The Building by Richard Snodgrass

Author:Richard Snodgrass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Calling Crow Press
Published: 2018-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

17

“Hello?”

“Hi.”

“Hi yourself.”

“Whatcha doing, kid?”

“I’m cleaning, if you want to know.”

“Of course I want to know. Why do you think I called?”

It came out like a reproach and Vince didn’t mean it that way, at least he didn’t think he meant it that way. He didn’t want to start any trouble with Rita, they’d had too much of that already; that wasn’t why he called. Why did I call her? What did I want? What did I think I could get? He went on.

“I’m sitting here in the contractor’s trailer at this Furnass job. You should see this office, it’s a real crud hole. There’s drawings thrown all over the plan table, the desk is piled high with stacks of papers and old Styrofoam coffee cups, and there’s a layer of dust over everything. Not a thin layer either. You could make sand paintings in this stuff.”

He laughed, waiting for some response from his wife, but the line was silent. Is she still there? Maybe she just wandered off and left the receiver dangling and figured she’d hang it up later after I stopped talking. Oh Rita. Her silence only made him want to talk more, faster. Pile it on.

“I don’t know how this superintendent gets anything done with his office like this. I certainly couldn’t function this way. I could never find anything. You should see this guy, a real slob. The guy’s pants ride so low on his hips that you can see the crack of his ass when he bends over. I’ve told you about him before: his name’s Jack.”

“Why does he let it get like that?”

Thank God, she’s alive after all; I was afraid she died. “Why does he let what get like that?”

“His office, of course. What else would I be asking about?”

“I didn’t know. I thought maybe you were asking about the crack of his ass.” He meant it as a joke and waited for a laugh, a chuckle, even the voice intonation of a smile, but there was only silence. Great. Now I’ve probably offended her. Ass is a dirty word to Rita. Nice work. Vince sighed and ran his hand up his forehead and back over his thinning gray hair. “You’d have to know Jack to understand why he lets his office get like this. It’s totally in keeping with his character. You talk about cleaning, this is one place that could certainly use it.”

“I’ve got enough cleaning of my own, thank you. Don’t you think I have enough to clean around here?”

The whiny, worried, supplicant tone. He could see her in his mind’s eye, standing there at the counter in the kitchen, dressed in her gauzy floral housecoat and matching flat slippers, her beautiful thick auburn hair a tangle of snags, her wide gray-green eyes tearing up in her anxiety, her fear that he was criticizing her, her wide full mouth wrenched to the side with apprehension. As if all he did was criticize her. Do I criticize her too much? As

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