That’s all right

‘Those boys aren’t worth gettin’ all worked up about. But he sure gave me a good price on drywall’

I’ve spent years getting rid of my accent. It’s an odd mixture of the accents from English, Irish, and German settlers. If you put all those accents in a remote area and blend them together for 200 years or more, funny things happen. Sounds change, vowels soften, and unusual sounds take on meaning. Words seem to move around in sentences and find themselves in the most unlikely places. This happens you may have noticed in my writing. It didn’t take me long to figure out no one would take me seriously with my accent. I did a good job loosing it. Mostly. I thought.

Some guy’s are in there hanging drywall right now. Country music is playing on their radio and the sound of drills and hammers are echoing through my house. I’m sitting here at my dining room table with a smile on my face. It won’t be long before I’m buying paint and hanging curtains.

They showed up yesterday to drop off the supplies. My doorbell rang just after 9:00. I ran to open it. They weren’t sure if they could deliver the drywall today. Looked like they could.

“Hello! I’m glad you made it. How are you today?” I said opening the door.

“I’m all right. The truck will be here…” he continued after that but I didn’t hear what he said. I was stuck on the all right.

He finished up with, “How are you today?”

I took a breath and responded with my own ‘all right’. It was the same as his. It starts out slow and soft and ends up quiet but sharp. The vowels change slightly and there is a sound in the middle. I don’t know what that sound is, but I’ve only heard it in one place. The place I grew up.

While we waited for the truck he talked about his son, I about my daughters. I heard all about his sister-in-law. I confessed I was glad my kids weren’t babies anymore. It may seem odd to discuss your life with someone you just met. But I knew him.

He was rough around the edges and soft on the inside. It wasn’t hard to notice his attractive but not too pretty face or the real muscles in his arms. I’m pretty sure he grew up he spending his summer evenings beside the river with beer and campfires. Telling big lies to impress the summer visitors or trying to scare them with stories of killer eels. I can imagine he spent his teenage years back in the woods or down at the beach trying to be sweeter to the girls than he knew how to be. I’m positive he has spent the last 25 years earning every dollar he has ever made. Of course he would have been complaining the whole time, even though he was happy he wasn’t sitting behind a desk.

I watched as he drove away. Off to another job. It was a few hours later I realized I had misplaced some things. I have to get them back. Have you seen my g’s?