WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

CHAPTER THREE

Next morning they awoke before dawn, went a round or two in bed and had breakfast – Jack commentin' on the oatmeal. "What do you put in this stuff, Cowboy? I always hated oatmeal before but this stuff you fix up is really good."

"Just brown sugar and butter. It gives it a little flavor. It's still mush but its good tastin' mush."

By the time they cleaned the dishes, got dressed and left, it was daylight. They stopped at the local Home Depot and picked up a few things then headed out to their ranch.

"I get all kinds of funny feelin's when I come out here." Ennis said as he unlocked the front gate.

"Me too. It's 'cause this is our place, Ennis. It's like walkin' right into a dream."

"Uh huh. Or maybe a nightmare." Ennis answered as they drove up to the house and saw the roof covered with birds.

"They're lookin' to find a way back in." Jack said and he honked his horn six or seven times and they all flew off into the trees.

"There ain't no way they can get back in. I ain't had a chance yet to check out the roof but there wasn't any leaks in the upstairs 'cept for in those two rooms with the cracked windows and that's mostly wall and floor damage. I checked it out real good first time we came out here and I don't think that roof leaks. I'll get up there and check it out and make sure there ain't no place under the eaves where they can get in. Last thing we need is for them to be nestin' up there in the attic."

"You think that old ladder in the barn is strong enough to hold you?"

"Yeah. It's old but it's strong. I didn't see no wood rot on it any where. It should hold."

"Ok. So what do we do first?" Jack asked as they headed for the barn.

"Why don't you open both the front and back doors so the place can be airin' out. I want to head on up on the roof and see about that chimney." Ennis tossed Jack the keys.

"Ok." Jack answered and took off for the house.

Ennis carried the ladder over to the side of the house next to the chimney and checked it over again – then went back into the barn and carried out the chimney brushes. He slung the strap that held them together over his shoulder and started up the ladder. He tried out each rung carefully before putting his full weight on it as he went up. The old thing creaked and groaned, as most wooden ladders did, but it held just fine and there was no give on the rungs as he stepped on them. It was a good ladder all right – old but sturdy.

An hour's work on the chimney and he had it cleaned out – all the birds nests and debris was carried out by Jack as Ennis managed to dislodge it. They were both covered with soot when they finished and laughed at each other once Ennis came down off the roof.

They cleaned up as best they could using the water they brought and a couple of towels.

"I never expected that much shit to come outta there!" Jack was saying.

"You coulda stood back a little bit. I didn't mean for you to be wearin' it." Ennis teased.

"Oh, that's all right. I don't mind gettin' dirty – as long as you're gettin' dirty too."

"Well, we're gonna be gettin' plenty dirty for a while. I just hope the weather holds out. We don't need no snow just now."

"It's probably cold enough for snow." Jack said as he looked at the November sky.

"Yeah but if there ain't none around we won't get it. I just want to get the place closed up good before that happens."

"I walked around and took a good look up under the eaves while you was on the roof and I didn't see any holes." Jack said as he drank some coffee from their thermos.

"The roof looks pretty good too. It's got some shingles missin' and it all needs replacin' but I'm hopin' we can put that off until summer." Ennis said as he sipped his coffee.

"Maybe we should do that first. I mean a roof is about the most important, ain't it?"

"Nah. The most important thing we need to do is to replace all the wiring. That's gonna cost a bundle. Then if we got enough left over after that, we need to get a plumber in here and redo all the plumbin."

"You think the wirin's no good? Ain't it all inside the walls? Wouldn't it be protected?"

"Nah, it's old, Jack, real old. And old wirin' is dangerous. It could cause a fire and you'd never even know it until we came home from work one day and the place was burnt down to the ground."

"Shit. I didn't know it could catch on fire."

"It sure enough can. One summer Cole's daughter was doin' laundry and her house took fire. It was lucky she was there and caught it. Fire trucks got there in time to save the place but she lost the two back rooms of her house. Firemen said it was the wirin' was too old. Cole had the all the old wire yanked out and replaced with new and I helped him build those two rooms back."

"Oh, so that's how come you to know about doin' such things."

