The Unfinished Tale Of Sophie Anderson Read Online Free PDF Page A

have been happy to oblige at a moment’s notice. Now, when I needed it to get its 'A' game on, it sat on the bench feeling sorry for itself.
    "They taste better cold," he said.
    "Do they?"
    "Yeah, here." He offered me the other half minus the bit he tore off. "Try it."
    "Get thee behind me, Satan," I said. "My body is a temple."
    The van showed up and flashed its headlights our way. "Looks like our guide is finally here."
    "Just in time," I said.
    We followed it across the construction site and I could see why we needed him. If it hadn't been for the flashing lights I'm sure we'd have been crushed by three JCBs, four tipper-trucks filled with gravel and we'd have killed two builders who had their ear defenders on and didn't hear us coming. Thankfully we reached the columns where we were supposed to be working on without incident.
    "Whoop!" said Tom. "They're dry at last."
    "Gee. I'm so excited."
    "They've even supplied the cherry picker for us. How kind of them. I might even start believing this project is being run efficiently."
    "Don't jump the gun," I said, opening the door. "We haven't seen the Hammer Head yet."
    The 'Hammer Head', as we nick-named him, was the site foreman for this part of the shopping centre and he'd made an impression on us the moment we'd arrived to do our survey last week. Now that most of the construction was done the regulations for hard hats wasn't as strict here - hence how I was able to come in and do the welding. This guy had come strolling across the freshly gravelled walkway sporting a haircut you could balance your drinks on in a nightclub. It was wiry and stiff and probably held together with some kind of industrial glue that could withstand a nuclear attack. Tom had given me the look, the one that said 'I know what you're thinking and yes - you're not hallucinating'.
    "Look out," he said. "Here he comes."
    He didn't look happy. Not in the slightest. He had three suits trailing behind him and they were struggling to keep up in their pointy shoes with his long stride. They were gripping their clipboards and their Starbucks cups like the world was close to ending and I stifled my laugh as the Hammer Head came right at us.
    "You were supposed to be on site yesterday," he spat.
    "We had no permit and we were escorted off site," said Tom. I could tell he was bristling. It hadn't been our fault but for the sake of our company's reputation we had to take the flak for it. When I say 'we' I guess I meant Tom.
    "It's not good enough. Not good enough at all," said the Hammer Head. The suits were looking elsewhere, ticking things off on their clipboards with practised ease.
    "Well, we're here now and we're ready to get on with the job."
    "How soon can you finish?"
    "The Gaffer had allowed two days for the columns and another day for the hand rails on this side."
    "You're going to have to pull your finger out. I want to get the bullshitters in tomorrow to polish the rails."
    "We'll see how we get on," said Tom, wise enough to avoid committing to a time and a date that might land us in trouble later.
    "Okay, get to it."
     
    It wasn't my normal style but for the sake of our new deadline I didn't hang about. We had the generator in place and rumbling away in ten minutes and while Tom brought up the parts from the van I got the welding set ready, laying out all my kit as quickly as I could. I hated working like that because it allowed too many chances to cock up. It was better to take your time, plan each step and work out the problems before they arose. Working on site was always tricky and it looked like we were going to get our fill today.
    "You ready to go?" asked Tom from below the walkway where the cherry picker was set up.
    "Yeah. Bring me the first cover," I called down. The bucket he was stood in came slowly towards me as he nervously guided the thing between the two concrete and steel columns. When he was at my level he stopped, checked his harness, then knelt down to pick up the heavy steel