Here is how this is going to play out. Call them Todd and Jen.
Sept 2008:
Todd and Jen host a summer’s end barbecue. They worked hard on the 4 foot retaining wall that divides the barbecue from the yard.
As the guests arrive Todd proudly points out the wall, giving them the history of the stones carefully placed there. Most of the guests grin unknowingly like jackasses, but one of them (Jim) looks at Todd with dismay, though doesn’t say anything.
Later, when the party is really going full blast, the talk turns to religion, politics, and crime. Todd is complaining mightily about lawbreakers. Jim (into his seventh Corona), brings Todd to task for stealing stones from the furnace site. The mood deteriorates from there. That night, when alone, Jen tells Todd to never bring it up again.
April 2009:
Jen plants Ivy in the dirt below the wall, hoping it hides it well.
October 2023:
The kids are all grown up. Another summer season has waned.
No one uses the pool anymore and the wall is crumbling from the ivy and Todd’s poor mortar job. Todd removes the swimming pool. He loads it up and throws it in the woods 2 miles from his house.
Problems is, removing the pool leaves a hole in the ground due to the deep end he scooped out when he put it in. In a stroke of pure genius (he thinks), Todd destroys the wall and throws the stones (and history) into the bottom of the hole. He calls for a load of top soil. He gets it cheap from a friend he knows. Still, at $100 for the load, he didn’t expect it to be loaded with bits of plastic toys and car parts.
Whining over his poor luck, Todd covers the hole with the stuff anyway and tamps it down good.
Another job well done.
:cry:
