The Family Cabin

"Fire extinguisher now!" Matt kicked the space heater away from the burning outlet as he grabbed a blanket off the couch and beat at the flames as the flames went up the wall.

"You used it yesterday on your fuckup yesterday." a voice answered back from the other room.

"Grab the beer then, baking soda, horse piss whatever just help!" Matt got the wall smothered but the outlet was still throwing sparks so he kicked around the outlet and with his leather glove he ripped the outlet out and threw it through the window to blow off steam in the snowbank. Matt Clarksin was a large man with an even larger temper sometimes which makes him unreliable at best for home repairs but he couldn't hire anyone else besides his half brother to work on their father's cabin.

The family cabin was built by their father when they were kids, along with all the other cabins around one of many of the small ponds in the north of Wisconsin and with a little elbow grease their father was able to make a small profit with the summer rentals but the cabins weren't heated and when they had enough to start making updates, smoking two packs a day caught up with their father and Matt and his younger half brother Richard had no choice but to sell most of the cabins to pay for treatments but it was all in vain and they buried him last fall at the edge of the pond, both their mothers too 'busy' to attend. On the genetic side Matt got the luck of the draw, the typical tall lumberjack of the Midwest, Richard drew the short stick, literally, but his temper was no better than Matts and being genetically obligated to each other has helped them through their upbringing and even more now that they were left alone with only one cabin left and two distant mothers that wouldn't both to call back.

After the funeral Richard stayed at the cabin to find some local work to pay the bills while Matt took the truck down to Texas to make some money in the oil fields to fix up their cabin and try to buy back one of their old cabins and slowly rebuild the resort but instead of lasting through the winter and come back sometime in the April Matt came back in the middle of February without offering an explanation. Matt grabbed the space heater and threw it out the door this time and he kicked around the snowbank and looked at the still steaming outlet. "Goddamnit you stupid gerbil green is the ground!"

Richard poked his head out of the doorway, "Were you born in a barn? The other space heater can't keep up if there's a draft -EEP!" He ducked as the outlet left Matts hand at half the speed of sound and just missed his head, "Quit breaking shit you shaved gorilla! You almost his the mirror!" Richard slammed the door behind him.

Matt grumbled as he kicked the heater and poked around the burnt elements and saw no point in trying to fix it so he grabbed the keys out of his pocket and got in the truck and headed to town.

An hour later Richard paced around the cold room wrapped in a blanket and sipping from a bottle of whiskey as he heard the doorknob rattle then a familiar thump followed soon after, "Open the door you irritating winter gnome."

Richard walked over to the broken window and pulled the tarp away and poked his head out, "Heater first then you can guess the password."

"I can buy a new lock don't make me hoof the door open."

"Ok then password first I guess." Richard muttered as he opened the door and Matt handed him the heater and walked over to the charred wall and dropped the bag on the floor as he walked back out and came back a minute later with a bag of Taco Bell and dropped the bag in Richards hand, "ooh, you get nacho fries this time?"

"They were out again."

"Curse them with uncomfortable underpants for eternity."

"You know I said the same thing except I was less eloquent."

"It was something to do with their genitals I assume?"

"In a clever way yes."

Richard dug through the bag and pulled out a burrito, "Better than you throwing your poo at them this time."

"You paid me the hundred to do it."

"Well spent, anyways glad to see you've calmed down quickly this time."

Matt gestured around the living room at the ice building up on all the glass, "Don't have time to punish you. . . yet. New outlet and some new paneling we'll be back on schedule, luckily the wiring didn't take any damage." Two minutes later Matt had the outlet replaced and wired correctly while Richard unboxed the space heater and the room was back to a reasonable temperature half an hour later and they were on the couch sipping on whiskey and watching a DVD. Matt surveyed the progress so far, it wasn't a large cabin built just like the other ones around the lake. the front door came into the living room on the right and the left side of the 20 foot by 20 foot room was a small kitchen along the wall with an attached full bathroom on the back wall and on the right side wall were two doors for the bedrooms both 10 feet by 10 feet. The bathroom was small but had a shower and even a stacked washer and dryer. The ceiling was open with no insulation and followed the pitch of the roof but the walls were insulated already and they temporarily duct taped sheets of foam insulation to try and keep the heat in while they figured out the cheapest way to heat the cabin, "Any luck finding a cheap furnace we can install here?" Matt poured himself a refill.

"Nothing in our budget if we still wanted to buy the neighboring cabin this year." Richard grabbed the bottle from Matt and poured the rest of the bottle into his glass, "I mean we're surrounded by woods I still think a wood stove would be best just for now."

"And get stuck chopping wood half the stupid winter." Matt grumbled into his glass.

"I checked the weather it'll warm up in another week or two."

"Five weeks given our luck."

"Only a little bit, it'll be in the fifties in two weeks."

