June 12-13
I’m up late tonight and I have a few thoughts I want to write about. Today I came up with the idea of having a character that can read minds. And as soon as I began to write about it, I realized that it was going to work as a character and plot device. Interesting, because I make up anything that’s in people's minds. Here’s today's installment of work no The Confrontation:
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Ford Lancaster built cabinets. Tall cabinets, oak cabinets, neon green cabinets, Chippendale cabinets, and maple cabinets like the ones he was working on now. If you needed a cabinet, Ford was the man to see. Tall, six feet, two inches, with olive skin and fine, dark hair, curly around his ears, Ford had a lean frame with strong muscles in his arms from handling woodworking tools.
Also, Ford could read minds.
He had always been able to read the minds of others since childhood. He didn’t know how he did it; he just knew what other people were thinking and seeing with their mind's eye. Sometimes this annoyed him, as he didn’t really want to know what other people were thinking, so he was able to block out their thoughts if he concentrated, which accounted for why he was still sane at the age of thirty-one.
Being a carpenter since his teens, working with wood calmed his nerves and often gave him a feeling of peace inside, as well as filling his pockets. Reading minds had the opposite effect. Sometimes, people thought awful, wicked things. But he largely ignored people now, and cabinets were his main concern. There was nothing like a well-made cabinet to give him a sense of accomplishment. Cabinets, of course, did not assemble themselves so along with him were three hard-working young men who served as his apprentices: Jason, Ray, and Buddy. Between the four of them, they assembled about thirty kitchens a year.
Ford had his own shop in his large garage complete with table saws, band saws, drill presses, routers, and a fine collection of hammers and nail guns. A series of shelves to the right of the room when you entered held expensive hardwoods used in cabinet construction. He was working on a project for Mayer’s Construction, cabinets for high-end houses made of maple; these cabinets were some of the best he had ever built. He measured thirty-six inches on the maple board in front of him with his tape measurer; third-six inches exactly. He took his carpenter’s pencil and marked the line on the board with his T-square, and reached for his circular saw.
Dressed in Levi’s and a long-sleeved cotton shirt, he had a carpenter’s pencil in his ear and a smile on his face as he turned on the saw. He smiled because he knew that Ali was about to break up with him, and this pleased him immensely.
“Working. Always working,” said Ali, his girlfriend, as she walked into the garage. She had called to say that she was coming over; she had a frown on her face. Shorter by half a foot than him, she had a killer figure and wore no bra. She oozed sex whenever she was around him, and often he responded, but lately, it had become clear that she didn’t love him and didn’t respect him either.
Ali looked at her nails. “I’m leaving you,” she said with little emotion. I can’t take being ignored all the time.”
Ford put his saw down and turned to face her. Images of another man, a rather large, muscular man came from her mind. He wasn’t surprised.
‘Ali, just leave and spare me the details. It’s about time you moved on to your other man.”
“How long have you known?”
“For a while now.” Actually, this man’s image came to her mind whenever they made love lately; she visualized him during sex.
Jason, one of his apprentices, walked into the room with a hopeful face. “Ali, did you say you were leaving Ford?”
She turned toward him and threw him a sideways glance. “What makes you think I’d be interested in you?”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean…Jason in his mind was picturing two horses making love.
Ford came over and gave Ali a hug and said, “We’ll see each other around.” Ali hugged him back and left.
“Gee, Ford, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything.”
“Don’t worry,” Ford said. He put on his safety glasses again and started the circular saw.
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