“Huh,” Mack said. “I suggest we sit down, take a look at how much of the deck materials we might scrounge from other people, and, once we get enough of the parts and pieces, we can start your deck renovation.”
She liked the idea of that. “Do you think we can get any of these pieces and parts?”
“That’s why I’m bringing it up,” he said, “because one of the guys here said he had a bunch of cinder blocks he doesn’t need.”
“And he’s willing to sell them?”
“Possibly,” Mack said, “but I’ve helped him out a couple times at his place, so we might just grab them for free.”
Her face lit up. “Free?”
“That’s why I wanted to go over that plan of yours, to see just how many we needed.”
“I think I noted at least twenty.” Doreen walked over to the little corner of the kitchen where she had all her papers on that. She pulled out the pad of paper and said, “Yes, we’ve got twenty down here.”
“He’s got twelve,” Mack said.
“That would help a lot. We’d only need to get eight more.”
“I think I’ve got two around my place. I don’t know for sure. I thought I saw them a couple months back. Mom might have some too.”
“Wow. If we had those, we could get them in the ground and leveled off, ready for the next step, right?”
“Exactly. I’ll stop by after work and take a look at that plan of yours to make sure we have the right amount.”
“Sure,” Doreen said, “or maybe go to your house and your mom’s first and see how many you have.”
“They’re not very expensive, but, when you have to buy twenty, it can add up.”
“Any penny we can save is a huge help. By the way, Nan also sent me home with some vegetables. Honestly I didn’t have any clue what a zucchini looked like before she gave them to me.”
“Do you like zucchini?”
“I’m not sure I’ve ever had it,” she confessed. “Except in bread. I took one, and then Nan tucked in a second little one and also a bunch of lettuce and some green onions and tomatoes.”
“Perfect,” Mack said. “You can use all that, can’t you?”
“At least the salad stuff I can, yes. I can’t remember what we planned to do for our next cooking-lesson meal together.”
“I don’t think we decided. Check what you’ve got in the freezer.”
“I will. Do you want to come for dinner tonight then?” She walked to her freezer and pulled out what looked like a pack of meat. “I think it’s pork chops,” she said. “They’re frozen though.”
“Too bad you don’t have a barbecue. We could do barbecued pork chops and zucchini strips.”
“Can you barbecue those things?” She walked to the paper bag and pulled out the zucchini. “It’s long and skinny. Do you bake it whole?”
He chuckled. “You can make thick slices, oil them, and put them on the grill. Or you can slice them and sauté them. All kinds of stuff you can do with zucchini.”
“I have a few mushrooms in the fridge too,” she said.
“Take out the pork chops to thaw, and we can have those for dinner. At least this way I can make sure you’re not involved in any new cases. Remember. You’re supposed to be recuperating, not getting into more trouble.” And, with that, he hung up.
She laughed. “Look at that,” she said to the others. “Mack is worried about us.”
Mugs woofed, and she noted he stood beside his empty food dish. “It is past lunchtime, isn’t it, buddy? I’m the one who ate a cookie, not you, and, from the looks of it, you are hungry.”
She fed him and then gave Goliath a little more dry food in his dish. Next, she brought out a few seeds to put down for Thaddeus. After that, it was time to feed herself. She returned to the fridge and opened it up. Some bread and cheese were left, and she now had fresh lettuce and tomato, so her belated lunch sounded like a sandwich for her. And she was totally okay with that. As far as she was concerned, a sandwich was a basic necessity of life. It didn’t mean other people agreed with her, but, hey, that was okay.
She made a sandwich and then sat down at the veranda table outside. The deck was too tiny for the café table, which was why she was desperate to build a proper one. She had the plans sitting beside her as she ate. Of course, she didn’t have enough information or DIY knowledge to figure anything out. She would have to wait for Mack to see what they needed, but, if they had twelve, maybe fourteen, cement blocks already, that was a great start.
She thought maybe she could get all the materials for the deck out of the money she’d sold the car parts for, but she was pretty sure that wouldn’t leave her enough to make it through the next few months while she awaited the Christie’s money. Sure, Mack would pay her a little bit for working in his mom’s garden, but it wasn’t enough to keep her in food. Nan had been extremely generous as well, but Doreen couldn’t spend that money on a deck renovation and not have enough to pay her utility bills, plus food for her and her animals, over the next three to four months.
Speaking of which, she walked back inside with her empty plate and removed the rest of the vegetables from the bag. As she upended the bag, something small fell out.
Chapter 7
Thursday Midafternoon …
Doreen picked up the item and groaned. “Nan, really?”
Nan was the sweetest woman alive, and Doreen hoped she was okay for money, but she kept putting things like this into Doreen’s pocket, and, instead of giving it to Doreen herself, Nan had put it in the veggie bag. It was, indeed, a roll of money. Doreen slipped off the elastic band around it and found two hundred and fifty dollars. She stared at the bounty in front of her in amazement. “Nan, I can live off of this for three weeks or more, if I have to.”
She unrolled them and put them underneath a book to stretch the bills out. Then she picked up her purse and took a look. She still had over four hundred in cash there, and she had just recently taken out the other five hundred she’d been carrying in her purse and added it to the bowl of money. She wouldn’t need much to get through a few months, but she didn’t have any way of planning for the unknowns that could pop up. And to take all her cash-on-hand money—all $2,150 approximately—and put it into something like a deck seemed extravagant. And stupid.
She was hoping maybe the books would have sold by now. She got five hundred for a couple chairs Scott had sold for her, and she had that money too. Matter of fact, she brought out her laptop and checked her bank account. She was doing okay, but it depended on if they could get any more donations toward her deck addition. That was where the real trick would be.
She really wanted that bigger deck. And she didn’t want to wait until next year. As it was, June was upon them. Doreen wanted to enjoy her new deck addition this summer. However, she may have to just wait for the next one instead.
She closed out of her bank account and searched for Kelowna Tool Repair. It took about thirty seconds, but none of the search hits were recent. The trouble was, there wasn’t any website, although she did find a notice in an old newspaper article about how the physical shop was closing down. She sighed at that and realized it would mean a trip to the library to get more information. Apparently the business had shut down almost fourteen years ago. She wrote that down and then the name Frank Darbunkle. She laughed at that surname.