"Mostly. And me and K.E. done lots of different jobs when we was workin' together. We cleaned out chicken coops, rabbit hutches, barns, stables, pig pens – just about any kind of mess a farm animal can make – me and K.E. cleaned it. We also done some roof repair, built a chicken coop, and worked on a crew building stables. We done lots of jobs like that."

"I guess the wirin' is more important than the roof then." Jack agreed as he recapped the thermos.

"The roof, you and me can do, Jack. That roof ain't too steep as roofs go. I don't want to be climbin' around on it now with the temperature this low. We could get snow any time or freezin' rain. You don't wanna be climbin' around up on a roof this time of year. That's a summertime job."

"Ok. We got plenty of work to do inside the house anyway. Damn, it's cold!" Jack shivered.

"Let's scout around and see if we can scare up some fire wood. There ought to be some back over there by them trees. We can get a fire goin' now that the chimney's clean."

"Oh that sounds good to me!" Jack agreed and they got in the pickup and drove towards the trees after first stopping in the barn and picking up their axe and saw.

"What we need is a chain saw." Jack said as they neared a fallen tree, silver gray with age.

"That'd be nice, Jack, but they are expensive. Later on if we got the money we will get one. But right now, I'll start choppin' and you can saw off some of those branches for kindlin."

It took them a couple of hours but they got that tree cut into chunks just right for the fire place and hauled it all back to the house and carried it inside. They stacked it beside the fire place and Jack laid the fire and got it going.

"It's drawin' good, Ennis," Jack said as he watched the smoke swirl up the flue.

"I figured it would. These stone chimney's last forever unless someone takes to knockin' 'em down. They're usually solid as they can be."

"They're better than the brick chimney's?" Jack asked.

"That'd be a matter of opinion, I guess, but me, I like the stone chimney's best."

"That other place we looked at, the chimney was brick."

"I remember. It was a lot newer house than this one and by some standards nicer but I think this one fits us better."

"I think you're right. And it don't stink near as bad as it did." Jack said as he got up and closed both doors.

"No, but the stink is still here and you'll notice it more now with the doors closed. Once we get some water goin', we can give the place a good scrubbin' and kill off all that mold then the smell will be gone."

"Right now all I can smell is the wood burnin'." Jack smiled as he added another log to the fire.

"That smells good all right. Pretty soon we can leave the motel and move all our stuff out here."

"You think we should do that before the ninety days are up?"

"You think they'd come out here and throw us off after all the improvements we been makin? I don't. Those papers we signed said they were givin' us possession of the property the day we signed the papers."

"You're probably right about that. I guess I just didn't think about it that way."

"Let's get started. I want to get the holes in the floor measured and get back to Home Depot for the lumber and get started on it. Hopefully, we can get them finished before dark."

They measured the hole in the front room, the one in the bathroom, the one in the hallway and the two in the upstairs bedrooms and took off for town. They came back with five sheets of plywood, two sets of saw horses, two hammers and boxes and boxes of nails and screws and after a debating over it for a spell, a chain saw.

"Ennis, you said yourself, the sooner we get the place in shape the sooner we can move in and that saw is going to save a lot of time keepin' this place stocked with firewood." Jack argued as they headed back out to the ranch.

"I know it will. I just hate spendin' that much money right off."

"We both got jobs and we both got money comin' in. Right now, time is what we don't have much of. And we'll be savin' money by gettin' out of that motel as early as we can."

"You're right. And if we can get the place cleaned up enough this week after work, we could move in over the weekend."

"You think we could get it fixed up that fast workin' only an hour each evenin?"

"I figured we'd just work on the down stairs for now. Main thing will be the scrubbin' of the walls and gettin' rid of all that old wall paper. You know, that wood underneath it looks like that old panelin' they come out with years ago. If it is, we can take the panelin' down, strip and stain it, and while it's down, we can put up some insulation. That'd make a big difference once the snow comes and that wind is icy cold and I think that stripper might kill the mold too and save us the scrubbin'."

"You done all that before?"

"Uh huh. It's easy as pie. The insulation comes in those big pink rolls and you just measure what you need, cut it off and staple it up. You have to buy one of those little staple guns but they aren't that costly."

