Bob of Small End (36 page)

“’
Ow do
Bob.”

“
Why,
what’s the time Jack?”

“
Three
o’clock.”

“
Wow! I
must have been very tired.” He stood up and looked at the
letterhead samples Jack gave him. “Yes, these are fine. When can I
have them?”

“’
Not
‘til Thursday.”

“
Well
I’ll be away from Wednesday to Friday so Saturday’s fine. I’m going
to see my aunt in Boston. Come, let’s look at the shop. It might
need to be tidied.”

Jack took over
a dozen photographs. When done they moved to the bottom of the
staircase in the house where it was darker and looked at the
camera’s screen. Bob went through them several times and finally
said, “Can you make a full-sized colour print of this one
Jack?”

“
Aye.”

“
Good.
Thanks.”

After Jack had
left Bob decided to go for a walk, hoping that would wake him for
he still felt sleepy. He put on a coat and walked along the river
path for a mile, stopping for a while at the bent tree to review
the latest news with Betty. He took a short-cut to the village
graveyard where he stopped at his parent’s grave for a few minutes,
remembering the time when his mother died, then he went home to
have an early supper. Things didn’t seem right for some reason. He
still felt tired and was glad he’d be taking a bit of a holiday
that week. The drive to Boston would be a nice change.

He spent the
evening making different sketches of the booth table eventually
decided to make a holder for each of the photos and screw them onto
the back of the table. The left poster would show the photo of his
home workshop and the right one would show the new shop. He would
sit or stand in the middle. He’d need a small notice asking
interested people to leave their cards and he’d have to find
something for them to put them in. He’d put some of a village set
on the left, the train set in the middle and some of a farm on the
right. He’d could only put out a few pieces of each toy because
there wasn’t room enough for more. The pieces he didn’t use he’d
keep in their boxes under the table in case anyone wanted to see
them. With the sketches finished he headed upstairs to bed.

Ken was in the
shop by seven thirty Monday morning, painting the farm sets with
the thinned acrylic. Bob called in to tell him that he’d join him
later, “I’m expecting a load of stone. I have to make a parking lot
for the van.”

“
Yes, I
saw what you’d done. I bet it was hard pulling out the
bushes.”

“
Yes it
was. How’s the new paint working out?”

“
It’s a
bit early to tell. I just hope it covers as well as the thicker
stuff.”

“
I hope
so too.”

The lorry
arrived promptly at eight and the driver called out the window,
“Where do you want it?”

“
In
here, if you can. It’s to make a parking lot,” and Bob pointed to
the rectangle he had made with strings and pegs.

“
I’ll do
my best. Stand back,” and the driver drove up the road past the
house then backed towards the gap where the bushes had been
removed. He stopped, drew back the tarpaulin cover and unlocked the
tail gate. Then he returned to his cabin and slowly raised the
front of the box. As the stone fell from the lorry he moved slowly
backwards, raising the box as he went. The whole area was covered
in less than a minute.

“
That’s
great,” cried Bob. “I thought I’d be spending all day shovelling
stone!”

“
There’s
a bit of levelling to do. Use a strong rake, it’s quicker than a
shovel. Can you sign here?” and held out a pad of paper, pointing
to a space. Bob signed it and the driver gave him a copy. “Take it
easy when raking. It’s harder than you think.”

Bob fetched a
rake, worked for ten minutes and stopped to collect his winter
gloves for he didn’t want blisters. He raked for half an hour then
stopped and went to see how Ken was doing in the shop.

“
How’s
the paint now?”

“
The
first lot’s already dry. It looks okay to me. What do you
think?”

Bob picked up
a piece and took it to the window. “Yes it’s fine.”

“
Good.
Then you can do the second coat if you like.”

“
Not
yet. I’m just taking a rest from levelling the drive. It’s hard
work.”

