Robert kicked dirt around the base with his boot while Marcus held it steady. The whole thing took about 4 minutes. When it was done, Robert stood back and looked at the fence like he was checking his own work. Not Marcus'. His.
It'll need to be concreted proper. Robert said, "I've got a bag in my garage. Half a bag. " Anyway, should be enough for this post. The old man looked at him then. Really?
Looked at him. You do this kind of work. Instruction. Before. Marcus didn't elaborate on the before part.
Before what? Before the company I worked for went under. He said it flat. Not looking for sympathy. Just answering the question.
Robert nodded once. "Slow," like that answer confirmed something he'd already suspected about the way things worked in the world. "You want coffee? " Robert said. Marcus looked back toward his house. He had an hour before the girls woke up.
"Yeah," he said. "Sure. " They sat on Robert's back porch. The coffee was strong, the old-fashioned kind, made in a percolator on the stove. Marcus wrapped both hands around the mug because the morning was still cool and it felt good. Robert didn't talk, not right away.
He just sat in the other chair and looked at his fence and drank his coffee. And Marcus, who was used to filling silence with whatever seemed appropriate, found himself doing the same thing, just sitting, just drinking. After a while, Robert said, "Vietnam. " Marcus waited. People always want to know the story when they see the house. All the plaques on the wall.
They think they want to know and then they realize they don't. He paused. You're probably the same. I'm not asking, Marcus said. Robert looked at him sideways.
No, you're not. Another silence. A bird somewhere. My father was army, Marcus said. He didn't talk about it either, smart man.
He was. Marcus drank his coffee. He died when I was 16. Robert said nothing, but he nodded. And somehow that nod meant more than most things people actually said out loud.
That was the beginning. Over the next 3 weeks, it became a pattern. Marcus would come over in the mornings before the girls needed anything, and the two of them would find something to work on. The fence got finished properly. Then there were some boards on the back steps that had rotted through.