The Unanswered Door

 



NewBaby positioned the panel on the closet wall. Three staples, and it was secure.  Then another, and another until the little room was covered in all new wood. Then, the carpet. Seaming it into the bedroom carpet, it looked as one piece. 

 

Now for the latch. Retrieving his deceased fathers’s drill, he meticulously drilled four tiny holes.  The latch had to be perfectly married to it’s counterpart so as to slide together with only a slight click. 

 

Opening the can of stain, he took his sponge and put stain on it. Daddy has taught him to caress the stain on the surface, never use a brush because that would leave streaks and ridges. Stain must appear to be the natural state of the wood, not artificial. 

 

The tools scattered all around the floor had belonged to his dad, Sergeant Joseph Tarajos. Five years before Agent Orange had taken him home. Each Christmas Joe would go into his wood shop and make toys for his “Buddies.”

 

That Christmas was different, and little five year old NewBaby knocked on the woodshop door, expecting Joe to appear with all the toys he’d been preparing. A knock that would never be answered. And, as the family planned their return to Utah, the Mormon Missionaries patiently packed all of Joe’s tools into the UHaul. 

 

Time went by, and the tools lay in the basement of the big Blue house in Brigham City. Last Christmas, NewBaby put in his wish list. One wish. He wanted a big red toolbox. Taller than him. He got it, and everyone laughed when he had to use a step stool to reach the top drawer. He categorized and placed Joe’s tools into the proper drawers. Each time he used one he placed it back in its proper drawer. 

 

He stepped into the now reconditioned closet, shutting the door behind him, and turning on the overhead light. Running his eleven year old hands over the walls, he felt for ridges and imperfections. He found none. Then there was a “tap tap tap” on the outside. It was his big sister, Puck, summoning him to dinner, and after five years NewBaby answered the knock for daddy. 

 

 

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