"Well, I have tomorrow off after I throw the papers so what do you want me to do out here?" Jack asked.

"You gotta be out here for when they come to hook up the electricity. Just have them hook it up to the barn like it is now but not to the house. That will get the pump for the water well goin'. Then get on in to town and find us an electrician. See if you can get him to come out and give us an estimate on re-wirin' the whole place."

"Ok. I can do that. And while I'm waitin' I'm sure I can find somethin' to do."

"You can for a fact, Jack. Let's get this stuff inside. It looks like it might rain and I don't want this wood to get wet."

They hauled everything inside and Ennis got busy and replaced the two upstairs windows and then to work on the floors while Jack got a fire going again and helped where he could.

"It don't make no sense to me why you have to make a hole bigger first before you patch it." Jack said as Ennis started sawin' away on the floor with the hand saw."

"You got to cut it back to the studs to have a place to nail the patch to, Jack, you can't just lay the wood in place and hope it stays there." He measured out the patch and cut it while Jack shook some poison into the hole. In no time, the first patch in the front room floor was finished as Jack helped with the nailing.

"That wasn't so bad." Jack said as they stood up and admired their work. "There's air blowin' in down here," he said as he held his hand out and felt the breeze coming in between the rotted wall boards.

"Yeah, I know. We got a couple of wall boards that need replacin' right there. The bottoms all rotted out where the rain come in. I think the boards in the kitchen are the same stuff. If they are, we can take the ones down behind the cabinets and use them in here and use plywood behind the cabinets."

"We're takin' out the kitchen cabinets?" Jack asked.

"Uh huh. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow night when I get here."

"We gonna buy new ones?"

"Nah. Won't need to. We can just haul them out to the barn so we can strip them."

"Why does that sound so sexy? You think you'll have enough energy left tonight to strip me once we get back to the motel?" Jack asked with a devilish grin.

"Jack Twist! We got work to do!" Ennis said with a grin but he couldn't deny his jeans were tightening at the thought of stripping Jack and having his way with him.

They finished fixing the holes in the floors, the last one being done by lantern light and threw the last of the poison around the outside of the house and headed back to the motel.

They fixed a light supper, showered and fell into bed. The next morning Ennis headed off to work and Jack to his paper route and then out to the ranch. He wandered around a bit and tried to figure out what he could do to make an impression on Ennis when he got there that evening. He went out to the barn and decided he'd move things around so there would be room for the cabinets. He cleared a large area then went back inside and took a closer look at the cabinets to see how big a job it was going to be to get them down.

Once he found out they were just screwed onto the wall, he started removing screws. He took the smallest one down first and it came down easily. That decided him on what he was going to do for the day. The next cabinet was more difficult. He had to break it loose from the many, many coats of paint where it was stuck tight to the wall and with the final jerk the door swung and slammed on his fingers. He was still hopping around and cursing when the man from Sheridan Electric drove up. He stuck his sore hand in his jeans pocket and walked out to greet him.

While the man worked, Jack worked some more on the cabinets deciding first that he'd take the cabinet doors off before he pulled any more down. He was surprised at how much lighter the cabinets were without the doors and they were easier to handle as well.
He marked each door and its matching cabinet so he didn't get them mixed up. By the time the man was finished with the electrics, he had the rest of the upper cabinets taken down and was hauling them out to the barn.

He drove into town to the motel and fixed himself some lunch, thumbing through the phone book while he ate. After several calls he found an electrician who agreed to come out after hours to take a look and give them an estimate on re-wiring the place.

He considered taking a nap but decided instead to go back to the ranch and see if he could get the rest of the cabinets out before Ennis got there. He took his camp stove and cooking gear out with him and pulled out enough canned goods for dinner. He left Ennis a note saying what he had done so Ennis could come right out to the ranch and they would have dinner there and keep on working.

Ennis got there just five minutes before the electrician and was amazed that Jack had managed to get the cabinets down by himself. The only one he left was the one with the kitchen sink and Jack didn't know how to take that one out so he saved it for Ennis to do. Ennis sympathized with Jack and was kissing his bruised fingers when the electrician drove up. They had a fire going in the fire place and Jack had lit all three kerosene lanterns so there was enough light to see.

