He didn’t look any different than any of the other broken fellas that jumped into the back of my pickup in the Home Depot parking lot that sunny but chilly Tuesday morning. He had steel-toed boots and what looked like a strong back and that was good enough for me. We were pouring concrete that day for a buddy of mine that happened to end up doing a lot better than I did in the contracting game. Thing is, I saved his ass a few times when his ‘aggressive’ approach to managing folks resulted in his workforce disappearing. So, he paid me regular-unlike more than a few of the other guys. Maybe he saw something in my eye…

That first day the sweat was pouring off us like we were in a shower. One by one the other hired help dropped away and wandered over to the shade. This guy was made of stronger material. I told him, “if you’re there tomorrow, you’ve got yourself another day’s work”. He just nodded. Of course he was there. I imagine he had a few mouths to feed and the prospect of more pocket cash made him eager. Not that he ever showed it though…

So there we were-it was a few months down the road and we’d got to know each other about as best as two taciturn fellas ever would. By this time I’d hired a foreman that would take the rest of ‘the dailies’ back to the parking lot and would sit down with-he said his name was ‘J’. Just ‘J’. We’d sip beers and talk about what needed to be done the next day, week, whatever. It got to be a habit.

This time around we’d started a bit of a fire to warm our hands by and I threw out the idea that ‘J’ might be in line for a foreman job at another site he knew that I’d been overseeing. I could tell he was interested. I got up to grab us another round when I saw the sledge hammer leaning against the pile of concrete blocks. I grabbed it, felt the weight of it in my hands. It felt good.

He never had a chance. The squishing, cracking sound that was made as I crushed the top of his skull almost made me sick. Almost. I drove off to the dumping ground thinking, ‘here’s another that I first seen climb into the bed of my pickup and this is where I’ll see him for the last time’. Taking a man’s life away from him is one thing, but doing it in a symmetrical manner makes it seem like art to me.

TO THE GAME!

Cowpokes/Schmeagles:

Second-most I’m rooting for a tie here so that when the Giants go on an 8 game win streak they’ll win the division. What? I want what Odell pretends to want. First-most it would be great if Philly caught their stride and humiliated Dallas on a national stage.

Don’t bother with the bleach, just burn the clothes afterwards.