Dream

Chapter 4

"I'm pleased with the progress," Zebadiah said as he stood next to Thomas and his assistant foreman, Steve Shepard, while they looked over at the house. "I thought you would have been a little bit further along, but what has been done is excellent work."

Thomas couldn't tell how upset he was at the fact that they were behind because his face was devoid of any emotion, it might as well have been made of stone. "Thank you, we're moving at a steady pace and are still on schedule," Thomas assured the intimidating man next to him.

Zebadiah Abbott made Thomas nervous, and his gut told him that he was not a man to cross, but he was fair and the few problems that had cropped up in the last two months had been dealt with easily enough.

They were now into June and the temperature and humidity were starting to rise, making it harder to get certain things finished. They should have started in the winter, but Thomas had explained all of this to Mr. Abbott and he had seemed to understand, although he was a hard man to read so he couldn't be sure.

"Is there anything that you need that you don't have?" He turned to look at Thomas, his eyes hard as he waited for an answer.

Thomas was a tall man at six foot, but Zebadiah Abbott was taller, and even though he didn't tower above him it felt as if he did; probably because he didn't have an ounce of fat on him and he was all muscle which made him seem larger than he was.

"No, I have everything that I need, thankfully there have been very few problems with our supply delivery." Thomas missed Abbott's small nod of approval, and he had no clue that Abbott had made sure that there would be no problems.

"I'm still mystified as to how the two firms before you couldn't last two weeks, yet you've managed to last two months?" He looked at Thomas, silently demanding an answer.

Thomas opened his mouth intending to explain by using vague terms such as scheduling and leadership, but Steve cut him off before he could speak. "Oh, that's because we have Lucy?" he said with a nod, oblivious to Thomas's warning look. Zebadiah didn't miss it though.

"Lucy?" he asked, appearing to focus on Steve and not Thomas, even though he was more interested in Thomas's angry reaction.

Steve nodded. "Yep, she talks to the house and makes sure that she has everything that she wants," Steve said as he rolled up the plans they had been looking at earlier. He was a short man with a large bald spot, and he was sweating profusely.

"She, as in the house?" Zebadiah asked.

"Lucy said that we should treat her like we would our Grandmother, and that everything would be fine. The reason that the other crews were run off was because they weren't respectful enough."

Thomas looked at Mr. Abbott, noting that his face was still as blank as a stone, making it hard to judge his reaction to Steve's explanation.

"So, my house is haunted?"

Steve shrugged. "Lucy says no, that the house wouldn't stand for it."

"How does Lucy know all of this?" Zebadiah's calm reaction inspired Steve's confidence.

"She's a witch," Steve explained, but as he realized what he had said he looked at Thomas, who looked at him with enough anger to make him step back. "Sorry, just a joke. I'll go put these plans up in the box," he said as he scurried away.

Thomas caught Zebadiah watching him closely and realized that his anger showed clearly on his face, so he quickly pulled himself together.

"Let's go take a look at what's going on inside," Zebadiah suggested in an even voice that showed little concern over Steve's revelation.