Chapter Two
Last Call
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The morning sunrise broke before Adam awoke. It was another normal Tuesday. His alarm was set to go off at 6:35 am. Also at 6:40, 6:45, 6:50 and 7:00. His wife, Rae, was already awake. By now she had read her Bible, prayed, used the bathroom, brushed her teeth, got dressed, made coffee and got the laundry started. To say Adam was not a morning person would be an accurate statement. The multiple alarms were his hopeful attempt to do better at life. To rise and shine. To conquer the world with a proper diet and exercise. Like every normal day he was pushing it.
Leaving at 7:05 was a no go if he were to make it to his first job on time. Being a service technician in a rural area was a well sought after job. The added benefit was he was able to take his truck home and dispatch straight to his calls. Not much need for an office with everything being digital. Regardless of how wonderful his job may be, and how easy his day to day life was, Adam was not a morning person. His loving wife knew how he was so she left him to his snooze cycle.
*BEEP BEEP BEEP*
6:35. Snooze.
*BEEP BEEP BEEP*
6:40. Snooze.
*BEEP BEEP BEEP*
6:45. Snooze.
*BEEP*
6:50. Snooze.
He groaned and with surprising swiftness rolled out of his bed and was on his feet before his body could register what he did. Now with his body catching up to his brain he staggered and walked his way zombielike to use the toilet and brush his teeth.
“Alexa, what's the weather?” a low grumble that almost sounded like English made its way from his mouth before gurgling. “Today, you can expect…”
*GAUGRUAGRAURGAGURGRUGRUGR*
*sigh*
“Bless it. Alexa, what's the weather?”
“Today, you can expect sunshine with a high of 78 degrees and a low of 52 degrees.” “Nice. Praise the Lord.” Grabbing his pre-loaded pants from yesterday and a fresh shirt, Adam made his way into the kitchen.” Morning hun” kissing his wife on the cheek. “Howdya sleep?” Smiling, she returned his kiss with a peck of her own. “Not bad. You want to wake up boog or you running late?” Checking his watch. 7:01. “Yeah I'll get her.”
Shuffling quickly, Adam made his way to rouse the beast of the house. Or the princess. Too early to tell what kind of day it would be. “ Good Morning sunshine,” the warmth and love of his tone replacing the rumble from moments before. Being an only child she got all the attention. Rolling over and sitting up with a stretch that turned into an embrace she replied “ Good. Where's mommy?”
“She's waiting for you. Come on,” hoisting the hefty four year old up gently. “Great day girly you need to either cut back on the chocolate milk or start walking yourself.” Walking out and laying his pride and joy down on the couch he gave her a kiss on the head. “I love you boog. Have a great day.” “Mmhmm. Love you.” With boots on and an energy drink out of the fridge, Adam checked his phone in the truck.
FIRST CALL
Jessica Holms
12154 Exmore St.
No A/C. unit runs but doesn't cool. New customer.
Dispatch. Yes/No
“Yes.” Adam punched the address into the GPS and headed down his driveway. On the way to his first call he had a routine. Even though Adam was not much of a morning person, he made sure he got his daily fill. He put on his audio Bible and tried to get into the right headspace for a wonderful day, regardless of how addled his foggy mind is.
Three service calls later it was early afternoon. Overall it was a solid morning. All of the calls were basement access and super simple to diagnose and fix. Plugging in the headlamp to the power inverter he checked his phone.
LAST CALL
Simon Sirene
444 Crestfallen Way
Noise coming from the furnace. New customer.
Pre-Paid.
Dispatch. Yes/No
The next call was in town, or so he thought. When he put it in the GPS the end destination was 35 minutes away. “How the heck? How is this still considered the town limits?” Scrolling through his phone he found the office number and called it. “Hey Shawn, what is the deal with this next job?”
“Hey Adam. Let me check for you. Looks like… internet lead. Customer never called in. Booked through the answering service. Just says the unit is making a noise. The house is…” He trailed off before resuming. “Huh. I didn't know the mountain was in the town limits.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“That's what I'm saying. It's way the heck out there. It doesn't even look like there is a road leading to there. The pin on the map is way off the nearest road. I'm not trying to get my buttle scuttled out there.” A laugh rang out through the phone. “Yeah I wouldn't want to go out there either but there isn't much of an option here. They already pre paid the dispatch fee and it's your last call. Take your time and just turn this into an opportunity. You got this.”
“Yeah yeah yeah. Thanks brother.” Everyone who wasn't a total wormhole was a brother to Adam. Shawn was a good guy. He was newer to the company and really wanted to try and make the best of each day. Adam was not one to be caught up with drama and didn't know much about him on a personal level but noticed how hard he was trying to follow the standard operating procedures to a T. A respectable quality to have. “If you don't hear back from me, tell my wife I love her… sister.” A squirrely laugh came through the phone. Adam could always count on Shawn for a laugh from his corny jokes. “Gets me every time. Call me if you need anything else.”
