Chapter 5 - Dominic
“Did you hear who’s back in town?” my brother Ethan says as he walks through the workshop door. I put down my chisel and look up at him with an eyebrow raised.
“Who?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“Mara McCoy. Without her fiancé, apparently.”
“Huh,” I say. “She missed the wedding.”
Ethan snorts and walks over to my workbench. He leans against it and crosses his arms casually. “Don’t think she’d have been invited.”
“Aiden’s moved on, I think,” I reply.
“Not sure you can move on from something like that,” Ethan replies.
I grunt and turn back to the chair I’m working on. Ethan watches me for a few seconds before clearing his throat. “How are things with you? Has business picked up at all?”
I raise an eyebrow and look at him. “Not since you asked me that a couple of days ago, no. Why?”
He shakes his head. “Nah, nothing. Sorry. I just thought you were worried about it.”
“Well, yeah,” I say. I don’t know what else to tell him. Of course I’m worried about my livelihood! I’ve worked my whole life to be an expert woodworker and furniture maker. Over the past year, I’ve watched all that work wither away.
“Are you…” Ethan hesitates. “Do you regret it? The hotel, I mean.”
I take a deep breath and put my chisel down. I glance up at my brother and sigh. Before answering, I walk over to the mini fridge by the door and pull out two cans of beer. I hand him one and open my own as I consider his question.
“I don’t know,” I finally answer. “I think it’s better for it to be gone. I just didn’t expect this kind of backlash.”
Ethan makes a noise in response as he takes a long drink of beer. He finishes his sip. “I didn’t think people outside of Lang Creek even knew we existed,” he says. “Seems like the news travelled a lot further than we thought.”
I snort and lift my eyebrows in response. I glance at the progress I’ve made today – I’m almost done all the chairs. Pretty soon I’ll be out of work.
I lean against the bench, and Ethan and I drink in silence. He glances over at the wall and nods his chin towards the framed carving of the bear.
“They showed me that bear the other day. Maddy did a good job framing it. Looks good.”
I glance over at it for the hundredth time today and nod my head slowly. “I had no idea Dad kept all that junk. Aiden was saying there were boxes of it in the attic.”
“Yeah. He was proud of you, you know. Dad, I mean. All this?” He sweeps his arm across the workshop. “He’d have loved this.”
I look around the room at the tools and stacks of wood. I’ve got half-built projects that I’ve designed myself in the corner – a rocking chair, an antique-style side table, a headboard.
“Don’t know how proud he’d be to know that I burned it all down along with that hotel,” I say. The bitterness is clear in my voice, and Ethan shakes his head.
“We did a good thing, Dominic. The town would have been filled with tourists. They would have trashed the hotel grounds and ruined the forests. Think of how many endangered species there are in this valley alone! We did it for good reason. Everyone in town agreed.”
I grunt and Ethan takes a deep breath.
“All that bullshit about bringing trade to the area was just the McCoys trying to get their money out of it. That’s why they didn’t tell anyone they owned part of the hotel. One McCoy hotel in town is more than enough. Dominic, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” I snap. I take a deep breath and put my head in my hand. “Sorry. Look, Ethan, I know all that. I know it’s for the best. I know everyone except the McCoys were happy about it. I know that. But look around you,” I say, pointing to the chair I was working on. “That’s the last fucking chair I have to make. After that, I’ve got nothing. No income. No projects on the horizon. Nothing. And for what? Maybe if that hotel had been built, business would be booming!”
“You don’t know that,” Ethan starts.
I shake my head. “I know. I know! But then again, I don’t know anything! My head is fucking melted.”
“Look, what’s done is done,” Ethan says a little more gently. “The whole town was on our side. We did nothing wrong. The hotel company, the McCoys, the construction company – they all walked away with insurance money in their pockets.”
“Well, they’re the only ones with money in their pockets,” I say with a snort. Ethan grins and shakes his head.
“It’ll work out.”
“I know. And I know that I can go work for Aiden, or I can find work somewhere else around here. I just…” I look around at my workshop and take a deep breath. The smell of sawdust fills my nostrils and I exhale loudly. “I just really wanted this to work.”
“It will,” Ethan says. He stares at me straight in the eye. The dark cloud over me lifts ever so slightly as my brother puts his hand on my shoulder. “It’ll work out.”
I nod, and then crumple my beer can and toss it in the garbage. “I’d better get this chair done.”
Ethan follows my lead and finishes his beer. “You coming down to Harold’s tonight?”
“Yeah,” I grunt. I have no interest in going to the pub tonight and talking to the same people about the same things as last week, but I know that’s not what my brother wants to hear. Ethan nods and walks out the door. It’s not until I hear the workshop door close and his engine rumble to life that I let out a sigh. Usually my workshop is peaceful and undisturbed. It’s where I come to clear my head. Today, it just seems to be making me more confused and more conflicted.
I think of Ethan’s words as I pick up my chisel again. It’ll work out.
I wish I had his confidence.