by Charles West

A building contractor accidently killed the man whose house he was building. The man stepped in front of the bulldozer just as the contractor was beginning the excavation.

The man left behind a widow and a teenaged son. The son, whose relationship with the father was strained and distant, thought duty required him to take some kind of drastic action, if not for his father, then at least for the sake of his mother and for the sake of appearances.

The son vowed to kill the builder.

“Wait until I finish the house for your mother,” the builder said. “If you help me, then we could finish more quickly and then you could kill me sooner.”

The son agreed and soon learned everything about home building. The two finished the excavation and laid the slab. They did the rough plumbing and electrical wiring. They framed the house and installed the heating and cooling ducts. They finished the wiring and put up the drywall. They rented some more equipment and sprayed on the stucco exterior. They plastered the interior walls. The roof they put on was composition shingles.

Weeks passed. The two worked every day, from early morning until it got dark. They talked only about homebuilding and construction, workmanship and technical craft. Nothing else.

They installed the toilets, showers, tubs, sinks and finish plumbing. They installed tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. They installed the windows and hung the doors. They laid the carpets. They primed and painted the interior and exterior walls.

Working so much, the son didn't have time for his friends and, as a result, stayed out of trouble for the first time in a long while. He thought only of finishing the house for is mother and killing the contractor who had caused his father’s death.

The son and the contractor built and installed the interior cabinets. They installed the lighting fixtures. They poured and finished the concrete for the driveway and patio. They tilled the ground surrounding the house and planted grass, shrubs and trees. They enclosed the backyard with a wooden fence.

Finally the house was finished. The builder handed the keys over to the mother. As she went inside to inspect her new home, the builder spoke to the son: “The house is finished. You can kill me now.”

Perplexed, the son looked at the man. “How,” he said, “can I kill my father?”

*****
Charles West is a writer and teacher. He’s taught at Fresno Unified for 31 years. He’s published over a dozen short stories, over 50 poems, as well as a mystery novel, The Sacred Disc (Salvo Press, 2000). He has also been an actor in the Woodward Shakespeare Festival.