more than a week later

Berenice was working from home.

Ostensibly, she was working from home to accommodate the inflexible schedules of the two provincially licensed archeology firms she'd invited to quote on what making the large hole in her backyard even larger might cost.

Truthfully, she was working from home because it was easier to avoid Simon if she didn't need to cower under desks and dart into coat cupboards several times a day.

It was a tricky business, keeping up her teaching schedule without running into him. She'd already been "sick" twice and let her teaching assistant take the classes. She wasn't sure how much longer she could stretch out this subterfuge without bringing in a doctor's note.

But that was a worry for next week. Today, she was safely at home.

She was making a pot of tea to take down to Jim. Now that he had his record collection, he only came up to the main floor to eat or help with the girls. She could hear him down there, playing music and chatting with god knows who on the phone. She wondered, did the old man have a girlfriend?

The idea made Berenice smile. That would be lovely, in fact. She hoped he did. But if he planned to keep this woman's interest, he'd need to leave the house and actually meet her sometime.

She would tell him that when the tea was ready, she thought.

A rapping at the backdoor startled Berenice. That would be the last of the archeology people finished looking around. She opened the back door.

The man, who didn't look anything like what she thought an archeologist should look like -- which is to say, he wasn't wearing desert boots, khaki pants, suspenders or even a Tilly hat -- stood there holding a neat white envelope with his business card stapled to the front. He was, instead, a round little Greek man in dusty loafers, ill-fitting jeans and a plaid jacket that stood no chance of reaching around the great barrel of his middle. His olive brow was sweating despite the cool, continually gray spring weather.

"Missus," he said with a polite nod. "You gonna find the details of our quote there. Is include machinery. My crew can start next week if you want. Shouldn't take long. A month or so. Depending on what we find."

Berenice groaned inwardly. A month. There goes any hope of being done by summer.

"Thanks, Mr..." she looked again at his card which read
Tassos Papadakis
Papadakis Archeological Services Inc.

He held up his cracked hand and said, "You call me Papa. Everybody just call me Papa."

Berenice sighed and opened the envelope. It was, as the first quote this morning had been, outrageous.

She looked the man straight in the eye and asked with all the haughty fury of a french woman under stress, "You can't seriously be asking 52,000 dollars just to dig holes in my yard?"

The man laughed like they were sharing a joke and slapped his chest.

"Nnnnooooo, missus! Is no include HST."