Sat July 6

Bobbie got up early, fed Fossy, put on coffee, checked the news and was ready to get to work. She saw on the motel website that Rick was still checked in.

Johnny knocked and came in and grabbed a coffee. “Are you ready? I’ve been working on big round picnic tables to place in front of the stage.”

Bobbie came into the kitchen. “We need tables for sure and round picnic tables will be cool, are you painting them or staining them? So where’s your new buddy, Rick?”

“Rick has a broken leg, he can’t do much. He’s really sorry about that trouble with Peabody but he’s got some ideas about geothermal heating for my place. Brit had me prime the tables and she’s picked some crazy colours.”

“Brit and Mark have sure been spending a lot of time together. She asked if she could hang out by the pool on nice days and loves to putter in the garden. She shows up most evenings when he’s finished around 6. I’m glad he’s got something other than work. I wonder how Chuck is feeling about this. I guess it’s not really my business is it?”

“You’re right Bobbie we’ll stay in our lane. Hey what’s Fossy got?”

“Isn’t that cute? it’s his harness. I want him to get used to it before he’s to old. I mostly got it so I can take him on the roof deck and keep him from falling off.”

“Fossy, do you want to come help us build market stalls?”

They went over in Johnny’s truck. Bobbie didn’t walk the short distance because she was trying to get Fossy comfortable in vehicles. They drove right to the back of the grounds where a pile of wood was waiting to be used to build the stage. Beau came over to help Johnny unload and Bobbie went over to find Brit and Dorey.

“Hi Fossy.” Said Brit. “He’s so cute, I hope he doesn’t get squished.”

“I was going to set up my little water area and tie him in the shade, He’ll likely nap quite a bit. I think he’s taking a growth spurt.”

“Fossy doesn’t seem to mind the harness at all. You can move the water over by our caravan. We have an awning and a few chairs we fancied were sort of a rest area.”

Bobbie took her cooler and her cat over to the little trailer and returned to Brit and suggested they go paint the tables and boss the guys that were biding the deck around a little. Brit giggled and asked Bobbie to help her with the paint. The stage was framed and ready for the deck boards. When Bobbie and Brit were done with the painting they went back behind the tubing offices where all the dressers and cabinets were. They decided to bring out the dressers all in a row and add the reclaimed kitchen cabinets where they fit best. Soon there was a row of 15 dressers and the smaller ones were paired with kitchen cabinets.

Brit had her notebook. “I’ve measured everything and the tallest dresser is 38 inches, without their feet and the widest is 48.” Johnny is going to make a frame that has two wheels on the bottom so we can drag them around easier. I’m trying to figure a nice durable, indestructible top for them.”

“These will take Johnny a little time Brit, we may need to rent tables for next week”

“You’re probably right. Maybe we can get the roofs built though.” She pointed to posts that were set into concrete on either side of the site. “We ciphered were these should go and had them poured the same time they poured the footings for the stage.”

“That would be great progress Brit. You’d have the bones of the market all built. We should talk to Johnny.”

Barb, Trixie, Harry, the cop, and a young man joined them. “Hi Bobbie, we wanted to help out a bit, a community market is a great idea. This is my son Trevor. He’s in engineering up at the university.”

Brit and Bobbie said hi to everyone and explained what was going on with all the construction. Johnny was walking up and down the rows of market stalls with a tape measure, making sure they were the right size.

“Well you guys showed up just in time for lunch.” Mark and Drey were arrived in the hotel minibus. They unloaded a table and filled it with several French loaf sandwiches. Most people had their own drinks and Mark cut a hunk of what ever sandwich they liked and gave it to them in a napkin. He had a loaded vegetarian with tomatoes, cucumber, onion, avocado, pickles and cheese. Johnny had a salad.

Barb said. “Mark you know you’re a real chef when you can make a sandwich this good; it is so much better than I could ever make at home.”

Johnny walked in front of the group and said. “Why don’t you girls come with me and we can put the dressers and stuff away and then we’ll get the roof structures started. All the guys can head over to the stage area and finish screwing all the deck boards on the stage. By the end of the day the frames were up for the roof structures and the stage was finished.”

Brit looked around and said. Thanks so much everybody. The structures look like four long pergolas, Two on each side and are kind of cool but we’d like to get them finished before next Saturday in case it rains.”

Chuck said. “Beau and I worked as roofers. We can get this finished up and shingled in a couple days, its only about 800 square feet.”

