Home » The Archives » Chapter 12 » Playing with Fire
| Re: Playing with Fire [message #550 is a reply to message #549] |
Mon, 23 July 2012 21:35   |
artisticrainey
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Registered: July 2012
Location: Northern Ireland
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Field Commander
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Luke finished up his cup of coffee and put his mug in the sink. He glanced up at the clock. "It's after ten, Will should be up by now. Rom! C'mon." He led the dog out the doors leading to the balcony, heading towards Will's apartment. Luke was about to knock on the door, then glanced down at Rommel. "Now no begging for cookies." He ruffled the fur on Rom's head, then knocked. "Will? Are you home?" he called out quietly.
Will came to his door, drying his hair. He grinned when he saw who was knocking and opened it, saying, "Hi, Luke. Hey Rommel! Your timing is perfect. I just got out of the shower after my workout. Come on in." He led them into his living room, pausing to toss his towel into the bathroom. "What's up?"
"A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Tracy asked me about building some sort of mailbox system for the Cliff House here. It's hard for Kyrano to track us all down when the mail plane comes in, so I thought if we came up with something like this." Luke pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. "Sort of like the ones you see in city apartment buildings, only with a little more personality. I figured between the two of us, we could get it built."
"I like personality," Will replied as he took the paper from Luke and examined it. "And this looks good." He looked up. "I take it you have the materials to make these. Do you have the tools to put them together?"
Luke shook his head. "I have the wood left over from a few projects I did on my own. There're plenty of tools down in the shop, I just need a helping hand. Someone who I don't have to baby-sit if you catch my drift." Luke chuckled. "Scott helped me build the shelves for my place but...let's just say it's a good thing he knows how to fly."
Will snorted. "Well, if he built them the way he took care of his jet when he was aboard the McCain, I'm surprised you can put anything on a shelf he put up." He handed the paper back to Luke. "It's been a while since I built anything made of wood, but I'd like to try this. And I'm ready if you are."
He stood up. "Shall we?"
Together the two men and Rommel headed down to the shop. Luke led Will over to a back corner. "I've got a big piece of oak and some smaller scraps. Got a few pine boards left too." Luke shrugged. "If worse comes to worst, we can always get more next time someone heads to the mainland."
"Okay. We'll need to see your design again, so we can cut the wood to the right dimensions. And I think these pine boards are long enough and wide enough for shelves."
They got to work, measuring and cutting the large piece, and soon had the pieces to make the outside of two good sized mailboxes.
Luke reached out and his hand bumped Will's. Looking down and not seeing what he wanted, he looked up at the redhead and asked, "What were you going for?"
"A planing tool."
"Me, too. But I don't see any here."
"Neither do I. I thought I saw one here a minute ago. What happened to it?"
Luke looked over at the dog, who was watching him curiously. "Rom wouldn't have eaten it, and it couldn't have walked away. I'll go looking for it and start the planing. Why don't you start sorting the pieces to make sure we have the right ones and enough wood for both boxes."
"Good idea. Happy hunting."
He glanced around, trying to find the tool he wanted. "Must be one around here somewhere," he muttered as he headed towards the tool box on the other side of the room.
Rommel had flopped himself down a short distance away, seeming to doze. His head snapped up when he saw his master walking away. He got to his feet, starting to follow when Luke came back. "Easy, boy. I'm not going anywhere." He gave the dog an affectionate pat then turned back to work.
Will picked up four of the cut pieces and put them on their edges, leaning them against each other, so they formed a square. It didn't look right to him, so after checking the design, he looked down at the cut panels and slapped his forehead.
"Will, you already forgot that you cut two different sizes. What were you thinking?" he muttered to himself. He saw Luke looking at him curiously and said, "I must be getting old. I almost made one large and one small mailbox." He put back two panels and took a couple of the shorter ones.