He raked the
stone until it looked level then parked the van on top and looked
where the wheels had run. The stones had sunk a little so he drove
the van out and raked some stones into the depression. He repeated
that until he was satisfied then left the van on the stone.

After coffee
Ken finished the first paint coat and Bob began giving the dried
ones their second. Ken stopped at twelve, saying he was going home
for lunch today and that he’d be back as soon as he could. Bob
continued painting and had finished at two when he went in to eat
his lunch. Afterwards he walked to Rose’s shop and asked her if she
had some stiff card that he could mount the photographs on.

“
What
colour do you want?”

“
White,
I think.”

“
Is this
size big enough?”

“
It
should be. I’ll just take one Rose. I think it’s big enough to make
both posters.”

“
Don’t
make any mistakes then!”

He paid her
and put the bill in his pocket to add to the others. ‘Bills, in the
future, should be kept in the new office,’ he thought. ‘We should
order a filing cabinet and get a safe to keep cheques in.’

Ken was in the
shop when he returned. “Watch this,” he said. He picked up a wooden
holder. Ten needles had been pushed into the underside leaving
about three-quarters of an inch sticking out. He held it over five
houses that were sitting, up-side-down, in a channel cut in a piece
of wood. He pushed the holder down so the needles stuck into the
bottom of the houses, raised the holder and the five houses were
lifted with it.

“
What do
you think of that? I tried lifting ten but it’s too hard to push
that many needles into the wood. All we have to do now is dip the
houses in the paint.”

“
You
have some great ideas Ken.”

“
There’s
a much better way than dipping though Bob. We could hang them from
a belt and run them past spray guns. We’ll buy one when we get big
enough.”

“
Then
we’d need a bigger workshop than we already have!”

“
Yes. We
would, but all that’s in the distant future. Oh, I like your new
driveway.

Someone
knocked on the shop door. They looked at each other with surprise
then Bob opened the door. There was a young man standing
outside.

“
Hello.
Can I help you?”

“
I’m
here because I read your notice on the
Gift Shop
’s board. The lady there told me to go
to Mr. Smith’s farm. I went there and a man told me to come here.
Do you have a job for me?”

“
We have
a job for someone,” Ken said, “but not this week. It’ll start next
Monday. It’ll be for one week, a trial period. If you can do what I
want, and do it well, then the job’s yours.”

“
What is
the job?”

“
Do you
like working with wood and being inside most of the
day?”

“
I don’t
know about working with wood yet but I’ve been inside school for a
long time and I can handle that. Let me try and we’ll both find out
if I’m any good.”

“
That’s
a good answer. All right, come at eight o’clock on Monday. Not
here. We’ll be in the new shop then, at Mr. Smiths place, where you
first went. We’ll be in the building to the right of the
entrance.”

“
All
right. Thank you. I’ll be there,” and he took a quick look around
Bob’s shop, turned, then left.

“
He
sounds like a sensible young man Ken. I hope he’s a good
worker.”

“
I’ll
know by Monday lunchtime,” and he returned to pushing needles into
the holders.

“
I’m
going to make a couple of supports to hold the photos,” said Bob.
He cut four strips from a short plank, picked up a tin of screws
and a screwdriver. “Shouldn’t be long,” and left the
shop.

He screwed the
strips to the back of the display table then looked at them from
the front and thought that the photos would look better if they
slanted backwards a little. He returned to the shop and made four
angled wedges then screwed them between the strips and the edge of
the table. ‘That’s better,’ he thought. ‘That’ll do for now. I’ll
have lunch then make the posters.’

“
You
ready for lunch?”

“
No Bob.
I’m going to Big End. I want to buy the metal for the paint trays.
Got to find out how dipping works. I’ll eat mine as I
drive.”

Bob thought
about what he should write on the cards during lunch. He only
needed a few words, the photo would tell the story. He thought
something simple would be best and settled for, “Our first
workshop,” and “Our new workshop.” After lunch he cut the poster
into two cards and, leaving room for the photos, he wrote each of
the short sentences as carefully as he could then propped the cards
against a cereal box to look at them. Some of the letters were
slightly misplaced but he thought it would do.

