Anderson had taken me on as an apprentice at
sixteen years of age. He’d never done that before and had been doubtful of my
resolve at sticking with it, but when I’d shown him my grades and how well I
was doing in math, and told him my reasons why, he’d taken a chance. I greatly
appreciated that chance.
I spotted Tom’s list on the table in front of where Jerry
was sitting. Oh goody, he’d waited for me. Expelling an irritated sigh I strode
over and snatched it up. Without acknowledging him I walked over to the wall of
supplies to collect what we needed.
“Hey Shortcake.” Jerry called out behind me.
Coo-doe’s! He thought up a nickname for me. “I’m not
short.” I corrected impassively looking at the list. The less he knew he got to
me the better. These type of guys thrived on attention.
“No…but you do have strawberry blonde hair. It brings
to mind the sweet carton character strawberry shortcake. So…Shortcake.”
“Never heard of it.” I moved to grab a cart.
“It’s an American cartoon; you probably grew up on
Russian cartoons.” He snickered. “But believe me it fits you perfectly.”
“Then I will call you Savva , it has specific
meaning and was also a character in a cartoon. I think both fit you well.” I
really hoped he looked that up. The meaning of the word was ‘old man’, and the
cartoon character had been a guy who spent most of his time hanging around
doing nothing but drinking. ‘Lazy old man’ fit him perfectly.
“While you start on that list, Shortcake, I’ll go bring
the truck around so we can start loading it.” He gave me a smirk and walked
away.
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. I would rather do
this job than with him, but it would take longer to the get supplies together
alone and we were slotted to be at the house at ten o’clock.
Twenty minutes later Jerry finally brought the truck
around from where it had been parked fifty feet away. He got out and threw me a
dirty look telling me that he’d done some internet research on the name I’d
bestowed on him. I stared innocently back. Hopefully that would be the end of
‘shortcake’.
We loaded everything silently and then headed out to
the job site with Jerry at the wheel, and again we remained silent apart from
the country music coming from the radio. With any of the other guys I would be
joking and laughing, but then maybe I wouldn’t have during this trip because I
found myself tensing up the closer we got to Seth’s residence.
I wasn’t looking forward to working near him. He
elicited some singular emotions in me that I didn’t want to experience or
acknowledge. Therefore, my strategies for this job was to focus on my work,
stay out of Seth’s way, and get the job done as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, Jerry was probably going to mess with my
third objective.
We arrived at the house at ten after ten, which was fifteen
minutes late. I hated being late. Giving Jerry a scathing look I jumped from
the truck as soon as we stopped and headed up to the house. Giving the door a
sound thumping I waited patiently hoping Seth didn’t answer.
When the door opened it wasn’t Seth at the door, it was
a beautiful female with long black hair and the most striking blue eyes I’d
ever seen. She made me instantly feel bland, more so since she was in dark blue
form fitting Capri pants with a white tank with random letters all over it. I
was in my work outfit of old jeans, my blue work shirt, and hair up in a
ponytail.
The girl was smiling when she opened the door and when
she noticed my shirt it became curiously surprised. “Are you the plumber?”
“Yes, I am.” I answered waiting to see what she would
do.
“That is so cool, and you’re so young. Do you like it?”
She asked looking extremely interested.
“Yes, I do
sixteen years of age. He’d never done that before and had been doubtful of my
resolve at sticking with it, but when I’d shown him my grades and how well I
was doing in math, and told him my reasons why, he’d taken a chance. I greatly
appreciated that chance.
I spotted Tom’s list on the table in front of where Jerry
was sitting. Oh goody, he’d waited for me. Expelling an irritated sigh I strode
over and snatched it up. Without acknowledging him I walked over to the wall of
supplies to collect what we needed.
“Hey Shortcake.” Jerry called out behind me.
Coo-doe’s! He thought up a nickname for me. “I’m not
short.” I corrected impassively looking at the list. The less he knew he got to
me the better. These type of guys thrived on attention.
“No…but you do have strawberry blonde hair. It brings
to mind the sweet carton character strawberry shortcake. So…Shortcake.”
“Never heard of it.” I moved to grab a cart.
“It’s an American cartoon; you probably grew up on
Russian cartoons.” He snickered. “But believe me it fits you perfectly.”
“Then I will call you Savva , it has specific
meaning and was also a character in a cartoon. I think both fit you well.” I
really hoped he looked that up. The meaning of the word was ‘old man’, and the
cartoon character had been a guy who spent most of his time hanging around
doing nothing but drinking. ‘Lazy old man’ fit him perfectly.
“While you start on that list, Shortcake, I’ll go bring
the truck around so we can start loading it.” He gave me a smirk and walked
away.
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. I would rather do
this job than with him, but it would take longer to the get supplies together
alone and we were slotted to be at the house at ten o’clock.
Twenty minutes later Jerry finally brought the truck
around from where it had been parked fifty feet away. He got out and threw me a
dirty look telling me that he’d done some internet research on the name I’d
bestowed on him. I stared innocently back. Hopefully that would be the end of
‘shortcake’.
We loaded everything silently and then headed out to
the job site with Jerry at the wheel, and again we remained silent apart from
the country music coming from the radio. With any of the other guys I would be
joking and laughing, but then maybe I wouldn’t have during this trip because I
found myself tensing up the closer we got to Seth’s residence.
I wasn’t looking forward to working near him. He
elicited some singular emotions in me that I didn’t want to experience or
acknowledge. Therefore, my strategies for this job was to focus on my work,
stay out of Seth’s way, and get the job done as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, Jerry was probably going to mess with my
third objective.
We arrived at the house at ten after ten, which was fifteen
minutes late. I hated being late. Giving Jerry a scathing look I jumped from
the truck as soon as we stopped and headed up to the house. Giving the door a
sound thumping I waited patiently hoping Seth didn’t answer.
When the door opened it wasn’t Seth at the door, it was
a beautiful female with long black hair and the most striking blue eyes I’d
ever seen. She made me instantly feel bland, more so since she was in dark blue
form fitting Capri pants with a white tank with random letters all over it. I
was in my work outfit of old jeans, my blue work shirt, and hair up in a
ponytail.
The girl was smiling when she opened the door and when
she noticed my shirt it became curiously surprised. “Are you the plumber?”
“Yes, I am.” I answered waiting to see what she would
do.
“That is so cool, and you’re so young. Do you like it?”
She asked looking extremely interested.
“Yes, I do
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