Adam hung up the phone. Checking back through his recent calls he realized he hadn't called his wife at all and had only briefly responded to her text. Putting in his Bluetooth and dialing up Rae he headed towards the Dogwood Mines. “Hey darlin’. You doing alright today?” She answered, “Just busy. Had a bunch of files I had to get through this morning before getting around to my actual work for the day.” Her southern accent always made Adam smile. Not being a native to the area and Rae being born and raised the accent was thick as cold syrup on a hot pancake.
“I love you.” A smile curling up his cheeks. “How was drop off today?” “Don't make fun.” Somehow the accent is even thicker than before. “Drop off was fine. She was happy to see all her little friends. They all ran up to her when she got there. Just adorable.” “I'm glad she is getting along better with the others. She is a bit of a bully.” Adam chuckled to himself. “How is she a bully?” She asked. “She is only 3. How on earth did you come to this conclusion?” Rae seemed genuinely flustered at this. After all this was her baby girl.
“She is like 20 pounds heavier than all the other kids and is very set in how other people should be acting around her. Usually it means a bully,” he said. “That usually means she is 4 and she just has an athletic build. She is going to be a great softball player for sure,” Rae told him with pride. “Athletic from stuffing kids into lockers.” “Adam they don't have lockers you goof,” Rae laughed in spite of herself and he joined her.
Adam glanced at the GPS and realized he would have limited options to stop before too long. Spotting a gas station he pulled in. “I need to stop off right quick, my last call is back in the mountains. Ima grab a bite and take a leak. I'll shoot you a text when I'm back in civilization.” “It’s that bad? Send me the address just in case,” she said. “I'll shoot it to you in a second. It's sketchy. The driveway has to be miles. Check it out when I send it to you.” “I will. I love you. Be safe, okay?” “Always hun. I love you.” Adam hung up the phone and parked. He ran into the station and got a drink, snack and a wee before he loaded back in the truck.
Pulling onto the dirt road, he made his way slowly. It took almost fifteen minutes to trudge down the drive before the home came into sight. It was a bit of a surprise. He was expecting a murder cabin. However, the home in front of him was a quaint rancher with a wrap-around porch. There was no car in the driveway. To his continued surprise there was a stable where a typical detached garage would be with four bays, two of which he could see horses. The first was a chestnut and the second was a pure chocolate color. There was a large Mennonite community in the area so horses weren't too terribly strange. The old order was funny like that. See them riding down the road with a horse and buggy drinking a Starbucks.
He pulled up close to the house and got out. Checking his phone there was no service at all. Adam went around to the passenger side and grabbed his Veto pro pac. Taking in his surroundings, he noticed one thing out of place. It was quiet, save for the horses in the stables doing whatever horses do. There was no rustling off in the trees, no birds chirping, not even the lonely grasshopper who is as elusive as he is loud. The stillness was quite eerie.
“Howdy!” Spinning on his heel Adam turned on to the sudden noise. His heart started pounding as the very large newcomer appeared seemingly from out of nowhere. “Sweet Jesus sir, you scared the fire out of me,” Adam said followed up by a nervous chuckle. “ Howdy. I'm Adam.”
Adam extended his hand out and the man grasped it wholeheartedly. “I'm doing quite well, young man. I'm Simon. Nice to meet you.” releasing the impressive grip, Adam took stock of the man. He was strong, that was for sure. He appeared to be older but with his midnight skin he had that ageless look where without any hair visible it was hard to tell if he was 25 or 75. He was as country as the day was long. Flannel shirt, American flag belt buckle, some worn but fine boots. He had a smile that was welcoming and a beard that made him look jolly. The unease that was present was suddenly gone. “Pleasure sir. I was taking a look at my notes here and it said your unit was making a noise?”
“That is correct. First time I've heard such a racket. It's coming from the furnace in the basement.” The twang was southern but not from around here. Adam took a mental note to bring that up if he hung around while he was working. “Right on. Can you show me to the unit? I'll take a peak and see if we can't get to the bottom of things." Adam continued while gesturing around him, “this is quite the little slice of heaven you have here sir." Taking the lead, Simon led Adam up the porch and towards the side door nearest to the stable. “Kind words from a kind man. Not something you see much nowadays.” Simon said, opening the door into the kitchen.
The kitchen was cluttered with some old time stuff you would see at a Cracker Barrel. The door to the basement was straight ahead and already ajar and lit. Simon gestured down past the kitchen, “thermostat is down the hall on the wall. It's off now. Unit is this way." Adam followed down and around the back side of the unfinished basement was a fairly newer looking furnace. The basement itself was mostly barren except for a few boxes and totes.