“If you can just get two 8×25 foot roofs on, that’s enough for 10 market stalls and is probably enough to start with next week,” Suggested Bobbie.

“We’ll work in the two that run on the NW side, between the tubing business and the stage.”

Johnny said. “Well I’m out of here, come on kids lets go home.”

Bobbie packed up things and picked up Fossy who had been a very good boy and joined Johnny. They piled in the car with all the coolers and chairs. “That was a productive day Johnny.”

“It was, I’m going to start on all the frames tomorrow. I’m sort of working out of the mostly empty storage container at the bottom of the garden.“

“I’ve got a bunch of weeding to do tomorrow, I’ll come down and help. I have some left over stew for dinner, do you want to join me?”

“That’s OK, I am busy tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

So Johnny’s probably hanging out with Rick, thought Bobbie as she walked back to her apartment. She got in, fed Fossy. Had a bath and had a late dinner. She called Brose later in the evening and they chatted about possibly travelling to France to meet his mother.

“I thought you didn’t get along with your mother.”

“I see how well you and your family get along and I think I should try and fix things between me and my mother. My father wasn’t very nice to her and he favoured me. She was always angry because I chose him. I see now that my father’s love was very conditional and I tarred her with the same brush which was probably not fair.”

“I’ll go with you. She will love me.”

“Ha ha, you’re right Bobbie. Maybe you can smooth things over for us.”

“I’ll brush up on my French. Bon soire”

“Bon Soire mon Cher.”

Bobbie went to sleep with travel on her mind. In the morning she was surprised to see Fossy had climbed up and was sitting on the end of her bed.

Sunday morning she dressed, fed Fossy and had a coffee before she headed out to the garden. She looked over by the storage containers and Johnny was there with 2 boys. Sid and Denny were there. They were carrying lumber for Johnny and helping him measure and cut. She walked down to say hi and see what they were doing.

“I was coaching soccer last night and Mitch asked me to watch Sid today. I told Sipho I’d watch Denny too. Sid and Denny are friends now and play soccer together. We’re going to build these forms for the market cart tops and then do some soccer drills.”

“That’s great guys. Can I help at all Johnny?”

Johnny had a table saw and said he needed the pile of plywood ripped into 2 foot by 4 foot rectangles. Bobbie knew how to use a table saw and agreed to do the cutting if a strong young man could help her lift the plywood. She put on her gloves safety glasses and had Sid help her lift the first piece. “We have to get it lined up just so.” She engaged the saw and Sid helped her steady the big piece of wood. After about an hour they had all the plywood ripped.

“I should have worn earplugs. My arms are buzzy too.”

“Well it was a big help Bobbie.” He was laying out all the plywood pieces and securing them to the frames he made. Each piece had a 2×4 frame that had chicken wire stapled half way up the edge. When finished, he had the boys put them on some pallets that were placed in 2 flat rows.

Johnny was finished a phone call. “Rocco hooked me up with a concrete foundation company, mostly to deal with my house foundation and I learned that sometimes they have some concrete left in the truck that they just throw away after they finish a job. They have some today. I asked him to head over this way and I would take the left overs for out market tops. Typically you need harder concrete for counter tops and they will need to cure a while to be hard enough but it will be good enough for the market carts. So the 2×4’s were scrap from Rocco’s building sites and the only thing I had to buy was the plywood and the chicken wire. So 24 tops for about 100 bucks.”

As he spoke, the concrete truck backed onto the site. The driver jumped out and unhooked 3 beat up concrete stained wheelbarrows from the side of the truck and said. “Here we go boys.”

Johnny filled all three wheel barrows. He pushed the first one over and they filled 2 of the frames. He got the next and so on. Bobbie tried to push the wheel barrow but couldn’t and when the driver saw her struggling, he got out and helped. Bobbie, Sid and Denny smoothed out the tops. It was all done in an hour. Johnny went into the storage container and brought out a case of beer that he gave to the driver along with a hundred dollar bill. “Thanks man I appreciate the help I’ll be in touch about my house foundation in a couple months, take care.”

The cement truck honked his horn on the way out and the boys jumped.

“Whew that was hard work Johnny I don’t think I can work in the garden now.”

“I know, I’m about to drop but I think the tops are so cool. I wonder how heavy they are. I’m keeping them in the plywood frame. I can screw that right to the market cart.”

Bobbie looked up and saw Brit skipping down the hill. “Oh wow that is so cool guys. Johnny are those cement counters for our carts?”

“I’m glad you like them Brit, they will be hard enough in a few days. I’ll cover them if it rains.”