Hand-Me-Down Love (15 page)

“
People like green
these days,” Sean said, recalling several green Mobile businesses
he had given start-up loans to.

“
Where is
Rutherford’s?” Sean asked Pete. “I don’t have a car or a
place to live or anything.”

“
I tell you what.
I’ll give Marty a call tomorrow. Don’t think he’d be up right
now. I’ll see if he’s looking for somebody right now. Then we’ll
go from there.”

“
Sounds good,”
Sean said. He wrote his cell phone number down on a napkin and gave
it to Pete. They finished their beers and walked outside. Pete got
into an old Chevy truck parked in front of the bar. “Give you a
lift?” he asked Sean.

“
I think I’ll
walk and clear my head. It’s just down the road.”

“
Suit yourself.
Talk to you tomorrow.” Sean watched the lights on Pete’s truck
for a long way down the road before heading toward the hostel. The
night was cool but not too cold and he enjoyed the walk. He decided
that even if he didn’t get a job working on lumber—and what did
he know about that anyway?—he was going to stick around a while. He
would definitely have to get out of the hostel, though.

Chapter
Sixteen

Sean had breakfast
at Daisy’s Diner, a place he had spotted when he was going to the
bar last night. He ordered coffee and a ham and cheese omelet with
pancakes on the side. He was through overeating at the buffet, but it
had been fun while it lasted. His phone rang while his mouth was full
of pancakes and he quickly washed them down with orange juice before
answering.

“
You wanna ride
over to Marty’s this morning? He said he could use somebody right
now.” Pete said he’d pick Sean up at the hostel. When Pete pulled
up in his truck, it looked a lot older in the daylight. Sean put his
backpack in the bed and got in the truck. Pete took a right down a
county road. Trees met the road in a lot of places, but there were
areas with pastures and meadows and some farmhouses and barns here
and there. Pete took another turn and the road ascended a hill and
trees took over the landscape. A couple of miles down the road, Pete
slowed and turned at a sign that said Rutherford Timberland and Mill.

They drove past a
farmhouse and went further down the road until Pete stopped at a
large industrial looking building. Sean could hear the buzzing and
whining of what he assumed were saws. Inside, several men were
working pieces of lumber, stripping bark, sanding, planing. A lot was
going on at once and Sean tried to imagine himself at one of the
machines. He couldn’t.

A gray-haired man
walked out from an enclosed room to the side. He extended his hand to
Pete, then turned to Sean, shaking his hand. “Marty Rutherford,”
he said.

“
Sean O’Connell,”
Sean said.

“
Sean, Marty says
you’re willing to do some hard work. You ever done anything like
this before?”

“
No, sir,” Sean
said. “I’ve been a banker.” He looked over at Pete, who
suppressed a laugh.

“
A banker!”
Marty said, but he didn’t laugh. “I’ve had all types come to
work for me off the trail. Once, it was a college history professor
on sabbatical, another time it was an accountant. Right now, got a
young one, just graduated from college and hiked the trail as a
present to himself. He lives in one of the cabins.”

“
Cabins?” Sean
said.

“
I’ve got a
couple of small cabins near my house and I let the hikers stay there
while they work for me. It’s all part of the experience they’re
after. Let’s just say, I consider it giving something back, paying
it forward. Something like that.”

Sean liked Marty. He
was a plain-spoken man who clearly had a strong sense of how he
wanted to live in the world.

“
So, I guess it
doesn’t matter that I don’t have any timber experience then,”
Sean said.

“
Oh, no. We’ll
get you trained. I’ve got several fellows who’ve been working for
me for years who do a good job with that. They like it.”

Marty led Pete and
Sean to each workstation where he introduced Sean to Gabe, a man who
looked to be in his late fifties with a gray ponytail and mustache,
Benny, a younger guy maybe a little older than Sean who was clean cut
and clean shaven, and Slim, a hefty guy who looked like the
quintessential lumberjack.

“
Jesse, the other
hiker, is working in the woods today cutting trees with Mario and
Scotty. You’ll meet them tomorrow. Well, I guess you’ll meet
Jesse tonight. If you want the job, that is. I pay twelve dollars an
hour and deduct three hundred a month for room and board. Three
squares a day up at the house.”

Hell, Sean would
work there for just the room and board. He had the money from the
house sale that would last him a while. But he nodded his head. “That
sounds fine,” he said. They followed Marty up to the house they had
passed by earlier. It had a meadow behind it with a large garden
area. On the edge of the woods stood two log cabins about a hundred
feet from each other.

“
That’s where
you’ll be staying,” Marty said motioning to the cabin furthest
from the house. The walked onto a back porch and Marty opened a door.
The smell of cinnamon wafted toward Sean as soon as they stepped in.
A plump woman with a gray bun turned around from the stove and
greeted them with a smile.

“
Honey,” Marty
said, “this is Sean, our new hiker.”

Mrs. Rutherford was
wearing an apron similar to the one Marla had worn that night she
made the chicken dinner. For a second, another memory of Marla with
her legs wrapped tight around him as they made love came into Sean’s
mind, but he pushed it away. Mrs. Rutherford took Sean’s hand in
hers, welcoming him. Her hands were soft like velvet.

“
You can wash your
clothes here,” she said leading Sean to a hallway off the kitchen
with a washer and dryer against the walls. “I serve breakfast at
seven, lunch at noon sharp, and supper at six.”

For a moment
everything felt so surreal to Sean. How did he get here, to this
farmhouse in North Carolina? Was he really going to be cutting down
trees? But he smiled at Mrs. Rutherford and thanked her.

“
Come back for
lunch after you get settled,” she said as they went out the back
door.

