Jan Haze

The middle floor

At the open side of the Marrow Creek fairground, Jan Haze puts a counter leg back on a piece of dry floor she'd saved for it. The job can last two nights or ten years. Neither duration tells her how much weight the leg will need to take on the first day. She builds scenery during the rest of the year and a theatre director once asked if she could make the loud floorboards quiet without telling anyone she'd done it. She fixed the one that mattered and left just enough squeak to get the stagehand's cue. Her oldest friend, Reid, paints fruit stalls one town over. Sometimes they both ask why they can't get paid to take these things down on time.

A wooden box they assembled two fair seasons ago has become a filing cabinet. Ada Baines recognizes their joinery every time she sees it under the cooperative's spare tickets. Jan asked about it once thinking the nails couldn't be salvaged. It was Ada who knew the box still had three unused handles.

The wrong kind of load

A crew contact wrote to Jan asking if she could bring the Datsun 620 back to the garage on Sunday. Jan had carried scrap wood on two setup days, so she asked if there was anything particular to collect. They said to come as she was. She spent a long time choosing the longest pieces that would fit in the bed and keeping the ends from moving around. She left one short wet plank in there beside the good timber because someone always wanted an offcut just after she had gone home.

At DGM she parked to unload. The crew pointed at the practice register, then at the grid. She made them show her the same line twice. Henry Steele took the good boards away with a warning about the end that had got wet, so she had to drop it beside the rest. On the way to the return gate, she liked how easily she could turn the Datsun with no load to protect.

First bend twice

All of Jan's practice since then has included a moment where she makes the opening she thinks a long piece of scenery would need. A person watching could tell she's good at keeping the car still under her in the empty space that follows. The question is how to reduce the size of that space without beginning to feel rushed. Last week she returned to an early bend she'd already tried because she could see room to spare inside where her wheels went. She got them closer once and would like to do it again without thinking about where to park the load afterward.

The phone before lunch

Reid rang today with an offer to supply a truck if Jan ever wanted a bit of wood brought to the track while she was there. She told him she hadn't intended to become somebody who needed a second truck. Evidently he had pictured Jan explaining it that way because he already had an answer about the size of his own. She left the sample plank by her coat at home and then put it in the Datsun when she went back for a scarf. It can lie there until Mack or somebody needs something short and flat. She'd been planning to take a farther route by the canal and have time to herself before the turn. With a sample and a scarf in the back, she could still leave by the canal.