By Lucy

I woke up to a midnight text from Duff, asking me if I was awake.

No, and quite frankly you shouldn’t be, either. I suspected – correctly – that he was asking because he had driven through the night and was back in town.

Yup, he was back at work when I got there.

The boss wrangled everyone quickly for a meeting. A week ago the cleaners had found water bottles with what looked like urine in them. Which isn’t unusual at certain jobs, but when we only had to walk down a flight of stairs to use the bathroom, it was nasty for no reason.

On Sunday, Rob had chatted up the health and safety lady until she agreed to buy us coffee and donuts.

Someone had taken the bag of coffee from inside the Timmies box, written “clean piss” on it, and hung it up just inside the door the cleaners use.

Turns out it had been the guy who was temp foreman and let me have the day off the one time. He was fired and banned from working for this company again. Some of the guys thought it was too bad, but it was an incredibly stupid and rude thing to do. He was also one of the worst for bullying. I was glad he had finally been taken down a few notches!

We continued the dismantle. The worst for not slowing down was an older guy who, like the Vagabond, had been blessed with a foreign name that sounds like a woman’s name in English. Everyone kept pronouncing it “Lauren”.

Rob was cranky. He had to fast for a couple days for a doctors appointment. We were all getting a little short-tempered; three weeks on, or more, and it was hot out.

At lunch, my car was finally ready for pick-up. Duff offered to drive me on the back of his bike, but I convinced Rob to drive me.

2’500 in the end. New shocks, struts and alignment.

The mechanic tried his damndest to convince me I couldn’t drive back to Ontario with my tires, but I was still skeptical. And even if I really thought my tires wouldn’t make it, I’d shop around for tires with just enough tread to get me back to Ontario, I wouldn’t buy new.

At the end of the day, Duff came over to check out the tread. He laughed as he got on his hands and knees to look. “There’s lots of tread on there! Buddy is just trying to sell you tires.”

It still felt good to have a second opinion, so I thanked him.

Thursday was Duff’s birthday. I stopped at Prairie Donair, grabbed dinner and lunch for tomorrow, and a 50 dollar gift card for Duff. I debated putting 100$ on it, but I decided that was tempting Murphy’s law, for him to drop it or something. Then I went to Shoppers and searched for a birthday card.

I was shopping for two cards, actually. Justin’s birthday is Sunday.

I debated a serious card about Duff being an awesome friend, before deciding on a jokey card.

Justin was more difficult. I know he’s devout, so I debated some of the faith cards before deciding I wasn’t sure how they sounded. I went with a pretty card about life being a journey.

On Tuesday, I sat down to discuss my options for going back to Thunder Bay with Duff. Of course, the insane person who’d driven to the far side of Manitoba and back twice in as many weeks thought I should just hustle home, deal with things, and then come back. But I’d had a call from the doctor as well; they wanted me to meet a nurse practitioner before my scope, which means I had three appointments to juggle. And by the time I got everything sorted, basic would be starting up.

He tried to hint that the Boss wouldn’t agree to lay me off. Which would kill my chances at pogey during school. But I suspected he was just trying to scare me into staying. Still, I thought about it.

Later in the day, I finally let my secret slip. Mikey came up to me. “Your boyfriend’s name is [so-and-so]? I think I’ve worked with him before. How long has he been scaffolding?”

I froze. I had no lies prepared. Should I even bother?

“Show me a picture then, maybe I’ll recognize his face.”

I grinned wryly. Sure, why not. I pulled up a picture on my phone and showed it to him.

He blinked at me. I raised an eyebrow in challenge as his face flicked through him processing it.

“Ooooh, I get it. How’s his heart?” He finally said.

I threw my head back and laughed. Sure, I was waiting for the Vagabond to die so I could inherit his wealth. It couldn’t be further from the truth, but I liked that he didn’t immediately think I was a victim. It seemed flattering, that I could be a black widow.

As everyone came back to join us, he kept making veiled jokes. I finally exclaimed “I shouldn’t have told you!”

Everyone filtered away. Rob stayed back, smoking. “What did you tell him?”

I didn’t say anything, I just showed him the picture. He blinked at it, dumbstruck.

“That’s my boyfriend.”

“That… ok, then!” He dropped his half-finished smoke on the ground and stomped off.

