Page 64 of Statler

Things were going well.

Very well.

Steel was being erected quickly and proficiently, already ahead of schedule before their first real day on the job had passed.

Because of that, Statler had just taken Dizzy and Pipes off connecting bolts, to take care of the anomalies the pair had found in their pipe corridors.

They hoped to have the problems resolved by quitting time.

Quitting time.

Fish on the grill.

Eliza.

Despite the fact that Statler had been expecting a cancellation from the woman all day, it hadn’t come.

He’d checked his phone numerous times throughout the hours, and there’d been nothing. At least not yet.

Still, he wasn’t holding his breath.

Because Eliza had to know Statler had questions.

But maybe she wasn’t shying away from handing him answers.

Was that good or bad?

His team seemed to think Eliza had a romantic interest in him, and for now, he’d let that sit warmly in his gut. If he found out they were wrong, and that she was married, he’d face that disappointment when the time came.

“Hey boss?”

Dizzy’s voice had him putting his phone back in his pocket and gazing down from the crane where he currently sat.

Had the never-serious Dizzy ever sounded so…grave?

“Yeah?” Statler’s curiosity was piqued.

“I need you to come take a look at something,” Diz called out.

Dizzy pointed to where Pipes squatted at one of the junctures where they’d noted the incorrect placement of PVC a few days prior.

“As a matter of fact,” Dizzy raised his voice across the site, “I think everyone should have a gander at what we’ve found.”

The crew all stopped what they were doing, and within minutes, they’d all converged on the area in question.

“What have you got?” Statler asked, hunkering down beside Pipes.

“We’re not sure,” Pipes answered. “We thought we’d wait for you before we opened up what might be a can of worms.”

Statler rarely saw anything that astounded him, and he’d been around for a long time. So many missions had held surprises, that he felt almost…jaded.

Still, he urged Pipes with a rolling hand, to go on.

“Here’s the skinny, folks,” Pipes took charge. “We cut into the slab, expecting to find rebar and the WWF that we’d normally be cutting through to reposition our runs.”

Yup. Welded wire fabric and rebar were standard materials.

Statler waited for more.