Jack and Ennis explained what they wanted done and the electrician was shaking his head, yes, and commented that he was glad to hear they were changing out all the wiring. So many people re-doing old homes just up-graded the wiring if anything and often there were fires, he explained. He took one of the lanterns and went up stairs and looked all through the place, determining how much wire would be needed and how long it would take to do the job. Later in front of the fireplace he worked his numbers in his calculator and came up with the price of fifteen hundred dollars.

Ennis gulped and Jack whispered to him, "Is that a lot?"

"Um … do we have to pay it all up front or could we give you half and make the rest in payments?" Ennis asked.

"When you want this done?" The electrician asked.

"Soon as possible."

"Can you wait till the weekend? My old lady is going to be out of town. I could do it then. If you could come up with half by then, and a hundred a month till it's paid, we got a deal."

Jack and Ennis looked at each other and nodded and Jack reached out his hand to shake with the electrician and said, "It's a deal!"

Ennis took the kitchen sink and cabinet out and hauled them out to the barn while Jack fixed diner. Afterwards they set to work taking down two of the wall boards behind where the cabinets had been.

"These are covered with paint. How can you tell it's the same stuff that's in the front room?"

"You can tell by the grooves in the paneling. See up here around the edges? They're about four inches apart just like the ones in the front room."

"Oh. I see. You take down the old boards and toss them and put these in their place and once they're all stained you won't be able to tell the difference?"

"That's all right except that we don't toss the rotted boards. It's only the bottom part that’s rotted and up stairs this same panelin' was used too. So in the rooms where we patched the floors and the wall boards are rotted underneath the windows, we can cut enough off of those rotted boards in the front room to replace what's rotted up stairs."

"That would save us trying to go out and match this stuff to buy more when we get to the upstairs." Jack saw the reasoning.

"Exactly. No sense in throwin' anythin' away that we might can use."

"Is the strippin' gonna be very hard?" Jack asked, thinking about all the cabinets in the barn that needed stripping as well as all the wall boards.

Ennis gave him a look.

"Hey now, that was a serious question! I wasn't thinkin' about us strippin' or bein' hard." Jack defended himself.

Ennis hugged him anyway and answered his question as best he could. "There's no guessin' how much time it's goin' to take. It depends on what kind of stripper we get and how well it works in this cold weather and whether or not the stripper will remove the moldin' as well. You can't use it if the weather's below freezin and we don't know how many coats of paint are underneath this shitty wall paper. First we need to get the panelin' down and you gotta be careful not to damage it too much. A little bit of damage, like scratches and nail holes and such, we can just fill in. Before that comes down, we gotta get up all the molding."

"I thought the stripper was gonna take care of that."

"This here, Jack," he bent down and pointed to the base boards and ran his hand along the window frame. "All these little pieces of wood – this is all called molding. It's all gotta come down and be stripped and stained."

"Why would they call skinny pieces of wood after somethin' that stinks?"

"I don't know, Jack. I wasn't around when they was namin' things. I just know that's what these little pieces are called and it's all gotta come off before the panelin'. And we gotta try not to break any more of it than we have to. It will be easy enough to replace 'cause it's just standard molding but its one more expense that we don't need."

"All right – all right. I'll be careful. Where do we start?"

"Back in the front room. I'll show you how to take it off carefully. It's pretty darn old so it may just all splinter but we need to save what we can." He took a screw driver and began carefully prying the base molding loose. The first piece came off easily. The next one splintered. Jack tried his hand and his first piece splintered.

"It's Ok, Jack. This stuff ain't all that expensive. We'll salvage what we can and replace the rest." He reassured Jack and they both got to work and pried off all the molding and stacked it in a neat little pile.

Then they started on the wall boards. They came down easily enough and they stacked them out front.

"Are we gonna strip them there or should we take them out to the barn?" Jack asked as they finished the last one – all the paneling was now removed in the downstairs rooms.

"They need to go out to the barn and then I need to take you home and fuck you." Ennis said as he reached around and squeezed Jack's butt. "I been watchin' that sweet ass of yours all evenin' bendin' over and workin' so hard and all I can think about is gettin' you naked on that bed."

