Turn 157 of 233

Let Kimo drive another nail and see if it's flush again. It is. Then let him crawl the rest of the afternoon

Marco doesn't move. The standing is the standing of a man who has just watched a three-month-old drive a nail flush and the watching has put him in a place where moving would break something. Lena looks at the boy on her hip and the boy is looking at the nail and the nail is in the wood and the wood holds it. The humming is steady and the steady is the drone of a child who has done something and doesn't know it is something. Lena positions the next stud. She puts the muzzle against the plate and the positioning is hers and the trigger is his.

"Push." The word is the same word and the same word is enough. Kimo's finger tightens and the gun barks and the nail drives and the driving is the same driving — straight, clean, the head meeting the wood with the sound Lena knows from a thousand nails. She looks. The nail is flush. Not close. Not almost. Flush. The head sits against the surface and the sitting is the sitting of a nail driven by someone who understands pressure and the understanding is in the hands and the hands are three months old.

Walt has stopped working. Walt does not stop working. The stopping is the thing the crew sees and the seeing is the thing that tells them this is real. He walks over from the frame and his walk is the walk of a man who needs to see the nail and the seeing is the seeing of a man who has been framing for thirty years. He looks at the second nail. He puts his thumb against the head and the thumb is the thumb of a man who checks flush with his skin and the skin knows the difference between flush and almost flush.

"Flush," Walt says. The word is one word and one word is what Walt gives and the giving is the giving of a man who does not waste words on things that are obvious and the obvious is that a three-month-old drove two nails flush. He looks at the boy and the boy looks at him and the looking is the looking of a child who does not know what he has done and the not knowing is the innocence and the innocence is the thing that makes Walt's almost-smile crack wider and the wider is the widest the crew has seen.

Lena puts the nail gun down and lifts Kimo off her hip and the lifting is the lowering of 31 pounds onto the concrete pad and the lowering is gentle and the gentle is the only gentle thing she does. The boy's palms hit the concrete and the hitting is the sound the crew knows and the knowing is in their bodies now. He goes. The crawling is fast and smooth and the smooth is the smooth of a boy who has been crawling for weeks and the weeks have made him a traveler. He crosses the pad toward the lumber stack and the crossing is twenty feet in under thirty seconds and the thirty seconds is the time and the time is his.

The afternoon is the afternoon and the boy crawls. He crawls the pad and he crawls the perimeter and he crawls to the saw station where Frank is cutting and the cutting is loud and the loud doesn't stop him. He crawls to the plan table where Ray is flagging dimensions and the flagging is the flagging of a man who looks down and sees a baby at his feet and the seeing makes him step back and the stepping back is the giving of room. He crawls to Tuki's cleanup runs and Tuki watches him cross a stretch of pad and the watching is the watching of a man who laughs and the laugh is the laugh of a man who is watching a three-month-old move faster than some of the apprentices he's trained. The word comes twice more before the day ends. Once at the wall frame — "Big" — and once at the forklift when Daryl stages a load of plywood and the plywood is big and the big is the word and the word is right.

Lena watches between lifts and the watching is the watching of a mother who has set her son on concrete and the concrete is his and the his is the structure. The boy crawls and the crew works and the working and the crawling are the same rhythm and the rhythm is the rhythm of a site that has absorbed a child and the absorbing is the thing that happened without anyone deciding it would happen. The site holds them both. The site holds them all.