“I’ve nearly finished the exterior walls. The windows will go in once we have glass, which will arrive soon. I still need to make the door.”
Finbarr came closer, his cane sweeping the ground as he walked. “It’s not as tall as I expected it to be.”
The day was bright enough, it seemed, for the lad to see the outline of it.
“The house doesn’t have a roof yet,” Patrick said. “That bit I can’t do by myself.”
Finbarr shook his head. “Repairing a roof was tricky enough for me.Attachingone is beyond me entirely.”
Patrick wouldn’t let him off that easily. “Oh, you’ll be helping with the roof, bean sprout. But it’s more than you and I can do on our own.”
“Who else is going to work on the roof?”
“I’m hoping Da and our brothers and brothers-in-law, but you might have to do the asking. I suspect they aren’t all too pleased with me.”
“What’d you do?” Finbarr asked.
“I came back.”
Finbarr shook his head. “I think the trouble is that you stayed away.”
“Sometimes distance is the best gift a fellow can give his family.”
“Sometimes a fellow’s family doesn’t see it that way.” Finbarr’s tone was not one of a lad talking about anyone other than his own self.
Patrick’s little brother had been running away too. He, however, wasn’t able to run as far. Patrick felt a deepening connection to him.
“I’ve just finished my lunch,” he said. “Come help me fill gaps in the wall.”
“Are they big enough to feel?”
“Sure are, bean sprout.”
Finbarr rested his cane against a wall. “Why do you call me that?”
“Because Ma wouldn’t let me call you ‘lump head.’”
“Did you want to?” Finbarr asked.
“Oh, aye. She gave me such a tongue lashing the one time I did.”
“Sounds like I was Ma’s favorite,” Finbarr said with a laugh.
“Sounds like Iwasn’t.” The banter did Patrick’s heavy heart good. “I’ve a bucket of mud a few steps to your left, beside the wall. You’ll find a trowel resting against it. That and your hands’ll do the trick.”
They talked as they worked. Finbarr was glad to hear about the large number of windows. Patrick told him he would, once the sod had time to settle, plaster and white-wash the interior walls. White would reflect more light, so Finbarr would have a well-lit home.
“And there’ll be lots of room,” Patrick said. “The family could add your house to the Sunday dinner rotation.”
“I think I get enough of them as it is.” Finbarr filled a large gap with a trowel’s worth of mud.
Patrick worked alongside him, using a jointing knife to fill in any spots Finbarr missed. “I don’t ever see you at thecéilís. Too much family? Or too much noise?”
“Justtoo much.”
“I can appreciate that.”
Finbarr nodded. “No one else does. They’re always after me to go, saying it’d be ‘good’ for me.”