"My older brother says kids kill brain cells. Since all I have is the mutt here," Luke nodded in Rommel's direction, "I blame him. I'm really trying not to think it's because I'm getting old." Will laughed. Luke gave the piece of wood he was working on one more shave, then brought it over to his friend. "How's it looking?"
Will took it and ran his hand over it on all sides, then looked across it from one end. "You do good work. It's smooth, straight, and not a splinter to be found. Is there another plane? There're a lot of pieces to be smoothed before we can put anything together. If not, I have an idea for the inserts, so they don't have to be nailed together."
"Why don't you go ahead then. I'll keep up smoothing on this end." Luke glanced at the box, which was slowly taking shape. "You know, with any luck, we might get this done today and even throw a first coat of stain on it." He frowned. "Gotta figure out something for name tags though."
"Yeah. Just putting their names above or below their slots is too ordinary. Hey, maybe we can come up with a word or phrase that matches the person. Like, 'C'mon, you overgrown mutt' for you." He grinned at Luke.
Luke laughed. "I love it! What else can we come up with..." He pondered for a moment. "Elise: I'm flying. Emphasis on the I'm."
"That's a good one," Will said, grinning as he double checked to make sure he had the right wood pieces. "How about 'Is it football season yet?' for Callie? And maybe for Dom, 'I'm up for a bit of craic now and then.'? You've been here longer than I have, so let me know if I'm off."
"That sums up Callie and Dom to a T. Cassie...Out, out damned fire!" He chuckled. "This is turning out to be more fun than I thought. I usually stick to smaller projects, picture frames, miniatures, stuff like that. I did tackle a coffee table for my folks a few years ago; it didn't come out too badly. And when I got here, I figured it was just easier to make stuff than go out and buy it. Shopping..." Luke shuddered. "I loathe shopping."
"I feel the same way. And about laundry. I hate doing laundry." He began marking the wood he was going to cut. "Hmm, who's left? Well, Brandon would probably be 'If it's adventurous, I'm in.'." He put the piece of wood aside and picked up another, measuring and marking. "And what color stain were you thinking of? Or how about more than one color?"
Luke frowned. "I was originally thinking dark, but that's a personal bias. But combining different shades might look really good." His head snapped up. "Nikki, we forgot Nikki. What about 'Ain't no big thing, mon'?"
"That's right! I forgot about Nikki, but if you tell her I said that, I'll deny it to the grave." Will grinned. "And I remember someone telling me that her mother was from Jamaica. Hmm. We've forgotten someone, but who? There are eight of us..."
"Hello! Earth to Will!" Luke tapped his friend on the head. "Did you leave your brain in California? Or did it melt in this heat?"
"Oh man!" Will put down what he was working on, and hit his forehead again. Then he laughed. "Mom's always telling me to put others before myself. I guess it finally took." He glanced over at Luke and said, "No, my brains I brought with me. I left nothing in San Francisco, not even my heart. Hey! That could be mine - 'No, I didn't leave my heart there.'."
Luke nodded. "Perfect." He glanced over at Rommel, who was sleeping in the corner. "Good thing he doesn't get mail. We'd have to put 'What? Are you talking to me?' on his." He shook his head. "I need to get someone to pick up shampoo on the mainland for me. Rom loves the water, but the salt is really doing a number on his skin."
"He loves the water, but not when it's bath water, I bet." Will finished marking the last piece, and started double checking his work, before going to the jigsaw to make his cuts. "We had a family dog when I was a kid. He loved running through sprinklers, jumping in the pool, and made a nuisance of himself whenever we tried to water the plants with the hose. But bring out the doggie shampoo and he disappeared fast."
Luke gazed fondly at his dog. "Not this guy. I swear, he has no fear. He was dumped at the pound when he was about six months old." He gave a low whistle and Rommel got up and trotted over to him. "Owners couldn't handle a puppy. I went with a friend who wanted a cat, saw this guy and the rest was history." He glanced up at Will. "I've been training some of the team to work with him on rescues. Are you interested?"
