Demolishing her old playhouse didn’t take long. Anything of value she had wanted to save had already been taken out of it long ago. Maria did take one more look before picking up her grandfather’s five-pound sledgehammer and started knocking out the walls first. Her first swing went wild, as she spun around in a circle, holding on tight to the sledgehammer.

“You’re supposed to hit the wall, Maria. Not dance with it.” Ralph had an amused look on his face, watching Maria with his sledgehammer.

Maria saw the amused look on her grandfather’s face. She couldn’t believe she did something so amusing. She picks the sledgehammer up again and swings towards the playhouse wall and connects. It takes her three tries to knock down one wall.

She moves over to another wall and slams the sledgehammer towards it. While she was doing that, her grandfather was wheeling over a wheelbarrow to put the debris in. When all the walls and support beams were cut through and broken up. She starts putting the broken pieces of wood and sheetrock in the wheelbarrow.

Around eleven o’clock, as Maria and her grandfather are loading the last pieces into the bed of his truck. Two men around Maria’s age come walking into the backyard. One looked like her grandfather when he was younger. The other one, Maria knew looked like his mother’s younger brother.

“Hey, Grampy, Hey Smurfette.” A playful smile appears on Charlie’s face when he looks towards Maria.

“I’m not a smurf.” Maria hated being shorter than all her family members.

All her aunts and uncles were taller than she, including her cousins. No one knew where she inherited her height from, because even on her father's side of the family, she was shorter than they were. She was also the only one who had gray hair.

“Charlie, stop picking on Peanut. She can’t help, she is so short.” Terry looks over towards Maria when he says that.

“What is it with you two calling me peanut and Smurfette?” Maria looks at both her cousins.

“Because you're short. You should be used to it by now, Maria?” Charlie walks over and ruffles Maria’s hair.

Maria hates it when she is reminded of her height. All through her formal days of schooling, she was the shortest kid in her classes.

“Come on, boys, stop picking on your cousin.” Joey had walked into the backyard and spotted his sons teasing Maria.

“Thanks, Uncle Joey.” Maria walks over and hugs her uncle.

Joey returns the hug and looks down at his niece. He knew his sister hadn’t been treating her daughter right. From everything he knew about their folks. She’s been largely nonexistent in her daughter’s life.

The same could be said about Maria’s father as well. Neither of her parents has been involved with her.

“You’re welcome, peanut.” A smirk appears on his face when he says that.

Maria punches him in his stomach, “You had to go and spoil everything.”

She turns and walks away from her uncle. She finishes loading up the wheelbarrow and takes it to her grandfather’s truck to load. They will take it to the dump.

“Charlie, why don’t you and Maria take the truck to the dump and empty the back of it?” Ralph looks towards Charlie as Maria empties the wheelbarrow into the truck.

“Okay, Grampy.” Charlie looks towards Maria.

“Don’t say it.” Maria already knew what Charlie was thinking.

“What?”

“Just get in the truck.” Maria hops in on the passenger side because she knows her cousin would never let her drive.

Even though the three of them were taught by their grandfather on this truck, the boys never let her drive when they go out anywhere. They always complain about her pulling the bench seat of the truck too close to the dashboard. Maria notices a smirk appear on Charlie’s face as she gets in.

When they arrived at the transfer station, they were fifth in line to drive up and dump their load. While they are waiting, Charlie looks at his cousin. “So, how have things been with you lately?”

“Busy, my boss bought a storage locker filled with pinball machines and video game machines from the eighties. Plus, I have two generators I’m working on.”

“I’m surprised you’re still working for Mister Cain. I thought by now you would have moved on.” Charlie knew Maria had been working for Mr. Cain for a long time.

“I like what I do for him. You and Terry have been working for your father since you were teenagers. Didn’t you want to move on to something else?” Maria knew Charlie and his brother had worked for their father since middle school.

“Nope, sure the work is dirty, sweaty, and we're outside year-round. But we enjoy it, plus we started at the bottom and worked our way up to where we are now.” Charlie knew his father was harder on him and his brother than he was on any of his employees.

