The Bridgework
Steve and Ted hammered away, Will approached the stairway to the basement with some apprehension. He picked up his nail gun and ventured down into the dark dirty crypt. Chris followed close behind as they slowly descended the wooden staircase. Will turned his head left and right as the wood creaked. He held the gun near the right side of his face. As they reached the bottom step he stopped and put the gun slightly in front his mouth as if to hush Chris up. He also waved the nozzle in front of his nose to signal the stink from the shoe box.
"You hear that?…I think I hear Satan's hooves creeping up behind us right now. Keep quiet." Will whispered.
A scurrying noise was heard down below followed by wings flapping.
Will's body quickly twisted and jerked as he looked for someplace to aim his gun. He lost balance and fell sideways down the stairs as he struggled to hang onto the wooden handrail.
Lucky for him the stairs only ascended five more feet. He hit the dirt on his back and the nail gun shot off into the air. Chris immediately covered is face.
The nail shot into the ceiling and ricocheted off the wooden roofbeam. A bat fluttered near Chris. He dodged it, almost falling himself. Unhurt, Will got to his feet, gun in hand. "Well, I guess we know what bit Pete."
"Geez, I'm usually the klutzy one." Said Chris, holding a metal shaped t-square like a sword. He didn't want to go down unarmed. He remembered the bat infestation in his roommates bedroom the year before. They had heard a couple bats fluttering around in the attic. One night, he heard his Roomie yelling. He entered the room and saw him huffing and puffing as the blanket covered the ground and a room broom in his hand. Not a bad idea to capture and kill flying vermin Chris thought. Death by blanket and broom. Unfortunately, Chris didn’t have a blanket.
"Did you get it? Asked Chris.
"I don't know, we'll see."
Will took out a small flashlight from his beige utility belt and switched it on. The lightbeam moved all around the basement walls, then up towards the ceiling where the wooden bridgework was. He paused there.
"Do you see it?" Asked Chris.
"I sure do, I see some pretty shabby bridgework down here. All over, pretty crooked stuff. You got a lot of work to do brotha." Will said.
"Not that, I mean the bat!"
* * *
After five minutes Will called off the search. “Well, if it’s in here, it’s not happy. Why don’t ya grab a ladder and we’ll get started on this shabby bridgework, it’s gotta be redone."
* * *
Chris carefully brought down the long yellow ladder and opened it. “What if it comes back?” Asked Chris.
Will handed the nail gun to him. “Nail it good…but first let me show you how to do this here. Heck, a chimp can do a better job!”
Will climbed the ladder and placed a small wooden plank next to one of the parallel ceiling boards. Will handed the gun to Chris. He placed another diagonally behind it so they both crossed and formed an X. He then pounded a nail through each end. “There ya go, be like Nike and Juss do it,” He looked down at his wrist watch then waved his hammer across the two ceiling beams, “I expect these two rows done in a hour, and let me know when you’re done this time please.”
“I will.” Chris responded.
“And if that silly little sucker flies by, crucify it...wow, did I juss say that?” Said Will making a trigger squeezing gesture in his right hand.
Chris swallowed his giggles as Will pronounced silly little sucker like Sylvester The Cat. He climbed the ladder, lined up the small wood plank and pounded his first nail into it.
* * *
Will walked over to the side of the house, bent forward and laid the stack of 2x4’s on the ground. As he picked up a 3x6 beam from the ground his cellphone rang in his pocket.
“Hi Hon,” he answered.
“We’ll be stopping by around three, your daughter would like to visit.” Delilah said.
“Oh, she wants to see what her daddy does at work?” He said.
“She said, she wanted to check out your fellow crewmen.”
“Well, I’ll have to lock em’ up in the basement then.”
“Will!” Steve pointed past the front of the house. Renald, the man in black stood, grinning, shades on, with both hands in his pockets. Will waved his hand in the air in recognition and out of habit, he sighed and shook his head. “Here we go again,” He whispered to himself. “Hon, I’ll have to call ya back.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.” He replied, the phone clapped closed and dropped into his belt holster. He walked towards Renald.
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