Matt sighed, finished his drink, and grabbed a fresh bottle and poured another, "Fine get the stupid stove I know you've been eyeing up but you cut the vent hole I'll go play lumberjack for a day."

Six weeks later it was still an average of twenties for a high and around zero degrees at night, "For fucks sake," Matt rubbed his shoulder through the Carhartt jacket as he stared at the axe lying on the stump and the pile of wood surrounding him.

Richard walked up with two steaming mugs in hand as Matt sat down on the stump and gave his brother their usual one fingered wave, "Two weeks it'll be fifty, two weeks he said in his utter brilliance."

"Doesn't matter it's in the past now, besides it's almost the end of March these things happen you know, next week is April so we should see some warmer temps."

Matt took one of the mugs and sniffed at the hot chocolate, "This normal or Wisconsin seasoned?"

"Oh shit right," Richard took a flask out and poured a shot in each cup, "my mistake."

Matt threw the hot liquid right on Richards crotch as he yelped and jumped back, spilling his own cup on himself but saving half, "What was that for!?"

Matt shrugged and picked up his axe and got back to work, "Doesn't matter it's in the past now."

"Ungrateful bastard," Richard muttered as he sipped at the remaining liquid and walked back into the cabin.

Later that evening the brothers were sitting on the ice using a hand auger to drill holes in the ice and jigging with plastics hoping to catch a few crappies for dinner.

"I have never known such misery, why couldn't we have a family cabin in California."

Richard handed him another beer, "Because the taxes there are even more misery and I think there's snakes."

"Fair point but my complaints remain valid, with the electrical fire, that incident with the bear, the pipes freezing, that other incident with the same bear, I think this is becoming more trouble than it's worth."

"Keep up that sour mood and dad's going to haunt you out of spite."

"More like reach for my beer," Matt muttered as he took a sip and adjusted his slipknot on his fishing pole, "I'm getting tired of the winter and swinging that axe just to stay warm."

"It wont be that bad next year when we can chop wood at our leisure or save up and buy a mechanical splitter."

Matt handed his pole to Richard and got up with his beer and started heading back to the cabin, "I'm outsourcing that to a high schooler who doesn't know about minimum wage yet during the summer." he continued muttering to himself as he kept walking.

Richard watched him walking back then stood up as he watched his path, "Hey! the spring!"

The ice cracked under Matt's feet as he yelled and fell through the ice and disappeared for a moment as Richard stopped fifteen feet away as a beer can flew out of the water and landed in the snow as Matt broke the surface and clawed at the broken hole and pulled himself back onto solid ice, "I hate this pond! Why does water always try to kill me!"

"Shower more than once a week and maybe you'll get used to water."

Matt rolled around in the snow to soak up some of the water and shook himself off as he continued his path to the cabin, "Well I need one now after I piss an icicle, let me know if you catch anything."

Two weeks later saw the last of the snow and the ice melt on the pond while Matt and Richard looked up at the water dripping down inside the cabin into the buckets and pots scattered around the floor, "Alright whos going on the roof?" Matt looked at Richard as they played rock paper scissors and Matt won so he handed the truck keys to him, "if you keep it cheap enough we might still have enough to buy one cabin back this year."

"Could've bought two if you stayed the winter in Texas instead of getting fired."

"For the last time I wasn't fired."

"Then what were you?"

Matt shrugged, "Doesn't matter it's in the past now." he went back to cutting boards and setting up the loft that was going over both the kitchen and living room. Richard did a quick mental calculation on where the roof leaked and scribbled down a list of items and left Matt to sulk alone.

Matt had everything framed out and screwed into place by the time Richard made it back with more Taco Bell so Matt wiped off the sawdust and they sat on the couch and planned out the week.

"I could run around the other cabins this week and earn us a few bucks getting them dewinterized and ready for the owners while you patch up the roof."

"There's not that many cabins you could do it all in a day and help me with the roof."

"You lost that's the rule not my fault your terrible at the game, plus I'll cleanup the yards and clean the insides as well, figured on three to four cabins a day should take me the rest of the week and earn a few extra bucks, half of them already texted me."

"Fine I'll do the stupid roof."

"You'll be fine just replace the rotted wood then tarpaper and shingle anybody can do it."

"I know how to roof I just hate ladders you know this."

Matt dumped the empty wrapped back in the bag and went back to measuring and cutting boards for the staircase on the side and tossed the ends too small to use in the wood stove in the middle of the living room. "I'll get started tomorrow, should be able to get the floor done on the loft today and I'll work on the railings next week." There was a loud snapping sound from the kitchen and all the lights shut off, Matt kicked a board out of his way and walked over to the fuse panel and opened up the door and a puff of smoke came out as he checked a circuit breaker, cursed as he got shocked and grabbed a leather glove off the counter, and threw three melted circuit breakers on the floor, "Get 20 amp ones this time."

