Chapter Three
Joann pulled into the garage, rather tried to pull into the garage. Where she normally parked were two lawnchairs. White lawnchairs. They were unattended, innocently sitting there.
Jenny, with Chris' help, had climbed out of her carseat and was standing in the garage complaining. "My red is gone." she said, pointing at the clean chairs. Joann refrained from rolling her eyes. All the way back, Jenny had been pouting about leaving her playdate and having to pick up Chris. Even Chris, who adored his younger sister, had been fed up, immediately running into the house after freeing her from her carseat.
"The red wasn't supposed to be there in the first place young lady." Joann said, hoping Roy was ready for his cranky child, it was his turn.
In the kitchen, the backdoor was taped off. A sign on the door saying, 'DO NOT ENTER!' Directly underneath was, 'Unless you want red footprints to match the red fingerprints.' She recognized Roy's handwriting on the initial statement, then Johnny's scrawl underneath. In even smaller script, she saw 'I've already called Vince for you.'
She assumed that was Mike's doing as she didn't recognize the neat longhand. With a scoff, she dropped her bag on the table, noting oddly, her nearly empty nail polish remover on the counter. With a shrug, she hollered up the stairs, "Chris, if I walk up these stairs and you're not getting ready for the shower, no desert!" She heard a 'humph' from upstairs, then steps leading to the bathroom, causing her to smile. She smiled broader when she spotted Jenny on the floor in the den, her grumpiness forgotten at the sight of her toy horses. "Stay here for a moment okay Jenny?" she said, making sure her five-year-old responded before walking back into the garage. She looked in greater detail at the furniture, curious as to how the three men had cleaned it. There wasn't even a hint of red. Everything else deck related had disappeared, indicating to Joann they were done. She then walked to the backyard, hunting for three firefighters. Two of them were stretched out, resting against the tree. They looked asleep, so she took the time to inspect the deck. Handsome uniform railings lined it and the entire deck was red. Joann grinned, it looked professionally done. The flooring was tight and sharp, even the homemade stairs looked good. She nodded, giving the inanimate object her approval. Wondering where Mike had gone, she looked around. He wasn't napping under the tree. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen his car. "Musta left." she thought with a frown. She hoped Roy had remembered to invite him tomorrow.
Roy heard footsteps coming in his direction and opened his eyes. "What'dya think?" Joann had made her way over to the two napping medics.
"Where'd Mike go?" she asked first. Roy sat up and stretched, elbowing Johnny purposefully, who groaned and rolled over, causing Roy to smirk.
"He went on home." Roy said, standing. "So, what do you think?" he asked again, wanting her opinion.
"Oh Roy, it looks fantastic!" she gushed, "And there are railings all the way around! Perfect for the kids." she admired, looking back at the new deck.
Roy smiled, glad of his wife's approval. At the mention of his kids, he looked around the yard, "Where are the kids?" He half expected them to be running around.
"Jenny's playing with horses and Chris is hopefully showering." Joann replied, squinting up at the second story and looking at Chris' bedroom window.
Johnny, yawned, stood and stretched, saying, "I think I'm gonna follow suit." Obviously missing the second half of their conversation.
"Playing with horses or showering?" Joann quipped, causing Roy to snort.
Johnny flushed, "Uh, go home, like Mike."
"Uh huh." Joann said, egging the man on.
"I gotta return the tools and truck." he pleaded, not catching Joann's tease.
"You tell yourself that Junior." Roy added with a twinkle in his eye.
"Shuddup both of you." he said after finally catching on.
Roy took pity on him, "You still good for tomorrow?"
Johnny nodded and turned to walk out of the yard. "Good job on the chairs by the way, I'll have to tell Mike tomorrow." Joann said before Johnny left.
Both Johnny and Roy looked confused. "Chairs?" Roy said.
"The lawnchairs, they're clean." she clarified, looking back and forth at the two of them.
"Really?" Johnny asked, hands on his belt. When Joann nodded, "Huh."
"I gotta know what he used." Joann said, crossing her arms and thinking.
Roy and John shared a look, could the nail polish remover have actually worked? "Uhh." John said, "I'm not sure you do." He put his hands in his pockets and quickly added "See you tomorrow."
When he was out of sight, "What does he mean by 'I'm not sure you do'?" Joann questioned.
"Let's go take a look." Roy said, not directly answering her question and leading her to the garage. He knew Mike had moved them from the yard to work on them in the last few hours. He and Johnny had deduced that's what Mike was going to use the nail polish remover for, but they were doubtful it was going to be successful, and Mike hadn't told them the outcome of his attempt before heading home.
