As before, without a word, the four of us set to work as soon as we reach the site, our task, just like our environment, identical to the last. With the afternoon fast-waning, all any of us thinking about now is returning home, our exhaustion, physical and mental at this point, becoming more pronounced with every passing minute.
I’m so tired that I can’t force myself to focus on the task at hand, and now as I work my mind wanders, though instead of to the storm it ventures into the future, where the dreams I have for Shannon and me shine bright before my eyes.
Would it be any different than now though, even with her by my side? There was a part of me scared I’d be stuck in this drudgery for the rest of my life. And what kind of life would that mean for Shannon? She was an extraordinary girl, and the last thing I wanted to do was give her an ordinary life.
No, things would get better. They had to. There was no other choice. Shannon and I would come together and together we’d forge a new path into the unknown but assuredly more exciting future. I would keep working on my business (an online market for secondhand or unused construction supplies – an idea grown from experience) and Shannon would return to school, as she’d been wanting to do for a while. With any luck, though, she wouldn’t have to work if she didn’t want to. I’d be successful and we would travel and explore whenever and wherever we wanted and one day we would maybe even get a dog. My days, rather than spent slaving senselessly for someone else, would instead be spent relaxing in a lawn chair underneath a giant willow tree in a sprawling backyard. It would be a future of eternal summer, where the temperatures never rose beyond the heat of spring and bad weather was merely a memory we would tell the grandchildren we would one day have. Each morning we’d wake up wrapped in each other’s arms, and each morning I’d draw in a deep breath of fresh—
“Yo, Kyle, you there?”
“Huh? What's that?”
With a shake of my head, I return to reality. Mike, Tim and Aaron are standing in a crescent before me, soldering irons in their hands, questioning looks in their eyes. Though we’ve been working steadily, for the last minute or two I’ve apparently been frozen by my thoughts.
“Everything alright?” asks Mike.
“Yeah,” I stammer as I run a hand through my sweaty hair. “Just thinking.”
“Well, maybe…” Tim begins, his eyes flashing mischievously, “you could save that thinking for later, boss. We only have a few more feet and then we’re done.”
“Sorry about that,” I murmur, giving my head another shake to clear away the last of the cobwebs. “Just dreaming about a nice, hot shower. Come on; let’s finish up.”
***
It takes until almost eight-thirty to lay the last of the pipe; by the time Tim lowers it into place and Aaron finishes the solder, the sun has long since set and night has descended in full upon the prairie. Despite the proximity of Harvey, the sky is as clear as can be, the moon a thumbnail hanging low in the east. Dozens and dozens of stars speckle the heavens, markers all of worlds untold.
Stepping back from the still-glowing pipe, Aaron wipes his face with the back of his forearm.
“There,” he says, cracking his neck from side to side. “Finished.”
As one, we sigh, our twenty-foot-long shadows shifting on the prairie floor.
“Thank God,” Mike says. “I’m starving. I think I need an entire pizza.”
“Agreed,” Tim says. “Maybe even two.”
“Don't forget the hot wings,” Aaron chimes in.
“Hot wings? Geez, Aaron. We're hungry, not pigs.”
“But you just said we should get two piz—”
“You're young now, but you're not going to stay that way forever, not if you eat like that. You’re already starting to gain weight.”
“Oh, go to hell, Timmy. You’re the fattest one here.”
“Fine. I don’t mind going to hell. Just don’t make me go alone.”
It takes a few minutes to put away our tools and clean up the work area. With it being so late, I’ll need to come out here tomorrow in the daylight to check everything, but right now, there's no more work to be done.
It’s almost nine when the last of our things are packed away and we’re finally ready to go home. As I pull off the shoulder and back onto the road, not a single car in sight in either direction, I roll down the window and wave to the guys.
“See you tomorrow!”
The three are off to one of our favorite steakhouses just south of downtown, a place we go so often every waitress in the house knows us by name. Though they’d invited me along, and though I’m as hungry as a three-legged lion, I’m too preoccupied with thoughts of Shannon to bother right now about food. It’s well past our normal call time and I have no doubt she’s just as worried about me as I am about her. Silly girl. Always concerned for others and never for herself.
As I pull onto the main highway, I shoot my love a text. It’s a twenty-five-minute drive home, and yet by the time I pull into my parking garage, I still haven’t gotten a response. Needless to say, I’m worried sick. I’m doing my best not to let myself think the worst, though I feel about as capable of doing this as a pig using a power drill.
It’s just the rain, I tell myself as I zip up and around the levels of the garage, my tires squealing. She just hasn’t gotten your text yet, or hers isn’t going through.
But it's useless. With nothing to go on, I can’t help envisioning all sorts of disasters that might have befallen her, from downed trees to electric fires.
I park in the first open spot I find, which is quite a ways up since everyone else in the complex has long since returned home. Shutting off the engine, I hop out of my truck and bound towards the elevator.
When I step out of the elevator onto the ground floor a minute later, I’m in such a rush that I nearly bowl over my roommate on his way out. He has a girl I've never seen before hanging off his arm. The two of them are dressed sharply. Michael is wearing grey chinos and a white button-up, and the girl, different from the last woman I’d seen with him just a few days ago, is in a short red dress and matching stilettoes.
“Oh, hey, Kyle,” Michael says, his grin widening. “I was wondering where you were. I’d like you to meet Jane. She’s a student at SMU. Studying pre-law, was it?”
“Sorry,” I say as I step around them, not so much as tossing a glance at Michael's date as I run towards the garage exit. “Gotta call Shannon,” I call back over my shoulder. “I’m late!”
Michael says something in reply but I’m too far away to hear it now. Passing through a small courtyard where a lone woman is watching her dog sniff at an old hamburger wrapper, I reach the stairs leading up to the upper floors of the apartment complex. I take them three at a time. Thirty seconds later, I’m slipping the key into the front door lock; another thirty seconds after that and I’m sitting at my desk, my fingers tapping on the wooden tabletop as I wait for my computer to boot.
When my computer is finally up and running, I open my messaging application first. A wave of relief washes over me immediately. The little dot next to Shannon’s picture is green. She’s online and waiting for me.