201d Joego says as he and Cal try to make room by moving all the outdoor grills into the storage shed. It\u2019s ten-thirty in the morning, eleven degrees outside, and even when they\u2019re in the unheated warehouse\u2014where they spend most of their day\u2014they keep their coats on. Joego\u2014Joseph Gorman on his paycheck\u2014is talking about their manager, Teresa Herrera-Brown. She caught him smoking out by the propane tank this morning, called him into her office, and told him one more screw-up and he was gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause you fuck with her,\u201d Cal says as they maneuver separate hand trucks over the cracked blacktop. \u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re trying <\/em>to get fired.\u201d As Cal unlocks the chain that holds the sheet metal door of the shed, Joego walks to the side of the building and unzips.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d Cal asks.<\/p>\n \u201cTake a wild guess.\u201d<\/p>\n Joego\u2019s urine splatters and steams on the side of the shed like hot coffee.<\/p>\n \u201cSeriously?\u201d Cal says.<\/p>\n Joego finishes, zips up. \u201cLet\u2019s do this, brah,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m freezing.\u201d<\/p>\n Joego is a part-timer, Saturdays and the three mornings a week he doesn\u2019t have class. He\u2019s a senior at Plymouth Rock High School, headed for the Air Force as soon as he graduates.<\/p>\n \u201cWanna make fifty bucks?\u201d Joego says once they\u2019re inside.<\/p>\n \u201cDoing what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWalt Doda. He\u2019s looking for a velocity ladder. Says he\u2019ll pay me a hundred for one.\u201d<\/p>\n Joego steals. Has this arrangement with a local building contractor. A five gallon bucket of joint compound gets him a twelve-pack of Bud Light. Ten pounds of decking screws brings home a bottle of Smirnoff Raspberry. It\u2019s cake. All Joego has to do is leave the stuff on the loading dock, find some reason to drive his shitbox VW bug around, and throws whatever it is in the trunk. Cal knows what\u2019s going on, turns a blind eye as they say.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me use your truck and half the money\u2019s yours.\u201d<\/p>\n Cal\u2019s been working here for the past two years, the first job he landed after quitting school in 11th grade. His dad owns EZ Mark, a convenience store with a couple of gas pumps out front, but the man trusts no one\u2014not even his own son\u2014to run things. Cal\u2019s mother sits at home with four miniature schnauzers\u2014Blondie, Anthrax, A-Ha, and Devo\u2014all named after 1980s bands. The woman read somewhere that these dogs are especially sensitive to the cold, so she keeps the house at least 82 degrees. Seldom a night passes, regardless of the outside temp, when Cal doesn\u2019t wake up drenched in sweat.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, man,\u201d Cal says.<\/p>\n \u201cI already have it worked out. I hide the ladder in one of the dumpsters on Monday morning right after pickup. Monday night I come back, unlock the gate, retrieve the ladder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy can\u2019t you use your car?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cC\u2019mon, Cal,\u201d Joego says. \u201cThat thing\u2019s bigger<\/em> than my car.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou get caught and they press charges, say goodbye to the Air Force,\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHaven\u2019t got caught yet, brah.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you\u2019re doing this for a lousy fifty bucks?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHell, no,\u201d Joego smiles. \u201cI\u2019m doing this for the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Cal could actually use the money. Pierce, his older brother, has recently lost his roommate and invited Cal to move in with him. But there are conditions. \u201cGrass, gas, or ass,\u201d Pierce told him. \u201cNobody rides for free.\u201d Pierce is smooth. He works nights as a dance instructor at a place called Francine and Sergio\u2019s Talent Studio, and he has little trouble bringing home various female clientele. Cal stayed with him for four days over the summer. They played video games and smoked weed during the day, and one night on the fold-out couch, Cal lost his virginity to some forty-year-old divorcee who was studying tap.<\/p>\n Cal and Joego never hung out back in high school. Cal was a loner then, but now he considers Joego his best friend. Cal values the relationship for a number of reasons. Top among them is the parties Joego throws when his parents aren\u2019t around. There are teenaged girls invited, and although Cal hasn\u2019t seen any real action since the middle-aged divorcee, slow dancing and rubbing against female flesh beats staying at home and scooping dog shit into a Hefty bag.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you good for Saturday?\u201d Joego says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat time?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCome by around eight and help me set up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat girl gonna be there?\u201d<\/p>\n That girl is Sarah Polombo. At a party at Joego\u2019s a few weeks ago, Cal got into it with her pretty heavy in the darkened laundry room. She wound up stopping his hand from traveling south and told him she had a boyfriend.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s gonna be there,\u201d Joego says.