Hearts and Hammers

Adam tenderly flexed his cracked and peeling hands. His palms were sore to the touch and his knuckles were red and raw; he had spent fourteen hours outside in the freezing cold, lifting and hauling heavy metal sheets across the job site, and another three hours ripping and tearing the cabinets out of his rundown kitchen. Adam barely had time leftover to grab a quick bite to eat before he needed to get some sleep; he would be up early the next morning to do it all over again.

Adam was beyond exhausted, his fatigue settled into his very bones, but he knew it would all be worth it. Someday he would have this old, rickety house fully restored, repaired and – with some hard work and a little luck – he would have his fiancée excited to move in with him. If she accepted when he finally proposed… which he would do as soon as he had saved enough money to afford an engagement ring.

His girlfriend was beautiful, sweet and kind, and Adam was thankful everyday that she had chosen his rugged appearance and coarse demeanor over plenty of others who would have been glad to pursue her. Steph told Adam that he was her teddy bear: a little rough on the outside but soft and warm on the inside. Adam wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but Steph loved him, and that was all that mattered.

Adam kept a small black notebook to track his savings and expenses and he enjoyed watching his steady progress towards his momentous goals. There were columns for his daily earnings, minus taxes; his living expenses; another for renovation costs; and the last column totaled how much he had saved for a ring. Adam was as frugal as he could be and he was proud to watch his projects and goals come to fruition. He still had a fair bit of saving ahead of him – he didn’t want Steph to be disappointed or dissatisfied with any part of his proposal – but Adam was pleased with how far he had already come.

All had been going according to plan and Adam’s dreams were unfolding perfectly- until the devastating thunderstorm. Cracking, blinding lightning pierced the sky and rain poured down in sheets; the wind howled through trees and gutters, and thunder boomed menacingly through the night. The shingles were peeled from a thick strip off Adam’s roof and half the wall between the kitchen and living room got soaking wet; the floor was damaged, the ceiling destroyed, and the partition between the two rooms was beyond repair from the immense water damage.

The next morning Adam stood in puddles in bare feet in his living room, surveying the destruction. The one silver lining was it hadn’t been a load-bearing wall and wasn’t necessary for the structural integrity of the house; it hadn’t been in the plans or budget, but Adam was left with no choice but to remove the wall altogether and change the entire floor plan.

Adam knew water damage would cause even more problems the longer it was left to sit, so he set to work immediately tearing down as much of the sodden materials as he could. Ceiling panels, floorboards and drywall were soon piled in tattered chunks all around him. Adam’s mind was busy calculating the rising cost it would take to repair the significant ruin, and his gloominess grew in direct proportion to the swelling mountain of debris around him. His renovation budget, his expenses and his savings were all going to take a substantial hit.

By noon Adam’s gloominess had soured to resentful exasperation, but he had been raised to be a diligent, resilient worker and Adam wasn’t ready to give up yet. He pulled out his heaviest sledge hammer and set to take out his frustration on what was left of the wall partition; Adam swung, battered and tore large shreds of drywall apart, and began knocking down the beams within. There was a thick chunk of insulation shoved into the bottom layers of the wall and Adam wrenched it out in long, cottony trails of pink. The disaster growing around him was disheartening and Adam decided he should probably take a break for lunch, clean up a little, and reevaluate what was left.

He started peeling off the last of the insulation when Adam noticed a strange obtrusion in the substructure of the wall. At first he thought the foundation had been built upwards, but then Adam decided it was a different fabrication altogether. It was a long, wooden box, built to look the same as the beams that formed the wall and hidden beneath the insulation, but not actually attached to the wall itself.

Adam shifted the wooden box out from the wall and attempted to pull it open. It had been nailed shut from every direction so Adam retrieved his claw hammer and set to work prying all the nails from the top of the box. They came loose with rusty, shrill squeals and soon Adam was able to peel the lid off; at first glance the box appeared empty. Adam was wondering if he had accidentally taken apart some of the wall’s structure when he realized there might be another compartment in the bottom of the box: it appeared slightly taller on the outside than it did on the inside.

A couple light taps of the hammer produced a hollow, thunking noise in return- the box had a false bottom. Adam began tapping the wooden frame apart carefully, wondering about the implications of his find. The box had been cleverly crafted to mimic the structure of the wall, had been hidden beneath a clot of insulation, and would appear empty to anyone who didn’t notice the subtle height difference in the frame. When the bottom board came loose in Adam’s hands, revealing a hidden compartment with another, smaller box tucked inside, Adam wasn’t surprised but he did feel uneasy.

