"I'm so pleased I've caught you both. Here's the key."
She holds this out to Zac, who takes it automatically, even if he looks to be as unsure as I am what the key is actually for.
"It's for the storage unit where Barry parks the trailer that we use for all the floats. He'd get it himself, but his health isn't…"
Zac and I talk over each other and Mary in our desperation to avoid anything to do with Barry's bodily functions, or lack thereof.
After stammering, "I'll just show you the designs," I take my phone out of the pocket of my jeans. I'm soon flicking through the mountain of images on my phone, desperate to find the sketches I'd sent to my mom for a second opinion.
This also has me remembering what mom said about the parade. Word is that while the kids from the neighborhood used to ride on the float, these days they won't go near it. Something about Barry being a bit of a Drill Sargent.
This doesn't surprise me, with him often yelling at us kids to get off his lawn.
While I continue searching for the sketches I'd made, Zac puts his hand on Mary's arm and hits her with a look straight out of Puss in Boots. It's one that has the older lady blushing and stuttering, with all thoughts of Barry's kidney stones, forgotten.
"Where exactly is the storage unit, Mary? I can collect the trailer this evening."
She's not answered him when I'm shoving my phone under her nose, hoping to distract her further. Zac's warning was the first I'd heard of actual kidney stones, and I wanted to make it the last.
However, the woman is tenacious with her husband's health and we have to sidestep a couple more opening gambits. Eventually though, she confirms she loves the float idea to bits, and gives Zac the address of the storage unit.
Even better is when he says he'll help her walk back down the driveway because I'm having trouble holding in my laughter. The second he walks back into the garage, I hit the button to close the door.
Then we laugh until our sides hurt.
ZAC
I haven't busted a gut laughing like this in ages and while I'm enjoying it, part of me is wracked with guilt. "I shouldn't laugh, not really. But I swear that woman is like a Rottweiler when it comes to telling me about Barry's health."
Kelly looks up at me, all the while fluttering her lashes. "I don't think it's Barry's health she's most interested in."
"You're not wrong. I have to fight the urge to check my shorts for dollar bills after she corners me." Then, making the most of Kelly's good mood, I hold the keys up and jangle them. "Shall we?"
Kelly then does an even better impression of her elderly neighbor by coloring up, as though I've just suggested we get a motel together. Not a bad idea, although not one I'm pushing. At least not yet.
I rattle the keys again. "The sooner we collect the trailer, the sooner we'll know how much space we've got to play with. Unless she gave you the size of the trailer?"
Kelly shakes her head before speaking. "I asked, but she just said it was big." She looks around the garage before carrying on. "What if it doesn't fit?"
It does, but only just, leaving me to wonder about what Mary describes as Barry's 'enormous' kidney stones. They must be the size of grapefruit to impress the old girl.
After I unhitch the trailer from my truck, Kelly and I stand and take it in. It's a flat-bed monster that will be perfect to build on. It'll also mean the design will end up gigantic.
As she walks about the bare trailer, she nibbles on her bottom lip. It's not until she's back next to me she huffs out in frustration. "I'll have to scale back the design."
"What! Why?"
She flings her arms out to the sides, taking in the enormous expanse of plywood in front of us. "I know you said not to worry, but there isn't a chance we can build what I've come up with and not blow the budget."
"You're approaching this all wrong." When she turns to stare at me, I press on. "This isn't one of your fancy advertising campaigns. It has to last four hours, tops."
It's fascinating watching her thought process, with her soon enough moving on from it being an impossibility to the possibilities being endless. This has me glancing down at the phone stuffed in the back pocket of her jeans. Okay, and I check her ass out while I'm at it. I'd be stupid not to.
"Can I see your designs again?"
While she gets her phone out and finds them, I grab my tape measure to confirm the actual size of the trailer. Twenty feet long by seven feet wide, with a double axel.
By my reckoning, this will have the height of the float sitting around fifteen-feet off the ground when the rocket is at its highest. "We could even win the prize for the biggest float!"