<\/p>\n When they\u2019re almost finished stacking the boxed grills, the walkie-talkie on Cal\u2019s belt chirps. It\u2019s Teresa, and she wants to talk to him inside.<\/p>\n \u201cYou got this?\u201d he asks Joego.<\/p>\n Joego nods. \u201cJust keep your hands on your nuts,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Larson\u2019s Home and Building Supply has fourteen stores throughout southern New England. This one, in Meadow Ridge, is the largest, about one-fifth the size of your average Home Depot or Lowe\u2019s. In June, Larson\u2019s hired Teresa Herrera-Brown as store manager. She was somebody\u2019s niece, had just graduated from community college with an AAS in Business Administration, and spoke passable Spanish. The employees, all men with the exception of two cashiers, had hoped for somebody better looking, but Teresa is pudgy and unbelievably buck-toothed. She carried a brown leather tote bag with her initials\u2014T.H.B.\u2014stamped in black, and Joego has christened her \u201cThe Human Beaver.\u201d<\/p>\n Her office is this tiny room back behind the key duplicating machine. An old desk, a computer, a file cabinet. No windows. There\u2019s only one chair, behind the desk, and Teresa is sitting in it. She\u2019s wearing this oversized orange turtle neck sweater which, Cal thinks, makes her look like she\u2019s submerged in tomato sauce.<\/p>\n He stands just inside the doorway and asks her what\u2019s up.<\/p>\n \u201cCouple of things,\u201d Teresa says. \u201cYou make space for those snow blowers coming in?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDoing it now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou doing it by yourself or is shit-for-brains helping?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re doing it together.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa nods, gets up, and goes over to the file cabinet. \u201cI hope he knows I\u2019m gunning for him,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah,\u201d Cal says. \u201cI should probably get back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou hear about Miller?\u201d<\/p>\n Miller is this 30-year-old retarded guy who works in paints. Has trouble lining up the buttons on his shirt, but the man is a master at matching colors. Cal remembers a time when this woman brought in a single kernel of frozen corn\u2014this, for some reason was the color she wanted her bedroom\u2014and Miller copied it perfectly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about him?\u201d Cal says.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s leaving in two weeks,\u201d Teresa says as she takes a file out and returns to her desk. \u201cRing\u2019s End offered him a job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDidn\u2019t you work the mixing machine for a while?\u201d<\/p>\n He did. The week Miller took vacation. It was a blast. Inside all day, no heavy lifting, just blending colors and shaking up cans.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need me to fill in?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking maybe you could take the position permanently,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Cal almost feels like he\u2019s hit the lottery, but holds back. \u201cYeah,\u201d he says. \u201cSure. That\u2019d be cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa pushes back in her chair and Cal notices the file she\u2019s pulled has Miller\u2019s name on the tab. She flips it open.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a sure thing,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are people here longer than you. I just want you to know you\u2019re being considered.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cTake a look at this number,\u201d she says as she turns the file around so Cal can read it. \u201cThis is what Miller\u2019s making right now, before taxes. I couldn\u2019t pay you this much, but it\u2019d be\u00a0 more than you\u2019re getting now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019d be great.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLast thing. Tony Alteri. You know him?\u201d<\/p>\n Cal shakes his head.<\/p>\n \u201cSim-wood,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Sim-wood, he knows. It\u2019s this composite substitute for real wood, that termites avoid and that never dry rots. Some of the big box stores carry it, and contractors can\u2019t get their hands on enough of the stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cAlteri\u2019s a friend of my uncle\u2019s. Owes him a favor. He\u2019s having this wine and cheese thing at his house on Saturday around six and I wondered if you want to go.\u201d When Cal doesn\u2019t answer, Teresa says, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. I\u2019m not asking for a date. I just don\u2019t want to show up alone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think I have something.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cToo bad,\u201d she says. \u201cI was hoping it\u2019d give us a chance to talk more about the Miller position.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa closes the file folder and slides it to one side.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it isn\u2019t until later,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The warehouse \u201cbreak area\u201d is nothing more than a sturdy, overturned cardboard box and two plastic lawn chairs next to where the forklift sits. It\u2019s where Cal finds Joego drinking coffee from a thermos and reading a chemistry textbook.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did she want?\u201d Joego asks, looking up.<\/p>\n Cal takes one of Joego\u2019s cigarettes from the pack on top of the box, lights it.<\/p>\n \u201cMiller\u2019s leaving,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo I might get his job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would you want it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying I do. I\u2019m just saying if I did, it\u2019d be enough money that I could move out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, well money isn\u2019t everything, brah.\u201d<\/p>\n Joego returns his attention to the textbook.<\/p>\n \u201cI just thought of something,\u201d Cal says, and Joego looks up a second time. \u201cI might be a little late on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy old man. I promised to help out in the store.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re not coming?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid I say that? I said I\u2019d be a little late. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Saturday night, when Teresa comes by to pick him up, Cal waits outside on the porch steps. He\u2019s wearing an gray down vest over his brown suit and the newer of his two ties. The dogs, sensing something different, are running around inside the house like rats released from a live trap, and his mother is trying to calm them down by shooting pea-sized treats out of a plastic launcher.<\/p>\n Over the phone, they agreed to take Teresa\u2019s car, and when she pulls up, she asks him to drive. Her gray overcoat is in the back, and as she goes around the front of the car, he sees she\u2019s wearing a navy-blue three-piece suit and a white shirt with the top three buttons undone.<\/p>\n Between directions, she tells him how important the Sim-wood account is, how Tony Alteri is very choosy about his distributors, how this could push her up to district manager. They arrive in less than twenty minutes, an unpretentious raised ranch in a suburban neighborhood just west of Meadow Ridge.<\/p>\n Inside, the house is spotless. Kitchen sparkling, living room carpet with fresh vacuum swipes. Both Tony and his wife\u2014in their thirties and dripping privilege\u2014seem distant, anxious to have this over with. The four of them sit and drink red wine and occasionally reach toward a snack table to shave some cheese off a big block and lay it on a cracker. Teresa tries to steer the conversation toward business, but Tony tells her talking shop makes his wife uncomfortable.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, Cal,\u201d Tony finally says, \u201cYou into sports at all?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot really.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot even as a spectator?\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa stares at him, almost imploringly.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes professional wrestling.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa, who sits as far away from him on the couch as possible, seems to sink deeper into the cushions.<\/p>\n \u201cWho do you like?\u201d Tony asks.<\/p>\n Cal shrugs. \u201cChris Jericho\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStay right there,\u201d Tony says, and after a silent moment or two, he\u2019s back with a framed T-shirt from Wrestlemania. \u201cCheck out the signature.\u201d<\/p>\n Cal gets to his feet, takes the frame as if it\u2019s some religious artifact, and studies it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Rock?!\u201d Cal says. \u201cSeriously?!\u201d<\/p>\n For the next forty-five minutes, while the women sit patiently, the men discuss Survivor Series and Summerslam, lumberjack matches and the Elimination Chamber, the \u201cAttitude Adjustment\u201d and the \u201cFive Star Frog Splash.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re supposed to meet people for dinner in half-an-hour,\u201d the wife eventually says, and by now Alteri is animated and jovial.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll talk on Monday morning,\u201d he tells Teresa, \u201cbut I don\u2019t see why we can\u2019t make this work.\u201d<\/p>\n When they leave, Teresa drives. She\u2019s in a better mood than Cal has ever seen her, and she even has him slid a Neil Diamond disc into the car\u2019s CD player.<\/p>\n \u201cThat wasn\u2019t half-bad,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Cal pulls his tie loose, looks at the clock on the dash, and sees he still has time to go home, ditch the suit, and make it over to Joego\u2019s before the party starts.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t we swing by my place?\u201d Teresa says. \u201cDecide about this Miller thing.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Teresa lives in a condo in Pleasant Hills, but the unit isn\u2019t at all what he might have anticipated. Teresa\u2019s taste is black and white, from the zebra skin rug on her living room floor, to the mounted posters\u2014a domino board, a skull, a monochrome photo of the moon\u2014hanging on her cream-colored walls. She takes his vest and hangs it in a closet, then tells him to have a seat on the black leather sofa with the white throw cushions.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething to drink?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa disappears into the kitchen and returns with a glass of white wine. She sits down on the sofa next to him and slips off her shoes.<\/p>\n \u201cSo,\u201d she says. \u201cThe Miller position. What do I do about the Miller position?