The chairs hadn't moved at all, completely unaware of the mystery surrounding them. Roy leaned in close, and to Joann's surprise, sniffed them.
"What uh, what are you doing?" she asked her husband. Wondering if she should call Johnny back.
"Nothing." Roy said, red faced. Joann raised her eyebrows, smelling lawn chairs was not 'nothing'. "Just, Stokes asked for nail polish remover, and I wondered if…" he trailed off, downplaying his question.
"How did he know to use nail polish remover?" It was Joann's turn to ask.
"That's what Johnny and I have been asking all day!" he exclaimed, leaving the chairs and making his way inside to the kitchen. Getting a cup of water, he filled it. "I know you can use it to dissolve glue, but not stains." he said, leaning against the table and drinking the glass's contents. Catching sight of the sign on the door, he rolled his eyes. He then squinted and walked closer. "Seriously Stokes?" he said with a slight chuckle. "Hey Jo, did you see this?"
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
"So, there I was, holding my mom's great grandmother's pearls, which were coated in green paint. Oil paint I might add," which caused his audience to groan. Oil paint was the worst paint to clean off anything. "And my mother was only half an hour away." Mike said in the middle of the story. Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats on the DeSoto's new, dry, and red deck. Captain Stanley and Emily shared a picnic table bench, while Mike and Beth sat on the other side. Chet perched on the deck's sturdy railing, Marco leaning against it. Johnny sat on the edge of the picnic table and Joann and Roy sat on the white chairs, all ears for Mike's story. For someone so quiet, he always had the best stories, and was an expert at telling them.
"So naturally, I was panicking." Mike continued. "I ran to my sister's room, asking for her advice, which showed how desperate I was." there were appreciative chuckles from Hank and Emily, they knew Mike and his sister didn't get along when they were younger. "She told me, 'You figure it out yourself, genius.' which left me with no ideas whatsoever." He took a sip of the beer he was drinking before continuing. "I ran into the bathroom and started scrubbing furiously, trying with and without soap. Nothing, still green as can be." Mike said, appropriate dismay in his voice. "Then, I saw the nail polish remover sitting on the counter and a crazy idea went through my head." he said, a goofy smile on his face. "Amanda, my sister," he added in case people didn't know, "Had painted her nails earlier, but needed to remove the previous color." He chuckled, "So I thought, if it can cut through that junk," there were scoffs and smirks from Joann, Emily, and Beth, but he ignored them, "It can cut through anything, which isn't entirely wrong." he added ruefully. "Thankfully it worked." he said with a smile. "Needless to say, I cleaned like I'd never cleaned before, and managed to put them back seconds before Mom got home. Which is why I'm still alive to tell this story today." he completed his story with a grin. Everyone laughed and relaxed in their seats.
"If Chris got a hold of my grandmother's ring, I'd have his hide." Joann said, validating Mike's panic all those years ago.
"What I want to know Stokes, is how the pearls got on the table in the first place?" Marco asked, "If they're important, your madre wouldn't just leave them around for you to 'accidentally knock into a can of paint'." Marco said, teasing his friend about the only unbelievable part of his story. Everyone was sure there was more to how the pearls ended up in a can of paint, but Mike didn't elaborate.
"You're right, she wouldn't." Mike said, punctuating his words with a point in Marco's direction, ignoring his tease. "Amanda pulled them out to 'Look at them'," he said, using air quotes. "And left them on the table. She denies it to this day, but I'll swear on my trusty nail polish remover she was playing dress up." His exuberance amused his shift mates.
"Didn't your mom not notice the smell?" Emily asked, "Pearls don't smell like acetone."
A twinkle appeared in Mike's eye. "She did." Mike said, teasing his audience with a pause. "I figured it was more believable for Amanda to play with the pearls, doubly so because of the smell and Amanda's change in nail polish, so I blamed it on her. Best part is, Mom fell for it."
"Well done!" Chet said, approving of Mike's shenanigans. "I knew you had it in you!" he exclaimed joyfully.
"You don't know the half of it, Chet." Mike replied, an impish smile on his face.
"Well now I gotta know!" Chet complained, the mysterious engineer was becoming more mysterious with every second.
"Nope." Mike said, shaking his head. "I have a reputation to keep you know."
Beth leaned across the table and whispered to Emily with a giggle, "I might be driving home tonight." Emily chuckled back, nodding her head in agreement.
Johnny looked at Roy and said out the side of his mouth, but loud enough for everyone to hear, "We will never understand that man." Which caused the group to dissolve into laughter, including the enigmatic engineer.
