I walked up to the trailer on the construction site eager to make a good impression on my first day. Moving to Florida from New York and leaving my family and friends behind hadn't been easy. Finding work there proved even more problematic but I luckily and literally stumbled into a man about to post an ad looking for help and begged for the job before he put the ad in. I was given a two week trial basis and a vague "we'll see how you work out" as warning. I had worked with my dad doing heating ventilating and air conditioning in New York so I knew that I could do it and it would bring in money but I had recently become an E.M.T. back home and would have preferred to do that.
Changing my license over wasn't as easy and being able to support myself on a basic E.M.T. salary was almost laughable. So here I was. Knocking on the trailer door and receiving a gruff command to enter. I opened the door.
"Who are you?" Came the curt
interrogative. The interrogator was an older man sitting behind a large desk barely looking up from the architectural drawings in front of him.
"My name's Josh. David told me to come in and that you would give me a job."
"You're the kid that my brother wants to try out?"
"I guess so."
"You have experience?"
"I worked for my dad doing H.V.A.C. I know how to hold a hammer."
"All right, fine. You have two weeks to show us we need you, otherwise you're out. And if you're late, even once, don't bother coming in the next day."
"Got it. And you are?" I asked.
"Pete. I own half this business with my brother."
"Right. Thanks Pete."
"Just get out and go do something."
"Right. Um... what do you want me to do?"
"Jeezus!" The older man swore and finally looked up from what he was doing and gave me a once over. "At least you look like you can handle the work." He said.
It was true. I stood 6'1'', and was pretty beefy from all the work I'd done in New York. I could stand to lose a pound or two but wasn't that overweight. I had dark brown hair which was already showing highlights from the week and a half that I'd been there. What hair I didn't have on my head was darker black and covered most of my body. My beard was trimmed up neat to make a good impression. "Go outside and talk to Tiny. He'll tell you what to do."
"Tiny. Right. Got it."
I left to find who I assumed was the foreman named Tiny. I was steered toward one of the tiniest men I had ever seen. He wasn't quite a little person but he was by no means tall. Tiny took me quickly around the site and put me to work moving cement bags, loads of brick, basically any job he didn't want his better paid construction workers doing. I was happy to do it even under the brutal Floridian sun. I knew I was going to be burned to hell that day and was glad that I had put sunblock on.
Before I knew it, lunch time hit and everyone stopped and pulled out their box lunches. Not being anti-social but I chose to sit away from everyone else since they were sitting directly in the hot sun and I needed some shade to cool off. It did afford me the ability to check out the guys without being too obvious. Most of them were cute, good looking guys with deep bronze tans and rippling muscles. There were a few older guys but most of them seemed to be about my own age. No one tripped my heart strings and after my recent break up I wasn't really looking to get back into one so I closed my eyes and rested while they finished their lunch.
The rest of the day went quickly and when I headed out to my car, Tiny shouted for me to come back. I trotted over to see what he wanted, fearful that he was going to tell me not to come in tomorrow.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Good job today, kid."
"Thanks, Tiny!" I was pleased that he had liked my work and thankful that I still had a job.
"Yeah, don't fuck it up! Get here early tomorrow and keep it up."
"I will." I said, not taking any offense to his crassness. Construction men generally barked and yelled as if it were the only way to get things done. "Thanks Tiny."
"Yeah, get the fuck out of here."
I got in my car and burned my back as I forgot to leave a cracked window or block the streaming sunshine heating the vinyl seats to near fusion temperatures. Not letting that bring me down, I drove to my friend Maryellen's house. She was my best friend from New York and had moved down to Florida about a year before and had been nagging me to move down ever since. After my break up I figured I had no more excuses and welcomed the change.
Maryellen's house was chaotic to say the least. It was a nice double wide trailer with a small room in the back off the car port. Still she lived with four other adults, five kids, four dogs, three ferrets and something called a sugar glider. I pulled up in front of her house and opened the gate to a cacophony of dogs barking and kids screaming. Ignoring that, I opened the door and called out her name.
"Hey." She said coming around the corner. Maryellen was my hag and had been my best friend since she sat down at my table and announced that she was my new best friend. I had laughed at the notion but here we were ten years later. "How was work?" She asked, grabbing two iced coffees from the kitchen. They were her favorite drink and always on hand.
"It was good. Hard work, sucks being in the sun, and some of the guys seem funny." I pushed one of the dogs out of the way and flopped down on the couch.
"But it's a paycheck." As she flopped down next to me.
"Yeah. If I can save up some money pretty quick I'll be able to move out of Aunt Dee and Uncle Gerard's house and get a place of my own."
Aunt Dee and Uncle Gerard were Maryellen's great aunt and uncle who lived a few blocks away and were up visiting their children and grandchildren in New York. They had agreed to let me stay in their guest room till I found a job and was able to support myself. I thanked them from the bottom of my soul since trying to squeeze in here would have been an unholy mess. Besides, Aunt Dee and Uncle Gerard had a pool!
"So were there any hotties?" Maryellen asked.
"I'm not there looking for hotties. I'm there to work."
"What's that shit?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're not dead. You can still tell if someone's hot or not."
"I'm not really interested in that. I just want to do my work and get paid." She didn't answer, but sat staring at me. "All right, no there are no hotties."
"That sucks, Man!"
"I really couldn't care less."
"At least if there's a hottie there's something nice to look at while you work." Maryellen stated with her particular brand of worldly wisdom.
"I guess." I sighed and took a sip of iced coffee. "Coconut and cinnamon?" I asked.
"Nutmeg. I ran out of cinnamon."
"It's nice."