At the end of the week things were looking good, Matt got all the cabins for the other people ready to use and most of them tipped well given his situation and Richard got the roof done suspiciously cheap, "I'm impressed, you even got the same color so it almost matches."

Richard looked up from the ground where he was building a small wood shed on the back of the house for storing the split firewood, "Can't buy faded shingles, I tried and they laughed at me again."

Matt was tapping around the patches with his feet, "Yeah well you probably deser- shit!" The roof gave way and Matt fell through and broke through the plywood floor of loft and the couch broke itself and his fall.

Richard came running in the front door and jumped to one side as the remains of the couch were thrown at him, "Hey watch it!"

Matt rubbed a sore knee as he glared at Richard, "You watch the goddamn roof and tell me what the hell you did."

"There's nothing wrong with the repairs I did what you said, plywood, tarpaper, and shingles that's all."

"What sized plywood?"

"You said as cheap as possible so I got quarter inch."

There was a long pause before Matt looked around for something else heavy to throw at him but nothing was in arms reach, "You do know there's something called a builders code right?"

Richard pulled out his phone and swiped around, "I did go by the code, here it is it says quarter inch is fine for a roof." He kept his distance by tossing his phone to Matt.

He caught the phone and looked at it, "There's no way it says that, this is for building a treehouse! House code you foolish dwarf!"

Richard looked up at the ceiling, "Well that would explain the difference in thickness with the old plywood." His phone hit him square in the stomach while he was looking up. "Alright I'll fix it, need an icepack?"

Matt reached over and grabbed the whiskey bottle he just missed on his trip down, "If you're not out the door and getting the right plywood I'm going to do alcohol abuse and throw this next." The truck was running and driving away three seconds after the door slammed.

Another two weeks of cursing, threats, building mishaps, and yet another bear incident the cabin was finally finished and ready for renters as the other cabins had people barbequing in the backyard and kids throwing lines out in the pond for the panfish and the odd northern pike. Matt and Richard clinked bottles together as they looked around at their final work, the roof was patched, correctly this time, the loft was finished completed with a padded railing that doubled as a bench and a pair of bunk beds for the kids or the short straw drawing adult for whatever group rented out the cabin for the weekend, the wood stove fit nicely by the new 50inch flat screen tv the brothers were able to barter for from the local bar, the bathroom was extended another 10 feet so the washer and dryer weren't leaning next to the toilet, and the bedrooms and living room had brand new windows installed correctly the second time.

"One more night here just to make sure nothing leaks during the thunderstorm and I think we'll be ready to start renting it out."

Matt nodded along as he looked up at the clouds already forming in the afternoon sky and the air felt heavy with rain, "I hate to agree usually but this time I think my yelling actually worked."

"Only because you're twice my size and I can't really fight back without ensuring my certain death."

"I've seen you bite ankles before in a fight that would be enough of a distraction for fleeing."

"Just pick a movie and let's get inside before it starts raining," a distant rumble of thunder broke their conversation and they headed inside.

An hour later the rain was coming down heavy enough so even the sound bar attached to the tv could drown out the raging storm, Matt set his beer down and looked around the ceiling, "Roof seems to be able to take it," he walked in and out of the bedrooms then looked around the front window in the kitchen, "Windows aren't leaking I think we're all good."

Richard looked over the back of the couch and at the front window, "Huh, looks weird and extra green out there."

Matt looked out again, "Well we are surrounded by trees you know," the rain suddenly went quiet and Richard could hear Matt grinding his teeth as he stared out the window so Richard got up and looked out at the tornado throwing trees out of the way as it headed straight for the cabin, "Nope not this time!" Matt stomped over to his room as Richard pulled the rug out from the side of the couch and opened the trap door leading to the crawlspace underneath as Matt came out of his room with a shotgun and a fan.

"And what the hell are you doing now?" Richard said as he held the door open.

"What's it look like? I'm off to fight that bastard tornado this is the last straw!"

"Don't be an idiot you can't fight nature! get in the cellar!"

"I can and I will! Fuck nature!" Matt slammed the door and Richard hesitated but his survival instinct pulled him into the cellar and he shut the door as he heard Matt yelling obscene curses and firing his shotgun at the tornado and then the tornado hit the cabin and the foundation shook as the wind tore through the cabin.

A week after the storm Richard sat on the pile of rubble that was the cabin he and his brother built together, their fathers headstone was the only thing to survive the tornado besides the truck, DNR dragged the lake and they brought out dogs to search the surrounding woods but all they found was the fan wrapped around a tree two miles away, there was a small service at the lake and Richard bought a matching headstone and he wrote the obituary for the local paper and Matt Clarksin is listed as missing and presumed furious.