That’s her! There she is, my sweetheart!

It was a bright day and I was alone in the apartment, working in the spare bedroom, where my desk was. It was late morning, early afternoon. I called the property manager to ask her what day of the week she would send the handyman. Bob was already on his way.

Soon afterwards, the buzzer went. A cheerful voice on the other side confirmed it was Bob, the handyman. Several seconds later I opened the door and in stepped a tall, broad man beaming in his overalls, in his sixties perhaps, like a muscular Santa that didn’t keep a beard because it interfered with his work.

Hey, how ya doin’, I’m Bob – is it ok if I keep my boots on?

I showed him into the kitchen and immediately we were in conversation.

These hinges are bad… I’m a cabinet man, this stuff drives me crazy. Me and my son have OCD… it got really bad when my wife was sick – she had cancer. Back then we were in the throes of her recovery. The psychologist really helped him. He asked him, Out of all these things you have to do – he had ticks and things he felt he had to do or everyone will perish or whatever – he asked, Is there one you can get rid of? Really work hard and see if there is one you can get rid of before I see you next week.

I told him I worked at Microsoft, but that ever since Covid I had been working remotely. I rarely went into the offices in Redmond.

Me and my buddy framed some houses in Redmond when I came out west. I took my wife out there to show her, Oh yeah, we built these houses… and there were fields. Now it’s unrecognizable. She said, You and him were the first people building out here.

I went back to my desk to work for a bit but soon I was back in the kitchen talking with Bob.

I was in a good clean sober rock band… Patty was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame, she’s a drummer… you know what instrument I played? The drums! Of course Patty played many instruments…

I told him I was Mexican and that I had met several of the other handymen when I lived in one of the other buildings that belonged to the same family.

Me and Raul are buddies, but the other gringos… Not Susie, Susie is great, she’s wonderful. The other gringos, the owner is conservative. I’m a leftie. A social democrat. I’m not radical, I am practical. I want things to move forward… My son Sam wanted me to officiate his wedding – I’m like, I’m a nail-bangin’ knucklehead… I’m a decent man, there are a lot of men out there who aren’t, you see it on the news…

I asked him what kind of writer his wife was.

She’s a feminist.

I mean, does she write fiction or non-fiction?

Oh, back in the day, they wrote these things called chapbooks, they’re like short stories. She writes chapbooks.

His wife had written a story about him pushing his son around in a stroller.

I was pushing Sam, he was about five years old, in big circles for hours, and he was loving it, all the big trees… up in Carnation.

He told me that his wife had a website where she posted her writing. I tried the URL he gave me, but it didn’t work. He came and stood next to my desk, his brow furrowed and head slouching as I typed what he dictated into the URL bar until we got it right.

That’s her! There she is, my sweetheart!