“Unit doesn't look terribly old. Are you the original owner?” Simon nodded in agreement and said, “built her myself.” Adam got closer to the unit and set his bag down. He popped off the door and checked for the serial number. “Unit is… about 47 years old give or take. Wow. older than she looks, that's for sure. Let me take a look and I'll let you know for sure what's going on.”
Simon went upstairs without another word. Adam did his diagnostics and checked the unit over. After a few minutes he made his way up the stairs. “Sir?”. There was no answer. He poked his head outside. “Sir?” there was still no answer. Adam made his way around the porch. There was quite the garden out back along with another small building next to what looked like a small orchard. “Hello sir!” Still no answer. He made his way back to the truck to get a drink and update some of the notes and pictures while he waited for the homeowner to reappear.
After a moment the man made his way back from around the other side of the house. “You holler for me?” Simon said as he approached. “Yes sir,” Adam replied." I found the blower motor isn't turning on. It looks like the capacitor is bad. I should have one to replace it on my truck. I'm working you up a price now. There is a good chance we don’t have to replace the motor.”
“Oh, whatever it is, I'm sure you will be fair with me. You seem like a good fella,” Simon said almost wearily. As if the past 10 minutes took it out of him. A closer look at Adam noticed he was sweating pretty heavily and breathing hard. A complete opposite from his more jovial and healthy demeanor from earlier. “Thank you sir. I hate to pry but are you ok? You seem a little off from how you just were.”
“Oh this? This is nothing. I'll recover here shortly. Just getting up there in age.” he said with a chuckle. And indeed, right before Adam's eyes he seemed to rejuvenate rapidly. “You weren't kidding,” glancing down at his phone, “if it's just the capacitor it will be $225 plus the dispatch and diagnostic. So you're looking at $304 even if you would like for me to slap that on for you and get you up and running. Keeping in mind the unit is almost 50 so there could be other issues.”
“You ain't going to try and sell me on a new unit?” Simon said in disbelief. Holding his gaze, Adam said in a hesitant tone “ it… doesn't need to be replaced.” Looking confused he continued, “Now if you want pricing we can get a Comfort Advisor out here and give you some pricing, but I don't believe you need it. It looks like you took care of the system and it should work fine with just this. We could even look at adding some air conditioning to the home if you were interested.” The man smiled widely, “Tell you what, since you've been such an honest help to me today I got a gift for you. I don't have any cash to tip you with but I do have something I think you will appreciate all the same”.
“Well bless you sir, but that isn't necessary.” Simon crossed his arms and said, “You a holy man?” “I wouldn't say holy but I do love me some Jesus. I try but I'm a sinner just like everyone else. Thank God for grace.” Simon looked at Adam as if he was sizing him up, “I'd like to consider myself as a holy man. Tell you what, let me show you something here before you start. I keep an eye out for people like you to be able to share this with.”
Tilting his head and locking eyes with the stranger, Adam pondered for a moment. He was having a hard time pegging whether he was a good fella or not. Ultimately he went with his gut. “Well sure. Is it going to take much time? If so, let me clock out here for a meal break. I'm not one to sit on the clock.” Adam pulled out his phone and checked for service. Still nothing. “Well maybe I can’t clock anything with no service. I'll just make a note.” He glanced at his watch, “3:15 sounds good.”
“Follow me young man.” Simon said with his renewed joy. Adam had not put much thought into the situation. This customer had a presence about him that just put things at ease. He had already forgotten about his worries from before. “I noticed the horses and no cars. Are you Mennonite?” Simon chuckled, “Not quite, but that's a good observation. I just never got the hang of automobiles. Never liked ‘em. I got some trusted transportation." They made their way around the side of the house to the small building next to the orchard and garden. It was much cooler around back near the shed. It turned out to be a beautiful day for sure.
When they got to the building Adam was sweating and was kind of out of breath. Being a married man came with some real perks. However those perks came with a larger waist line recently. He never had much of a gym body but was much more athletic prior to marriage and a career. The building looked much like any small pre-built shed, about four yards squared.
Between labored breaths Adam looked at Simon and said “no wonder why… you came back… and looked so… tired.” Simon was much more fit, however he looked just as exhausted. A smile broke across his face. “This place doesn't look like it but it sure does drain you and leaves you needing a drink. Water?” Simon asked. Now panting, “yes please.” Adam was starting to feel light headed and, if he were to be honest, a bit faint. There was something strange about this place but his head was fuzzy. Simon opened the door with some effort and went in first. Adam followed into the poorly lit room and the door slammed shut, plunging them both into darkness.