“Lord, Send Someone to Fix This Roof Before Snow,” She Whispered... Not Knowing He Was Behind Her
Chapter 3
Theme:
Font Size:
24px
"I know. I thought you might want to count it.""I counted it."She poured one cup and set it on the rail, and stepped back from it. That was her answer to hospitality, and he understood that it cost her something. He took the coffee and drank it standing in the yard."Those are shake bolts under the tarp," he said. "Pine, properly seasoned. That's a fine stack."Her face went still. "They were my father's. He cut them for the roof. He cut them for a number of things. He was a man of plans."She came down the steps and crossed to the barn, and he followed a pace behind. In the half-light by the tarp, she stood looking at the long stack."I can split my own shakes, Mr. Colton. I've watched it done for 30 years. I've got the tools."She did: a froe hung on a nail by the harness room door, with a heavy wooden mallet below it and a shaving horse in the corner, dusty, as if the dust had gone unbroken for a season.She took the froe down with her good hand and set a bolt on the block. She held it with her bad one. The first blow of the mallet was clean; the second slid, and the shake peeled off crooked and thin at one end, like a bad slice of bread.She frowned. She tried again. Her wrapped wrist jerked at the shock, and she caught her breath through her teeth and set the mallet down for a moment very carefully, as though it were something that might break."Grain's running out at the tail," said Ezra. He said it to the air mildly. "If you turn the bolt end for end, the split follows the tree instead of fighting it."She stood for a moment, the muscle tight in her jaw. Then she turned the bolt end for end. The next shake came away whole: a clean, straight board as long as her forearm, its face rippled like water."That's what I'd have done," she said stiffly."Yes, ma'am.""I was about to.""Yes, ma'am."Something happened at the corner of her mouth. It was not a smile; it was the place where one might have been, and she put it away at once."How many shakes does it take to roof that north slope?" he asked."300. The whole roof is closer to six." She set the froe down. "I have the bolts for about 500. It takes a man a week to split and lay it. A man who knows how. I've had two come and quote me: one wanted $22, and the other would not climb the ladder after he looked at it." Her eyes flicked away and came back. "I have $6 and some cents, and apples. A good many apples. 200 trees. My father put every one of them in. Nobody can pick them because I can't pick and press at the same time, and the frost will have them by Sunday."