“
I’ve got to get
back to the mill,” Marty said getting in his truck. “I’ll see
you at lunch, Sean.” He waved goodbye as he drove away. Sean
reached into the bed of Pete’s truck and got his backpack. Did he
really carry that thing for sixty miles? He shook Pete’s hand.
“Thanks, Pete. I appreciate your help.”

“
It’s nothing,”
Pete said. “I’ll see you at Billy’s. I go there several nights
a week and so will you.”

Sean followed a
grassy path that led to the cabins. They were made of square logs and
had chinking in between them, like Abraham Lincoln’s childhood
cabin. There was a wide front porch that ran the length of the cabin,
with a door in the center. Sean opened it—there was no lock—and
walked inside. It was one large room, with a fireplace surrounded by
stones on the right wall and a small kitchen area in the far right
corner. The left corner held an enclosed bathroom with a shower and
in front of that was a bed with a chest of drawers and a small closet
nearby.

Sean had forgotten
to ask about cell service, but when he checked his phone, it was
working. He was going to have to make some hard phone calls, but he
wanted to put them off for a while. The twin bed was made up and Sean
leaned back against the pillow. He woke up a couple of hours later
and saw it was almost noon. He didn’t know how he could be starving
after the huge breakfast he had eaten, but he was.

He took the path
back up to the farmhouse and knocked on the kitchen door. “Come
in,” Mrs. Rutherford called. “You don’t have to knock, honey,”
she said when he walked in. Men surrounded a huge rectangular table.
Sean recognized Marty and the three he had met that morning. What
were their names? Three other men that Sean had not met were also
around the table. Jesse, the young college grad, and Scotty and
Mario. All together, eight men sat at the table. Mrs. Rutherford
ladled chicken noodle soup into their bowls and put a large plate of
sandwiches in the middle of the table. Everyone began eating,
grabbing sandwiches, slurping soup. They talked about the work day,
and Sean felt a little out of place and embarrassed. The new guy.

Sean looked at a
small table in the corner of the kitchen and saw a vase with red
roses and a heart shaped balloon that said Happy Valentine’s Day on
it. He stopped slurping his soup as the realization dawned on him.
“Is it Valentine’s Day?” he asked.

“
Yes, it is,”
Mrs. Rutherford said. Sean hadn’t kept up with the days and now he
was going to have to call Marla on Valentine’s Day and give her the
bad news. He wasn’t coming back any time soon.

“
Hey, Banker,”
Scotty said. “Do you want to go back with us after lunch? We’re
cutting two more trees today. You may as well get started.”

Sean looked at
Marty, who nodded at him. “I think that sounds like a good plan,”
he said. “Get your feet wet.”

Sean hadn’t been
prepared to start working that day, but that’s what was happening,
prepared or not. He got in a pick-up truck with Mario and Jesse, and
Scotty followed in his truck. Country music blared from the speakers
as they drove down the road and turned off on a side road.

“
How long have you
been here?” Sean asked Jesse as he followed him up a path in the
woods. Jesse had his blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and he was
bearded, the look of the hiker. “I’ve been here four months,”
he said. “It’s weird at first, but then you figure out what
you’re doing and it’s all right.”

They stopped walking
and Sean saw some sort of motorized contraption with chains and
several chainsaws. Three pine trees were on the ground a few hundred
feet away. Scotty handed Sean a hardhat and safety goggles. “Let’s
get this one first,” Mario said to Scotty. “Sean, watch what we
do here. We’re going to decide where we want the tree to fall,
which is that way,” he said motioning in the direction that was on
an incline. “Now watch what I’m doing. I’m going to make a
notch in the tree on the side I want it to fall on. Then I’m going
to go to the other side and cut it.”

Sean watched as
Mario and Scotty worked with precision, making the cuts, making the
tree fall where they wanted it to go. “Timber!” Mario yelled as
the tree fell and they all ran away from the tree. “It can pop back
up on you if a limb hits just right,” Mario explained after the
tree was down. “I knew a guy who got killed instantly when that
happened. That was a long time ago and he didn’t know what he was
doing.” He looked at Sean. “You pay attention to what we say and
do and you’ll be all right.”

Scotty and Mario cut
the other tree. Five trees were down that day and now they needed
their limbs trimmed before they could haul them to the yard. Sean
watched from the sidelines, feeling useless, as the three men trimmed
the limbs. “Gotta be careful when you’re trimming and cut it in
the right place to make sure it don’t pop back on you,” Mario
said. Sean was paying attention. He didn’t intend to get killed out
there.

“
Let’s call it a
day,” Mario said. “We’ll haul these out tomorrow.”

Sean looked at his
phone. It was almost five o’clock. They piled back into the trucks
and Mario dropped Sean and Jesse off on the road when they neared the
cabins. Sean was bone tired, even though he had just watched. He and
Jesse went into their respective cabins and Sean headed straight for
the shower. He could still smell the pine sap as he washed his hair.
He walked out of his cabin and Jesse was waiting for him. Together,
they walked up to the farmhouse where they feasted on meatloaf and
mashed potatoes with gravy, and green peas.

Back at the cabin,
Sean sat on the old sofa and called his mother first. That would be
the easier call. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” he told her. “You
too, son,” she said. “Where are you?”

Sean explained where
he was and what he was doing.

“
That sounds
dangerous,” his mother said. “Very dangerous. I don’t like the
sound of it.”

“
I know, Mom,”
Sean said. “But there’s all this safety stuff on the saws and we
wear hardhats and goggles. Plus, Mario and Scotty are very
experienced. It’s okay.” The conversation was a rehearsal for the
call he’d have to make to Marla. When they hung up, Sean steeled
himself for the call to Marla.

“
Sean!” Marla
said when she answered.

“
Hey, Marla,” he
said. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”