"We could always move this stuff tomorrow and just go back to the motel now." Jack brightened up as the steam rose within him.

"We could. But we got to go out to the barn to lock it up anyway so we might as well carry this stuff out there. We don't wanna leave it out here – it might rain. I'll stop by Home Depot tomorrow and pick up the stripper and insulation so we can get started after work. Maybe we'll get lucky and we won't have to scrub but we'll probably have to use the stripper twice." Ennis picked up a couple of boards and headed for the barn. Jack picked up a couple more and followed him out.

Back at the motel, they lay exhausted in each others arms and lit smokes. "You make me crazy, Jack Twist. We can't start the strippin' tomorrow because you have to put that stuff on, wait an hour and then wipe it off. And we planned to only work one hour each evenin'. I don't know why I didn't think about that when I was talkin' earlier."

"Maybe your mind was on somethin' else?" Jack pressed a kiss behind Ennis' left ear.

"You're sure enough right about that! I don't know how you can breathe in those jeans, they're so tight." Ennis gripped Jack's arm that was flung across his chest.

"I don’t breathe out my butt, Cowboy!" Jack snickered.

"Smart ass!" Ennis said and stubbed out his cigarette and dove on Jack and went in for seconds.

****
The rest of the week they worked on spraying down the studs and scrubbing the floor to kill off the rest of the mold. Saturday morning Ennis went straight out to the ranch as Jack had to work.

The electrician showed up early and was impressed that most of the wall boards were taken down. He said it would make his job much easier and it would go a lot faster so while he worked on the downstairs, Ennis spent the morning upstairs pulling down the wall boards up there. They came down a lot easier as there wasn't as much molding nor nearly as many small pieces as there were downstairs.

By the time Jack showed up after work, there was wire stretched out all over the place in every room and the electrician was just leaving promising to be back first thing Sunday morning to finish the job.

Jack walked through the place amazed at the difference in the house already. The smell was almost gone but it still lingered here and there. Ennis assured him that most of it was coming now from upstairs as he hadn't gotten to the stairway or upstairs yet and reminded Jack that they hadn't really gotten rid of the smell, just moved it out to the barn.

"So are we still gonna strip this weekend?" Jack asked with a little grin and his tongue resting in the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, Jack! We're gonna strip wall boards this weekend. Any other kind of strippin' will have to wait until after dark." Ennis insisted.

"Um … Cowboy? It's already dark outside." Jack reminded him.

"So it is!" Ennis grinned and lunged at Jack.

"Shit!" Ennis said afterwards and they lay between the wiring in after glow. "I was plannin' our first time was gonna be all romantic like with our bed rolls opened out in front of the fireplace and here we are wallowin' on the smelly floor."

"We can do that too!" Jack leaned up on his elbows.

"You and that smile of yours – leadin' me into temptation. Are you the devil, Jack Twist?" Ennis ran a hand over Jack's bare chest. "'Cause if you are, I'm ready to hand my soul over to you, no questions asked."

Jack chuckled and nibbled on an earlobe. "It ain't your soul I'm after, Cowboy." Jack's hand wandered down inside Ennis' jeans again and gave a squeeze to show exactly what he was after.

"Oh that thing? That's been yours since he first time you touched it."

"What do you say we continue this back at the motel? We can sleep late in the mornin' and I saw you bought some bacon and eggs for breakfast. We can stay up all night if we want to."

"No, now there you go, Jack, leadin' me into temptation. We gotta get up early and get out here and get to work strippin in the morning and we gotta get this insulation up tonight. It's easy enough to do and won't take all that long." Ennis sat up and tried to fasten his jeans but found it hard to do with Jack's hand still in there.

Jack reluctantly withdrew his hand and stood up, fastening his own jeans while Ennis stood and fastened his.

"Snap up that shirt, Jack. I can't think straight as it is and we still got a coupla hours work ahead of us."

"I'm snappin', I'm snappin'. If I'd a known seein' my naked chest would do it for you, I'd took my shirt off first night up on Brokeback." Jack teased as he tucked his shirt tail in.

