Chapter Forty-Four -
September Cottage
"You shouldn't have started
this. You know what you're like when you start building.
You hate it. You get angry. You start throwing things. And
you are always in a bad mood. Then you take it out on me.""This is
different. I need the money. And you are forgetting, there
is one crucial difference with this job. It isn't my job.
I can walk away from the deal at any time. I also have
other people helping. I don't have to co-opt you because
Gerry can hold awkward things, and lift heavy loads, and
so on.""I still
think it's a bad idea. Joe is hopeless. He isn't going to
help with anything. I don't know about Gerry. And who is
this other guy who isn't going to be there half the time?"That was
a problem. Gerry's neighbour was supposed to be working
weekends to do the electrics. We were going to work all
week, so we were working seven days a week while he put in
only two. That's crazy.On top of that Gerry and I were paying for the materials. Brian wasn't paying anything, but he still wanted the same payout at the end of the day as we were getting.
Joe,
meanwhile, had left for Ireland.It got
worse. Gerry was outside building a dry stone wall to help
retain the edge of the upper field, and he was taking
ages. I was beginning to wonder if he would ever finish
the job. That meant for five days a week I was the only
person actually working inside the house.Eventually
I managed to persuade Gerry to leave the garden wall and
get the house finished first. The wall could be done while
the property was up for sale.We had
another meeting, and decided to pull all the lousy plaster
work off the front of the building, and re-point the stone
work, and to fit new windows. That immediately added three
weeks work. When we totted up the work still outstanding I
reckoned there was still another six weeks to do.Then
Brian didn't work for a couple of weekends, and Joe came
back for a week. That was the last straw. Gerry and Joe
spent the whole time traipsing about in the van. First
they went to see an estate agent to discuss the selling of
the house. Then they visited two more. Gerry went off with
Joe to see Joe's bank manager. Then they went to the
planning department, while I stayed on site doing the
work. I couldn't for the life of me understand why they
couldn't pick up the phone and get the estate agent out to
the site. And why did Gerry have to go as well?Half-way
through the week I went on strike. I packed my tools into
the car and drove home.Eventually
Gerry and Joe came round and promised things would be
different. Joe suggested we all go off to a hotel for a
slap-up meal and he would pay."That
sounds nice Joe, Ann will like that."Joe
looked puzzled. "Ann? But I was thinking of it being just
us three; you know, the people on the project.""But
Ann's doing the painting, and she's been feeding everybody
over the past couple of months. In fact, Joe, you are the
only one here who isn't actually on the project."Annabel
went berserk. "Well, that's typical isn't it? All you men
go out to dinner. You always forget about the women. It
would be me more than anyone else who should be taken out
to dinner. How many meals have I got for everybody, day
after day. No-one's paid me for them. Everybody's said how
nice they were, but when it comes to going out to
celebrate no-one thinks of asking me.""I know
Annabel, I did automatically assume you would be invited,
but Joe didn't seem keen. Don't ask me why.""Well you
know what he can do with his bloody dinner!""I wont
go. I said if you weren't invited then I wouldn't be
coming either, so I assume it will be just him and Gerry.""Joe's a
pig. A totally insensitive pig!" She looked very
attractive in her anger. Her eyes were flashing, and she
did everything at double speed. She looked wonderful."I know,
I know. He lives in a dream world. He doesn't think.""He's
just a male chauvinist pig. He wanders about, and expects
everyone else to do things for him while he sits on his
backside, or stares over a gate with a straw in his mouth.
Fiona always did all the work, or that Irish twit, or you
and Gerry. He does absolutely nothing. He's a total dead
loss, and yet he thinks he's the cat's whiskers. He thinks
everything revolves around him, and without him the
universe would fall apart, yet he's totally useless. He's
a drone. You ought to stop working there for good and let
them clear up the mess between them. You've done enough."The next
week I went in on the monday afternoon on my own. I looked
around and made out another list. This time it was quite
small. I thought there was still a month's work to be done
if everyone worked on the project. I extracted a list of
things I would do, and decided to leave the rest to the
others. I presented the list to Gerry on the tuesday.
There wasn't much he could say.I worked
solidly all that week, and during the weekend. By that
time I'd done virtually everything on my list. There were
some things I couldn't do because I was waiting for Brian
to finish bits of the electricity circuits, so on the
following monday I went round and collected my tools, and
said goodbye to the building.I think
Gerry paid a couple of guys to come in and do some of the
jobs he and Brian were supposed to be finishing, and the
property at last went on the market.I don't
think this way of life suits me. I need to think about
earning my living some other way. The trouble is, the
money is good, and it's something I can at least do. * * * * *
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