Who would go to such lengths to hide something? Adam didn’t want any trouble and he didn’t want to get involved in anything he shouldn’t. The old man Adam had bought the house from said he and his wife had lived there for nearly six decades… and the elderly fellow certainly hadn’t seemed the type to get caught up in criminal activity. Adam hesitated, his fingers growing sore as he forced the bottom of the box to stay open, uncertain what to do.

Finally, Adam decided he would take just a quick look; if it was anything too terrible, he could turn it over to the police and if it was clearly none of his business, Adam could put it back in the wall and pretend he’d never found it. He fished the smaller box out of the hidden compartment and let the bottom board fall back into place with a resounding thud.

The second box was made of thin cardboard, about as long and wide as an envelope but as deep as a shoebox. Adam’s hand was nearly twice the size of the lid but he lifted it as delicately as if the parcel contained a bomb. He didn’t think that was likely, but Adam’s heart was racing as frantically as if it were labeled TNT.

There wasn’t any dynamite inside the carton- instead, nestled cozily in the box was a single, tall stack of cash. Adam’s breath caught in his chest as he dumped it all out on the floor. It took him a few minutes to count through the bills and a few more to double check when he fumbled, but finally Adam was sure: he had discovered $20,000.

Where it had come from or who had put it there, Adam had no idea. He thought nervously about his fears he would stumble across trouble he didn’t need… would something – or someone – come back to punish him if he kept the money? But with twenty thousand dollars Adam could not only take care of the catastrophic damage caused by the storm, he could also get the perfect ring for Stephanie.

Adam sat on the floor of his living room for a long while, debating what to do. At long last he painstakingly replaced the thin cardboard lid on the rectangular box, placed the cardboard box in the hidden compartment of the wooden box, closed and sealed the wooden frame itself, and set about hammering the structure back together the way he found it. Once the box was back in the wall with a layer of insulation on top, Adam carefully gathered the entire stack of money and took it to his room.

A few nights later, Adam sat across from Steph at a beautiful restaurant he had chosen for them. It was more posh and elegant than their usual haunts, but Steph seemed pleased and she looked gorgeous in a stylish black cocktail dress. Adam made note that he should bring her to fancier places more often; Steph was glowing and it suited her well. Their meals were delicious and the service was exquisite; the waiter brought a stunning plate for dessert with two glasses of champagne and Steph shrieked when she spotted the ring inside her flute.

“It’s gorgeous!” She exclaimed, fishing it from the glass and drying it on her napkin. “Is it what I think it is?” Stephanie’s blue eyes danced with joy and Adam felt his chest swell with happiness.

“I love you with all my heart,” Adam began, his heart pattering wildly, “and I can’t imagine spending my life without you. Will you marry me, Steph?”

“Of course I will!” Steph cried, allowing Adam to slide the engagement ring onto her finger before leaning forward to accept his delighted, loving kiss. Several tables nearby began cheering and Adam looked around sheepishly; he hadn’t realized they had drawn an audience.

“I love you so much,” Steph beamed, grinning at Adam and then down at the stone on her hand; Adam had chosen a solitaire, princess-cut diamond, set in a classic white gold band. The diamond was dazzling against her slim hands and fingers, though the shining three-carat rock would have looked magnificent on any hand. Adam had gotten an exceptionally good deal from a jeweler that was liquidating and thrilled to see the cash Adam produced; meanwhile, Adam was overjoyed to have found a ring as wonderful as he had always dreamed.

“Why on earth did you get something so big, though?” Steph asked, though she still hadn’t torn her eyes from the shimmering gem. “I would have been just as happy with something small and simple.”

“I know,” Adam lifted his glass to offer her a toast. “But anything that’s mine is yours, and I just want to give you the best of everything I can. I got lucky and you’re the person – you’ll always be the person – that I want to share that with.”

Steph smiled blissfully, not understanding what Adam meant but appreciating and sharing his feelings of love. “You’re the one I want to share everything with too. How did you get lucky? Did you win the lottery or something?”

Adam laughed. “No, the storm a few nights ago ripped a bunch of shingles off my roof, and there was a ton of water damage inside the house. Who knew fixing walls paid so well?” He chuckled and took a sip of champagne; Steph smiled, puzzled, but shrugged and cheerfully enjoyed her bubbly beverage with him.

Steph waited until the reparations in the living room and kitchen were done before moving her belongings into Adam’s house, and they quickly fell into a blissful routine together. She was reminded every day of how much Adam cared about her but Steph was overwhelmed with love when she stumbled across his slim, black notebook; inside were notes about his renovations – Adam seemed determined to repair every wall in the house – along with neat, tidy columns tracking his savings: one was titled ‘wedding’ and the other ‘family’.