He stopped dead. “We’re arguing? No, we’re not.”
“You got mad and I got mad. What would you call it?”
“We were talking,” he answered. “I didn’t get mad, either. When I do, you’ll know. I start throwing things around, like lockers and cars. I don’t care that you think I should have bigger goals, and…why else am I supposed to be mad?”
“You thought I was trying to get Ed fired.”
“No, I didn’t,” he said, shaking his head. “And why are you pissed off at me?”
“Because…because,” I said, frustrated. “Because you think I’m a bitch.”
“Woah, what?” Now he stopped. “I don’t think that.”
“Well, now you think I’m crazy for saying it,” I told him.
“I wouldn’t call you either of those things. You know what this is?” He pointed at my midsection.
“My torso?”
“It’s hunger. You need lunch, so you’re jumping to conclusions. Come on.” He took my coat sleeve and started tugging me along again. He did it gently, but if he’d wanted to, he could have yanked me right down.
When we got to his car/truck, I said it again. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize, except if you don’t want a burger because now I’m really in the mood. We never established if you’re a vegetarian.”
“I’m not,” I told him. I was happy to go with him, but it didn’t happen.
Ronan looked over my shoulder. “Oh, there’s Eddie. I’m going to yell.”
I understood why he warned me now, like he had when we’d stood on the table in the epicenter. His voice was deep and boomed out with the force of a tractor-trailer’s horn. I quickly covered my ears.
Ed waved and hollered back that we needed to talk, so we made the walk down the gravel path again. When we got closer, Icould see that he looked unhappy. “There you are,” he said to me. “Let’s all go to my office.” The three of us went to discuss things with the roofing contractor. I watched for anything awful along the way but the coast was clear of vermin.
That was the only good news—the rest was bad. There was no patching the roof, because it was in terrible shape. “All of it?” I confirmed. “Even the section in the front, above where the Woodsmen will practice?”
“All of it,” the contractor said. He didn’t want to give an exact cost, not until he had time to sit down and look at some numbers, but he threw out a rough estimate. Ed paled when he heard it.
I sat for a moment, taking it in. “I hadn’t thought of it like this, but it’s one building,” I said slowly. “It all needs to be fixed at one time. You wouldn’t repair half a roof.”
“Yes,” the contractor said. “Yeah, obviously.”
“I mean, if there are rats on this side, there will be on the other side.”
“I think they’re mice. The exterminator always clears the entire place before summer rolls around,” Ed agreed. “But they come back.”
“If the pipes are bad here, they are over there,” I continued. “It’s all connected.”
“Like this building is its own conspiracy theory,” Ronan suggested.
This was the tactic to take—not to say that it was a conspiracy theory, but that it was a problem for the Woodsmen team. For these major issues, I could go around my own boss and apply directly to the office that handled the physical plant (which was not actually a plant). “I think we can get this done,” I told them.
“How long have you been with the team?” the contractor asked. He sounded skeptical.
“About six months,” I answered. He looked skeptical, too. But he had to leave for another job and Ronan reminded Ed that he had come to pick up a broken leaf blower.
“The what? Oh,” Ed said, and his eyes slid to me. “Right, the leaf blower.”
Ronan laughed. “You’re a schemer, Eddie.” Then they both looked at me and I thought I might understand. Was Ed trying to set us up? I shook my head, because I didn’t enjoy manipulation and neither would Ronan, I was sure. He was taking it as a joke instead of getting mad, though. I didn’t know Ed very well but he didn’t seem the type to do something maliciously.