Will straightened up suddenly and turned to look at Luke, a stunned look on his face. "You mean it? I'd love to! Although I probably wouldn't be able to use what I learn too often; as a mechanic, I wouldn't be going on too many rescues."
Luke shook his head. "You don't know that. From what I've seen, Mr. Tracy tries to utilize everyone. I mean, you're getting trained the same as the rest of us, right?" Will nodded. "We sort of figured out that Rom might be somewhat of a security risk. So, I'm training a few of the team to handle him. Nothing too serious, mostly basic commands. A few of the rangers I worked with in Colorado were trained the same way."
Will shrugged. "I've been considering my training to be in the area of maintenance, but I suppose I could use vehicles like the Mole if I went on a rescue. Scott did say something about teaching me to fly, which would be terrific. But I haven't been in any of the Thunderbirds yet, except when we all went in Two to Mateo Island. Now that was something!"
"Isn't it? Hard to believe something that mammoth can actually take off. But I guess it's like the bumblebee principle. If you analyze a bee, figure out it's weight to wing span ratio, the bumblebee can't fly. But no one told him that, so he ups and flies away." He grinned. "To tell the truth, it gives me the willies until we do take off. I'm trying to find a way to bribe Scott for a ride in Thunderbird One."
Will chuckled as he laid the first board in place to be cut, then grabbed some protective goggles and put them on. "You might talk to Elise about that. I heard that she knew him when they were both in the Air Force. She'd probably have a suggestion or two." He picked up the boards to be cut and headed to the jigsaw. "But like I said, I'd love to be trained in handling a rescue dog like Rom. So count me in." He began cutting the sections out, and was able to finish the first board quickly and cleanly. "How about that? I haven't lost my touch."
Luke looked over. "Nope. It's coming together better than I pictured." He went back to the planer. "You know, the only bad thing about doing such a good job on this, we may get special requests." He grinned over at his friend. "Instead of payment, we could barter laundry and cooking!"
"One can only hope." He put the next board in place, and quickly cut the pieces out of it. Then he said, "You know, maybe I should be the next person to have something built for me. One good thing about having a mother like mine is that she loves to shop, and especially shop for me. The bad thing is that I don't know where to put everything sometimes."
"I can take a look if you want. See if we can figure something out. Scott wants me to make some stuff for him too. Good thing I'm honest. I could have a potential gold mine here." Luke critically eyed the piece of wood he was working on. "Hmm....this one has a bit of a natural bend. But we can fix that." Luke carefully ran the plane across the board again, then grabbed a level.
"Better, much better."
The two men worked in silence for a while until all the boards were ready to be assembled. They worked together on this, one man holding the boards together at right angles while the other one nailed them. Once the two boxes were complete, Will showed Luke how he had the inner boards fit together via slots. They slipped into the boxes perfectly, and could be nailed from the sides. "How are we gonna hang these?" he asked.
"I'll put up some brackets. Then she'll slide right on. I've got a bunch of extras upstairs." Luke's stomach rumbled and he grinned sheepishly. "Guess we've been at it a while. Want to come up and grab a sandwich, then come back down? All the pieces are cut, just have to put them together." He thought for a moment. "We should glue the joints too. In this humidity, I'd hate for the wood to crack. We'll probably have to do a thick polyurethane coat too." He shook his head. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us."
"I suspect we need to worry about the wood warping more than cracking, but you're right. Polyurethane is a very good idea. And we've got time. Besides, I'm hungry, too. So you're on for the sandwich. I'll stop at my apartment to wash up and grab some dessert - Mom sent plenty of that with me - and meet you at your place in a few minutes."
Luke perked up. "If you've got chocolate, I'll make any shelves you want!" He snapped his fingers and Rommel stretched then walked over to him. "I'll catch you in a few."
Will took off his goggles and laid them down, then headed for his apartment. "Chocolate, huh? No problem. I think we'll be good friends, especially if Mom keeps sending those care packages." He grinned to himself and moved faster.
Building mailboxes by lillehafrue and hobbeth
  
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