You're On Fire Pt 9

By noon the furniture is inside the house and toweled off and placed wherever Janet Bell wants it, though she says whatever Dan thinks is fine with her; they discover that the basement is flooded and Dan moans about the broken sump and his wife worries that they are going to get electrocuted – and the men take their cue, mercilessly teasing her by descending one after the other into the waist-deep water and pretending to be shocked to death, splashing in death throws that turn into a water fight that doesn’t break up until their wives arrive and call for them to stop being assholes and get back to work. They fill the kitchen with chicken wings and casseroles and potato salad and watermelon slices, telling Jan to rest her feet, unwrapping plates and glasses and gossiping behind their hands; thunder rattles the windows so much you don’t notice anymore. Someone brings a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting because Dan Bell has one serious sweet tooth (If he had any teeth left, Annie Oriole snickers and is shushed and Gertie Gantree makes sure Dan in the other room didn’t hear) that says Congratulations! on it in perfect script. A piece is handed to your father, who says with a toast of his beer, I’ll do it better than the dipshit I’m replacing, I promise you that.