We finally finished the dismantle. We didn’t get all the gear out – we were on the second floor and craning it down with the zoomboom – but that wouldn’t even take three hours tomorrow morning.

I can’t even remember what was said, but me and Duff were standing out front with Rob. I started with “My boyfriend – ” and Rob angrily interjected. “You don’t have a boyfriend, you have a grandpa!” And stomped away again.

Me and Duff looked at each other, and started laughing.

“He doesn’t mean it.” Duff said, wiping tears away from his eyes.

“I know.” I shrugged. “What do you think of it?”

“I think I said it last year, as long as he makes you happy. I worked with him for a couple of months, he’s a good guy. Fuck ’em.” He said, jerking his chin in Rob’s direction.

Ten minutes later, Rob came back and asked me for ten bucks to put on the Stanley Cup pool. (He lost, and never paid me back either)

I’ve decided I need to start a diet. I doubt I’ll be working for the next 3 months – I can’t see myself going back to work before basic starts in August. This job has not been as physically demanding as I’d like, and I feel gross from all the take-out I’ve been having to eat since I lack refrigeration. And I still have the last bit of steroid fat to lose from chemo.

The diet I’ve picked is not for everyone or even most people. It’s grueling and difficult to follow. It’s also not a long-term diet. But I can’t really follow a normal ‘diet’ – too many vegetables won’t agree with my guts, and I can’t fast or count calories without making myself colicky.

I picked the Keto diet. Low-carb diets make the rounds every once in a while as a fad, like the Atkins diet. A proper Keto diet puts your body into “ketosis”. Not ketoacidosis, which is a serious medical condition. Ketosis is when your liver produces ketones to burn fat, which is part of why I like the diet. You can easily check if you are in ketosis with pee sticks that measure the ketones in your pee, instead of wondering if you are losing fat, muscle, water etc. You also don’t have to count calories at all.

It usually preserves lean muscle tissue. It can also be healing for your liver and reset your metabolism somewhat.

I hedge because I hate it when people decided something is a panacea. It’s a severe diet that is hard to follow but can have dramatic results.

Wednesday morning, we finished the dismantle. The bulk of the guys got moved to a new build for a grain bin they were removing, so I just helped chain gear.

Before last break, we got called for a big meeting. We were still moving too fast, so we were dropping down to ten hour days instead of twelves.

Perfect. I couldn’t imagine he would begrudge me a layoff if we had too many men to begin with.

Some union reps came in. Only one spoke, and his reply to all of our questions was to tell us he’d get back to us, which was super helpful. They did bring more coffee and donuts, though.

As we all broke up for break, I noticed the Boss was wearing a shirt that said “Support 81”.

I walked with Duff. “His shirt says 81 on it.”

He tilted his head as he looked at me, possibly wondering why I know what that means. “Yes, it’s that 81.”

“Really? He’s the Boss and he can just walk around, wearing that at work?”

Duff shrugged. “There’s a lot of them in construction. Especially out here. No one cares.”

I thought that would get people fired. But maybe the Boss had kept it down-low until he was indispensable within the company. Or maybe it was no big deal, anymore or out here, whichever it was. That did explain why he had an intimidating vibe.

Wednesday night, I texted Duff and asked him to meet me at my car to look at something before work. I didn’t want to give him the card in front of everyone. He started laughing as soon as he opened the envelope and saw the blacked out bars.

For the first bit of the day, I stayed outside to chain again. But it was slow, and there were too many of us.

Every once in a while, I boxed with one of the other apprentices. He’d hold up his hands, and I’d hit them. One, two, three, duck, repeat. He told me I was getting stronger. He was busy today, so I hung one of the Kuny bags up on a right and filled it with water bottles, and used it as a punching bag. Duff told me it counted as horseplay and made me take it down.

It did seem dangerous to be so obviously short of work. After first break, I followed Justin to where he was. Him and Lauren were working at the back of the second floor, amongst the pipes and cable trays again, dark and stinky. But it was relatively quiet and out of sight.

I caught the Boss after lunch and asked him for a layoff. He readily agreed, and said he was really impressed by how hard I worked, and I was welcome back anytime.

Worth it!

Monday would be my last day. Since Monday was Canada Day, it would be double time as well. Plus, then I’m not driving with all the weekend yahoos.

