The Kerr Construction Company Read Online Free PDF

as he put down the welding rod. “Let’s go to my place and landscape. Get the others. We’ll put something on the grill and have a beer.”
    We laid out plots of carpet grass and dug a flowerbed in his back yard while Doug got the grill going. He still wore his hard hat but was shirtless. He had a new four-bedroom brick house, and I could feel the pangs of envy as I dug in the yard. I’d lived like that most of my life. But the pangs were there anyway. Why did some people have and others not? And why was I asking a question like this all of a sudden?
    “Everybody have a beer,” Doug invited as we put down our shovels and entered his patio area. “That’s enough work for today.”
    Ira dug out a wad of tobacco from his cheek and threw it into a bush before getting a can of beer from the cooler.
    “In Texas you leave the chaw in, don’t you?” Doug ribbed. “When you drink a beer, I mean.”
    “McIlhenny doesn’t chew tobacco.” Ira snorted. “It’s beneath him. Are you sure you’re from Texas? You sure you’re a Marine? Hell, Doug, the other day we came back to town and I saw him pick up a Playboy off the seat of the truck. I thought, hey, this guy’s human after all. But I’ll be damned if he didn’t read instead of look at the pictures.”
    “It was on Rhodesia,” I answered. “They’re on the verge of having a black President.”
    “Rhodesia?” Ira howled. “Who gives a damn? Ain’t you got hormones?”
    “But he knows everything,” Jose said. “Ask him anything. Anything about this whole universe.”
    “He doesn’t know how to build a fence.” Doug laughed.
    “Who was the nineteenth President?” Ira asked.
    “Rutherford B. Hayes,” I answered. “I wrote a paper about him in high school. The Democrat Samuel Tilden should have won the election, but the radical Republicans managed to rig the Louisiana vote. That got it thrown into the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.”
    “Shut up,” Ira said. “Shut the hell up. Who cares?”
    “Don’t ask.” I smirked.
    “I won’t,” Ira returned. “You wrote a paper in high school on it. Give me a break. Hell, I couldn’t write in high school.”
    “You still can’t.” Doug snickered.
    “Kiss my ass, boss,” Ira came back.
    “McIlhenny,” Doug said, “after we eat, you and me are going at it. I want to see if I can beat a Marine. The only reason I hired you was because you were bigger and uglier than me and you’re a Marine.”
    “I ain’t ugly, Doug. And I don’t want to fight.”
    “You got to earn your pay,” he challenged.
    I saw a bottle of whiskey freshly opened on the panel of the grill. “Is that yours?” I asked.
    “Yeah,” he replied.
    I walked over and guzzled down half of the bottle in one gulp.
    “What the hell are you doing?” he shrieked.
    “Getting ready to kick your ass and get it over with,” I answered.
    “The hell, you say,” he sneered. “Come on, then.”
    I loved this guy. He was so predictable. Perfect timing, perfect wording. I walked up to him and saw him double his fists. I grabbed a wad of his chest hair and jerked it. A large white patch appeared in the middle of his carpet of black hair. He howled in pain and lunged for me. I moved to the side, stuck out my foot, and pushed him down, then swigged more of his whiskey.
    “On the other hand, I enjoy a good brawl now and then.” I smirked. “Good food, good fight, good whiskey. You throw a swell party, Doug.”
    “Don’t do that again,” he said, getting up, trying to appreciate what I had done. “We’ll settle this someday.”
    ****
    The next weekend I had off. Since we didn’t always have Saturdays off, I wanted to take advantage now that I had one free. Plus, I just got paid. I wanted to do something. And with Carmen. Just get away. Just the two of us.
    “The Grand Canyon’s not far,” Carmen said as we got out a map. “I don’t know how fast we can get there in your Desperado,” she added with a laugh,