"I don't even want to think about those first coupla weeks up on Brokeback – that was pure torture thinkin' about you and wonderin' if you was havin' the same thoughts I was."

"Didn't take us long to figure things out though, did it?" Jack asked with a caress of Ennis' shoulder.

"It sure enough didn't. Thought I was gonna die though when we came down off that mountain."

"Yeah, well we was young and stupid back then."

Two and a half hours later they finished up the downstairs insulation and headed out the door.

"That wasn't so bad. That stuff's kinda itchy though." Jack said as they walked out to their trucks.

"I told you to wear gloves, Jack. That stuff is nasty and gets into your skin. You'll need a good soapin' up in the shower before you get rid of it all."

"That ain't so bad. You could wash my back – or anything else you wanted to." Jack leered at him.

"In that tiny little shower? I don't think so. You be careful drivin' home. Don't get in a rush. We got all night." Ennis said with an inviting smile.

Jack jumped in his truck and burned rubber out of there, throwing dirt and stones and weeds all over the place, as his truck fish-tailed and headed for the gate. Ennis laughed and tore off after him.

Later that night as they lay side by side, caressing one another, Jack said, "Oh, I almost forgot. Remember I told you I had two hot prospects for today?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"I closed them both."

"You what? You sold two more trucks today?" Ennis leaned up on one elbow and stared down at him.

"Nope, one new truck, one new car – roughly about the same price. Some sweet commissions there."

"No kiddin? So when are you gonna start seein' these commissions you been earnin?"

"Commissions get paid first of the month. That's in three days. Don't know whether I got these two in time for this months check. We'll have to see."

"That's great, Jack. I swear, you could sell ice cubes to the Eskimos!" He snuggled back down into Jack's arms and they went to sleep.

****

Ennis woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee and Jack burrowing under the covers and giving him a wake up call – his favorite kind.

"Jack, I swear! It's a wonder I got a drop left in me after last night."

"Well it's the weekend. That's what weekends are for, ain't it?" Jack grinned and handed Ennis a cup of coffee.

"How late is it? You reckon the electrician is already out there?"

"It's goin' on nine o'clock, Cowboy. What time did he get out there yesterday?"

"Nine o'clock!" Ennis jumped out of the bed and got dressed. They grabbed a loaf a bread and the peanut butter and headed out the door.

They were both relieved to find that the electrician wasn't there yet but he came in minutes after they did. They ate their sandwiches in the barn and got started with the stripping.

"Shit!" Jack said. "This stuff stinks worse than the mold does!"

"Yeah, I know its strong smellin' but I'm hopin' it'll take everythin' off along with the wall paper and paint and the rest of that shit. Make sure you put it on nice and thick 'cause if it don't, we still may have to do some scrubbin with the bleach."

"It's worth a try I guess, if it works. I hate these damn rubber gloves though." Jack complained.

"This stuff burns your skin like fire if it gets on it so try not to splash any on to your face."

"My face wasn't what you was worryin' about last night! I think you whisker-burned me from head to toe."

"Jesus, Jack. I'm sorry. I need to start shavin' at night before we go to bed."

"I ain't complainin'. I think I scraped you up some last night too. You looked kinda red in places when you came flyin' up outta that bed naked as a jay bird this mornin'. Are you sore?"

"Maybe just a little. Once we get our place set up, we'll make sure we make time to shave before bed. There ain't no need for us to be markin' each other up."

"Again, Cowboy – I ain't complainin'."

"I know – me neither. It's just something we gotta be careful about. We don't need to be goin' in to work with whisker burn or hickeys all over our necks."

"Agreed. All suckin' should be done where it'll be covered by clothing." Jack grinned, "jeans preferably. Shit! This stuff stinks!"

"It does. Here – why don't you move to this one over here closer to the door. The fumes aren't so bad over here."

"Thanks. Oh, it is better over here. How many are we gonna do today? We gonna try and do them all?"

"No. Just the down stairs rooms. It's been almost an hour since we did the first ones. Let's stop and wipe them and see how much of that shit came off."

"Sounds good to me. Just let me finish this piece first." Jack brushed the vile concoction on the wall board.

