together. They drank, swallowed, and Seth cleared his throat.
“I want to thank you for this opportunity... Hell, I sound like the speaker at some Chamber of Commerce dinner.”
“Forget it. Besides, you may not feel like thanking me once you get started on this project. The more I see of this place, the more I wonder if my head was screwed on straight when I said I wanted to buy it.”
“It’s a great location, and the basic structure is sound. You’ll save a small fortune on construction by redoing instead of starting from scratch.”
“Yeah, so I keep telling myself.” Rod smiled. “Anyway, you’re the one who’s going to be sweating through this. Me? Well, right now, I’m planning a little trip to Vermont. Then I’ll come back here for a while before returning to New York. After that, I’m just going to drive up weekends, stay at Twin Oaks, stop by here and make you a little nuts once in a while, asking if I can drive in a nail or two.”
“It’s your house. You can drive in nails anytime you like.”
“Don’t let any of my residents hear you say that. Some of them are convinced surgeons are supposed to be like virtuoso piano players. Doing anything that might risk injury to your hands is a crime against medicine and humanity.”
“And you don’t agree?”
Rod shrugged. “Injury’s always a possibility, I guess, but I can’t imagine living a life totally free of risk. What would be the point?”
“I’ve heard that philosophy before,” Seth observed quietly.
“But?”
“But, having the risk bite you in the tail isn’t quite the same as imagining it.”
Rod hitched a hip onto one of the vinyl-covered counter stools. “You speaking from personal experience?”
“Just an observation.”
“Right. Well, it’s true, I suppose. I guess some of us have to learn the hard way.” Both men took a drink of ale. “Got to admit, you don’t strike me as somebody who’s avoided risk.”
“I didn’t say I avoided it, just that it’s a dangerous way to live.” One corner of Seth’s mouth curved upward. “It took me most of my teens to figure that out.”
“You grew up here?”
Seth shook his head. “I grew up in New York.”
“The city? I’d never have believed it.”
“I lived there until I was eighteen.”
“How come you moved up here? Oh, hell. Listen to me. Sorry, Castleman. I’m the one who’s big on privacy, and here I am, asking questions. It’s just that I’m so accustomed to meeting people who’ve gone in the other direction. You know, you grow up in, I don’t know, Oshkosh, and when you hit the magic age, you pack up and head for New York.”
“Is that what you did?”
“Well, I wasn’t raised in Oshkosh.” Rod tilted the bottle to his mouth. “I’m from Canada, originally. Went to college there, then med school, applied for residency in New York, settled in and never looked back. It just felt like the right place.”
“Not for me. I was born in Brooklyn but I...I shifted around a lot. By the time I finished high school, I’d had about as much of the city as I could stomach. College wasn’t on the horizon, not then, but I’d been up in these parts once when I was a kid. Went to summer camp not far from Cooper’s Corner for two weeks with a community youth group. Came back with the same bunch on a winter ski trip, one of those inner city things....”
“Like I said, it’s none of my business.”
“I don’t mind talking about it.” Seth flashed a quick grin. “I’m a success story. No, I mean it. A couple of my high school teachers would have bet I’d end up in a place with a view of steel bars and barbed wire, but something about this area got to me. I graduated high school, came up here, figured maybe I could find some kind of job before moving on across the country. But I liked it here. The mountains. The sleepy little towns. Plus, I turned out to be pretty good on skis and Jiminy was hiring people....”
A sudden image flashed into
“I want to thank you for this opportunity... Hell, I sound like the speaker at some Chamber of Commerce dinner.”
“Forget it. Besides, you may not feel like thanking me once you get started on this project. The more I see of this place, the more I wonder if my head was screwed on straight when I said I wanted to buy it.”
“It’s a great location, and the basic structure is sound. You’ll save a small fortune on construction by redoing instead of starting from scratch.”
“Yeah, so I keep telling myself.” Rod smiled. “Anyway, you’re the one who’s going to be sweating through this. Me? Well, right now, I’m planning a little trip to Vermont. Then I’ll come back here for a while before returning to New York. After that, I’m just going to drive up weekends, stay at Twin Oaks, stop by here and make you a little nuts once in a while, asking if I can drive in a nail or two.”
“It’s your house. You can drive in nails anytime you like.”
“Don’t let any of my residents hear you say that. Some of them are convinced surgeons are supposed to be like virtuoso piano players. Doing anything that might risk injury to your hands is a crime against medicine and humanity.”
“And you don’t agree?”
Rod shrugged. “Injury’s always a possibility, I guess, but I can’t imagine living a life totally free of risk. What would be the point?”
“I’ve heard that philosophy before,” Seth observed quietly.
“But?”
“But, having the risk bite you in the tail isn’t quite the same as imagining it.”
Rod hitched a hip onto one of the vinyl-covered counter stools. “You speaking from personal experience?”
“Just an observation.”
“Right. Well, it’s true, I suppose. I guess some of us have to learn the hard way.” Both men took a drink of ale. “Got to admit, you don’t strike me as somebody who’s avoided risk.”
“I didn’t say I avoided it, just that it’s a dangerous way to live.” One corner of Seth’s mouth curved upward. “It took me most of my teens to figure that out.”
“You grew up here?”
Seth shook his head. “I grew up in New York.”
“The city? I’d never have believed it.”
“I lived there until I was eighteen.”
“How come you moved up here? Oh, hell. Listen to me. Sorry, Castleman. I’m the one who’s big on privacy, and here I am, asking questions. It’s just that I’m so accustomed to meeting people who’ve gone in the other direction. You know, you grow up in, I don’t know, Oshkosh, and when you hit the magic age, you pack up and head for New York.”
“Is that what you did?”
“Well, I wasn’t raised in Oshkosh.” Rod tilted the bottle to his mouth. “I’m from Canada, originally. Went to college there, then med school, applied for residency in New York, settled in and never looked back. It just felt like the right place.”
“Not for me. I was born in Brooklyn but I...I shifted around a lot. By the time I finished high school, I’d had about as much of the city as I could stomach. College wasn’t on the horizon, not then, but I’d been up in these parts once when I was a kid. Went to summer camp not far from Cooper’s Corner for two weeks with a community youth group. Came back with the same bunch on a winter ski trip, one of those inner city things....”
“Like I said, it’s none of my business.”
“I don’t mind talking about it.” Seth flashed a quick grin. “I’m a success story. No, I mean it. A couple of my high school teachers would have bet I’d end up in a place with a view of steel bars and barbed wire, but something about this area got to me. I graduated high school, came up here, figured maybe I could find some kind of job before moving on across the country. But I liked it here. The mountains. The sleepy little towns. Plus, I turned out to be pretty good on skis and Jiminy was hiring people....”
A sudden image flashed into
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