Chapter 17
Chapter 17 — Town Work
Alex drives into town to get firebrick, high-temperature grout, and cedar from Gene at Holloway's Hardware. He asks Gene about running a spigot to the hot tub pad. Gene gives Alex a side job repairing a sagging floor joist for a customer named Mr. Danforth, who makes disparaging comments about the commune and Alex's living situation. Alex completes the repair competently and handles Danforth's hostility with calm maturity, earning Gene's quiet approval. On the drive back, Alex reflects on the contrast between town life and the commune.
Thursday morning came early. Alex was up before the sun, standing in the hot tub frame with a tape measure and a notebook. The firebox dimensions were in his head. He'd been turning them over for three days, ever since he'd laid the stone base. The firebox needed firebrick — not regular brick, not the kind you'd use for a garden wall. Firebrick held heat without cracking. It could take two thousand degrees and ask for more. Gene would have it. Gene had everything.
He wrote the list on the notebook's back page. Firebrick, thirty-six. High-temp grout, two bags. Cedar planking, six-foot, for a towel cabinet. He paused. Drew a rough sketch of the cabinet next to the list. Two doors. Adjustable shelves. A pitched roof so rain would run off. He'd mount it on the post next to where the outdoor shower would stand. The shower wasn't built yet, but the cabinet could wait against the shed until it was.
He added one more item to the list. He needed to ask Gene about the spigot. The concrete pad was sixty feet from the nearest water line — the one that ran to the kitchen. Running a line underground wasn't complicated, but it required a trench, a pipe, a shut-off valve, and a frost-free hydrant. Alex didn't know how to do any of that. Gene would.
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