Later on in the day, Rob grabbed me as he went outside for a smoke break.

“Sorry for my outburst the other day.” He said.

I shrugged it off. I’ve developed a thick skin for this kind of stuff.

“Pardon me asking, but… what the fuck are you doing here?” He gestured to the building behind us. “You know, half these guys are convicts. If not more!”

“You seem to think I’m an angel.” I replied.

“Well, exactly! I got no idea who you are or why you’re here! It makes no sense!”

“I’m here cuz Duff offered me a job.” If I were a man, this wouldn’t even be a question.

Friday morning I gave Justin his card.

Friday was more helping Justin and Lauren in the back. Because we were now on tens, they moved our breaks, which meant we were going on break when the cleaners did. I decided to just go out to Rob’s car and sit with him.

The Vagabond sent me into a rage after lunch again. He asked me if I was really coming back next week, implying he was thinking of other plans. Does he miss me or not?

Then he surprised me: want to go on a vacation together?

All the fucks YES!

(Also, he did later admit someone had offered him another job and he was debating it. He wasn’t just being sweet!)

I skipped out to next break, singing; “My boyfriend is taking me on vacation, my boyfriend is taking me on vacation!”

Not that my ex-partners had never taken me on vacation, but…. well, no, not really. Me and my ex-husband had gone out to Nova Scotia, but it had been organized and funded by me and my dad. Which isn’t inherently bad, because me and my dad know Nova Scotia better, obviously, but my husband would never have organized anything.

Me and James had gone on one vacation, in 2020. I had a few days off between quitting one job and starting another, and his parents were already going to Niagara Falls. So we just got a ride with them. It was a nice weekend, but there isn’t much to do in Niagara if you’re broke. And the list ends there.

Saturday, Justin decided to have a party after all. Me, Duff and Bills showed up first. I brought potato salad, Duff brought hot dogs, and Bills brought his winning smile. Justin’s partner had cooked a nice spread. They all sat on the back porch and smoked dope while I drank Gatorade and felt like a square.

Bills ducked out early and just as we were about to wind down, Lauren showed up, on an all-terrain pedal bike. He had biked 30 clicks across Regina for the giggles. So we ended up staying an hour later than we meant to. He casually mentioned he’d done four years and got his GED in jail. Then someone gave him a double shot glass and he downed the double with the ease of a single.

Scaffolders!

The next day, someone brought in a Bluetooth speaker and insisted I hook my phone up to it. I put it on random as we chained gear.

It’s funny how music connects people. At one point Rob exclaimed “I bet you have Cranberries on there!” and I do indeed. Just “To The Faithful Departed”, unfortunately. The song that made him boogie the most was Weezer’s Pork and Beans, oddly. One of the guys requested “the song by Nickelback that always plays on the radio”, which ended up being ‘Rockstar’, which I had. Duff’s favourite song is “Pinball Wizard”, which I also have.

One of the guys asked where I was going for goodbye drinks, to which I replied “goodbye drinks? No one asked me.”

“No one asked you!” He gasped. “Want to go with me?” Blush. “I mean, I feel bad no one asked you.”

I shrugged. “Sure, the bar by the hotel, Monday night. 6?”

Next time I saw Duff, I told him the same. I invited a few other people, a mix of who I actually wanted to be there and who I was more sure would show up but maybe I wasn’t gonna miss them either way.

At the end of the day Monday, a few people offered to shake my hand, which turned into everyone shaking my hand in a line, like a football team. The Boss clapped me on the back and told me I was welcome back anytime.

Unfortunately, no one actually showed up at the bar except Duff. Oh well. We had a nice dinner and a few drinks.

Travel cards do strange things to your relationships. I’d spent most days for the last three weeks, several hours a day, talking to Duff about everything, and abruptly I’d be leaving and who knows when I’d see him again. Same for most of them, really. I enjoyed talking to Rob and Justin, but not enough to drive 13 hours out to Regina to visit them.

Ah well. The air in my tires was topped up, the wheels retorqued, the gas tank was full. Nothing to do now but hit the road again.

This post was hard to write. I was so tired, I started forgetting things. Sorry it’s so short.

I got this song stuck in my head, everyone kept playing it at the jobsite.