He heard Ken
opening the shed door and joined him in the workshop.

“
Any
luck?”

“
Yes.
I’ve got four sheets of thin, galvanised steel, the stuff used to
make heating ducts. I can bend it easily. Here’s the
bill.”

“
How
many trays will you need?”

“
Probably one for each colour. I’ll make each tray big enough
to take the largest pieces. The smaller pieces can all be dipped in
a smaller tray. I won’t need all the sheets for making pans, I’ll
be using the others to make dust collectors. We’ll need some of
those over the benches. What are you doing this
afternoon?”

“
I’ve
nothing planned. Anything I can do?”

“
Yes.
Can you push needles into the rest of these holders? You can copy
the ones I’ve done.” Bob took the pliers from him and began pushing
them in. It was hard to keep them straight at first but it quickly
became easier.

“
What
will you do with each one when it has a wet piece hanging on the
needles?”

“
Hang it
on hooks I’ll put on the wagon shelves. You’ll see. It’ll be easy.
The next thing to do is make a tray and try dipping. I’ll thin some
of our acrylic and try that. too.”

Bob wore
gloves after their tea break to protect his hands. He’d already
broken three needles, for it wasn’t easy to push them into the
holder. Ken formed a small tray, then put some of their normal
acrylic in an empty paint tin, added water, stirred, then poured
the thinned paint into the tray. He pushed five houses onto one of
the hangers, dipped them into the paint and hung the hanger from
one of the shelves. He watched what happened and how quickly the
paint dried.

“
That’s
not very good Bob. The paint’s not thick enough. I can still see
the wood. I’ll add more acrylic.”

After two more
unsuccessful tries Ken used one of the tins of the thinned acrylic
Bob had bought and tried it. “That’s much better. It dries evenly
and quickly. We’ll have to buy thinned paint then Bob. I hope we
can buy it in big drums. I’ll phone the maker and ask if he sells
them that way. Mind if I use your phone?”

“
Help
yourself. Here,” and Bob passed it to him. Ten minutes later eight,
five-gallon pails of the thinned acrylic paint had been ordered, to
be delivered to their new shop next Monday.

“
A
hundred and forty two pounds, fifty, Bob, charged to my credit
card, as you heard. I’ll write the cost on the packing slip and
give it to you for the records when the shipment
arrives.”

They stopped
working at five. Bob had made all the hangers for the hedges and
the larger houses. Ken poured the unused paint into the paint tin,
added just enough water to cover the top then put the lid on. “Hope
that stops it from drying.”

They’d
finished making the hangers by coffee time Tuesday morning. After
coffee Ken made the rest of the paint trays while Bob weeded then
watered his vegetables. The mop sander was delivered just before
lunch and they put it on a bench to try after lunch. Ken read the
instructions while eating his lunch then returned to the shop. He
screwed the machine to the bench and fitted a four inch mop. Bob
walked in as he was about to try it.

“
I’m
using your eye protector Bob. Do you have another?”

“
No. We
should order some, I suppose.”

“
We
should. Well, stand back a bit and we’ll see what happens.” He held
a short piece of wood tightly and slowly pushed it onto the
spinning mop then pulled it back and looked at it.

“
Not
bad! It’s almost done that end already but it’s not even. I’ll try
wobbling it a bit.” He pushed the other end into the sander and
twisted it from side to side. “That’s much better. It’s much
quicker than our old way and it looks good enough to me. What do
you think?”

“
Let me
try Ken.” Ken gave him the glasses and Bob pushed another piece of
scrap into the mop.

“
Yes.
It’s easy to do and looks better than when we used the sanding
belt. We probably don’t have to sand any with paper now. That’s
another problem solved. A couple of men could sand all the parts
for fifty sets in an hour! What do you think?”