"Hey, look at this!" Ennis called to Jack. "It's taking most everythin' off."

Jack finished his board and came over to inspect their work.

"Would you look at that!" Jack was amazed. "That was easy!"

"Uh huh. It stinks to high heaven but the actual labor involved is easy enough." Ennis continued rubbing all the gunk off the board and there were only a few small places that needed going back over again.

"You want me to put some more stripper on those spots?" Jack asked.

"Not yet. We'll wait until we get them all rubbed off and then second coat them where then need it all at once."

"Man! I never thought this stuff would work that good and that fast." Jack was enthused now and grabbed up a rag and started rubbing the next board down. The curled, matted, stinking mess fell away with each swipe of the rag and in no time they had them all in good shape. They dabbed stripper in the spots that hadn't come completely clean and washed up in the barn sink and headed into the house to see how the electrician was coming along.

He was sitting on the hearth figuring out his bill when they came inside. All the wiring was gone and around the parameter of the rooms, power boxes could be seen with shiny new outlets.

"You all done?" Ennis asked as they came in.

"Yep. I figured this to be a two day job but with you removin' all the wall boards, I got done early. I was just figurin' here – looks like it's going to be eleven hundred instead of fifteen. Your hard work saved you a couple hundred."

Jack and Ennis grinned at each other. Ennis went out to the truck to get his check book and came back in with a check for the full amount and handed it to him.

"I thought you was gonna make payments?" The electrician said.

"We was but since you cut the price, we'd rather pay it in full right now so's we don't have another monthly payment to worry about."

"Well, thank you, gentlemen. It's been nice doin' business with you. You need any more work done, you give me a call." He shook both their hands and left.

"We have electricity!" Jack said

"We do for a fact!" Ennis said with a grin. "And all paid for!"

"That's the best part! What else do we need to do before we can move in here?"

"We still don't have hot water and won't have until we can get a plumber out here and our kitchen is non-existant." Ennis said.

"I don’t care about that. We can always heat some water to wash with and we're doin' without a kitchen now at the motel and gettin' by – we may as well be doin' without one here and not havin' to pay another week's rent on that room." Jack said.

"We got no bed, no furniture and the place is still a mess." Ennis warned.

"We got our bed rolls – we can curl up here on the floor in front of the fire place. We could hit Goodwill and see what they've got. A couple hundred dollars for necessities maybe but we'd be savin' another seventy five by checkin' out of that motel."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to drive into town and see what they got." Ennis grinned at Jack's eagerness to move into the place after deeming it ready for the bull dozer such a short time ago.

"Let's do it!" Jack said, wide-eyed and anxious as a kid on Christmas morning.

They headed back to town and hit the Goodwill store first. They found two small electric heaters, a couple large wash tubs sitting in a stand and debated over an old wooden table and chairs coated with several layers of paint, or a newer table with metal legs and composite top that someone had covered with floor tiles with a wooden design. The first table had four chairs, the second had six. Ennis wanted the first one, Jack didn't want either.

"What's wrong with the wooden set?" Ennis asked, lighting a cigarette.

"I know what's gonna happen if we bring that thing home – you're gonna wanna strip it and repaint it."

"Nope." Ennis said.

"You gonna leave it like it is?"

"Nope. Gonna strip it and stain it."

"Oh jeese, Ennis; what's the difference?"

"Big difference between paint and stain – you'll see once we start paintin' the kitchen."

"Maybe I could find somethin' else to do while you're strippin'." Jack said.

Ennis smiled and told the clerk that they wanted the wooden set. Jack wrote out the check, they loaded stuff up and headed for the motel. They piled their belongings into the back of their trucks, checked out of the motel and headed for the ranch.

"Shit!" Ennis groused when it started getting dark. "How come neither of us thought about gettin' any lamps or light bulbs for these ceiling fixtures?"

"I don't know, Cowboy, but these lanterns are fine. I'm off work tomorrow and I can pick us up some lamps."

"Get 'em at Goodwill so you can get 'em cheap. Don't matter what they look like. We can always get rid of them later if we don't like them. Right now all we need is some light."