\u201d<\/p>\n Cal shrugs. \u201cI can do it. No problem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t doubt you can do it,\u201d she says. \u201cI just have questions about loyalty.\u201d<\/p>\n She leans back against the rectangular arm of the sofa, raises her feet, places them on his lap. The gesture throws Cal, and at first he thinks that this must be some mistake, some miscalculation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m loyal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Teresa takes a drink of wine, then turns so she can rest her glass on the ebony coffee table. \u201cMy feet are killing me,\u201d she says. \u201cRub \u2018em a little, would you?\u201d She\u2019s wearing either stockings or pantyhose and her feet smell pleasant, like baby powder. Cal takes one in his hands and begins working it like a pitcher roughing up a baseball. \u201cHang on,\u201d she says. She bends at the waist, hikes up her pant legs, removes the calf-high stockings she wears. Her feet are chubby and moist, but Cal doesn\u2019t mind. The foot he isn\u2019t massaging squirms by his crotch like a child waiting to use the bathroom.<\/p>\n \u201cHow<\/em> loyal?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Cal\u2019s thinking about his brother\u2019s place, about the greatest ninety-six hours of his life, about how the right answers tonight can put him back in paradise permanently.<\/p>\n \u201cVery.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cProve it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n He pictures the divorcee, twice his age, her clothes falling to the floor. Her body was smooth and tight, and even drunk, she couldn\u2019t get enough of him.<\/p>\n \u201cJoego\u2019s stealing from you,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He winds up telling Teresa the entire plan, and afterward\u2014as Teresa gets dressed and he sits naked on the leather sofa\u2014guilt settles in and he tries to recant.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just thinking,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I don\u2019t lend him my truck, he won\u2019t be able to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLend him your truck,\u201d Teresa says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just that, you know, he\u2019s my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa pulls on the navy-blue pants and zips them up. \u201cAnd that\u2019s more important to you than the Miller position?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell let me tell you what I don\u2019t know,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if what we just did was totally consensual on my part. That\u2019s what I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She drives him home around midnight, and on the way she asks if he can come in early on Monday. \u201cI want you to start training with Miller,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd you know Miller. First one in, last one to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n At the curb in front of his house, Cal leans toward her figuring a kiss might end the night on some kind of positive note.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t,\u201d she says, holding her hand up like a traffic cop.<\/p>\n Teresa drives off and Cal thinks about going over to Joego\u2019s and catching the tail end of the party. Maybe that girl will be there. Maybe she broke up with her boyfriend. Maybe Cal can \u00a0take Joego aside and tell him that he\u2019s being set up. \u201cThey\u2019ll be waiting for you,\u201d he can say.<\/p>\n Inside, he finds his mother asleep in the recliner while somebody on TV is saying, \u201cThese are the songs we danced to, the songs we romanced to, the songs that will play in our hearts forever. And now they\u2019re available for the first time\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n He flicks off the television, goes into his room, calls his brother and tells him the new financial situation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis can work,\u201d Pierce says. \u201cBetween the three of us, this can be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe three of us?\u201d<\/p>\n It seems Pierce has met somebody. She\u2019s moving in this weekend. But they\u2019ll still be that fold-out couch if Cal is willing to pay his half.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me think about it,\u201d Cal says.<\/p>\n His bedroom is sweltering and he can\u2019t sleep, so he walks out to the living room and lowers the thermoset to 76. By the time he gets back, A-Ha has settled on the foot of his mattress.\u00a0 He thinks about shooing the dog off, but knows the commotion that will cause, the dog yapping, his mother waking up groggy and cold and all pissed off.<\/p>\n He lifts his window and leaves his door open, but before Cal can get back into bed, a second miniature schnauzer finds its way in, joined by the other two. Cal watches them take over the single bed\u2014two at the foot, two at the head\u2014curled with their backs turned toward him as if he\u2019s not even there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes a guy will do the unthinkable in order to improve his employment opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","writer-z-z-boone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13726"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13930,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13726\/revisions\/13930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}