“I started at the bottom at Mr. Cain’s store. I would stock shelves, sweep the floors, and break boxes down, until he decided to take me under his tutelage.” Mr. Cain started Maria off as an intern, and from there.

“How did he feel when you worked for Smith & Keene for two summers?” Charlie knew Maria had worked two summers in a row to get her journeyman electrical license with Smith & Keene.

“He thought it was a good idea. He introduced me to the field coordinator to help me get hired.” Maria was surprised that Mr. Cain was willing to help her.

The line they were in slowly moved forward until they were the next one to go up the hill. Even being down at the foot of the hill, they could smell the stench of the dump. Seagulls and pigeons were everywhere.

“God! How can anyone work around a stench like this?” Maria had her window rolled up, but could still smell the garbage.

“You get used to the smell after a while.” Charlie started moving forward when he was signaled to.

When the truck reaches the top of the hill and park. Charlie and Maria get out of the truck with their gloves on and start pushing all the debris out of the bed of the truck. Maria uses the small broom her grandfather keeps behind the seat to sweep the bed out. She wanted to puke, but she kept it down.

Once they were done, Charlie drove them back down the hill. They leave the place and stop at a a Seven/Eleven to grab a few drinks for everyone.

“I wanted to puke while we were up there.” Maria was standing behind her cousin in line with her fountain drink.

“If we spent any more time up there. You would have gotten used to the smell.”

“I don’t think so.” Maria takes a sip of her drink.

Charlie pays for everything as they walk back outside and get into the truck. He puts his drink in the cup holder that his grandfather uses.

“Thanks for the drink, Charlie.” Maria fastens her seatbelt.

“You’re welcome. Let’s get back before everyone thinks we're goofing off.” Charlie starts the truck and drives back to the house.

By the time they arrive, everything has been laid out and placed where their grandmother wanted it. Maria carries the drinks into the backyard and sets them into the cooler someone brought out. She starts helping hold the beams for the sides up as her cousin Terry makes sure they are level. Since they were going to be sitting on foundation blocks, they had to be straight.

Her uncle and Grandfather were using their air guns to attach other boards to the ones they were holding. Everything was already precut and measured twice to make sure the cuts were right. Between her cousins, uncle Joey, and her grandfather. They managed to get the framing done. She works on running the wiring, since she holds a journeyman’s license for electrical, and her uncle has a master’s license. He could check her work and make sure it met the building regulations.

While all of them were working, Mary Ann, their grandmother, came outside with some ribs and put them on the grill to cook, along with foil-covered corn on the cob. She knew how long both took and figured that by the time her husband and grandkids were stopping for the night. The food would be ready as well.

After she puts the food on to cook, she walks over and watches as her husband, son, and grandkids work on her new gazebo. She spotted Maria easily enough because of her pink overalls. The boys were a little harder because they were hiding behind pieces of lumber.

By the time night fell, everyone was tuckered out. Maria had started getting cold and slipped on her heavy sweatshirt under her overalls. Her cousins teased her about turning blue. They knew she got cold easily.

Maria sat between her grandmother and grandfather to keep warm while she ate her dinner. While she was working, she didn’t feel that cold, but as the temperature dropped and the sunlight disappeared. She started feeling cold.

“I thought by now, you would have outgrown feeling cold like you do.” Joey looks at Maria as she sat between his parents.

“The doctors said I have poor circulation. There’s nothing they can do about it, except tell me to be more active and cover up when I start feeling cold.”

“How can you feel so cold? You were busy helping everyone?” Terry was curious.

“Like I said, poor circulation. When I was inside my mother’s belly, my veins didn’t form fully. My extremities get colder faster than my core/organs.” Maria has had poor circulation all her life, and there wasn’t anything that could be done about it.

Maria rested her head against her grandmother’s arm after she finished eating. She was going to sleep well tonight. She was tired and full.

A smirk appears on Joey’s face when he looks over towards Maria and how tired she looks leaning against his mother. He had to admit that Maria didn’t slack off while she was helping.

“I can take you home, Maria.”

“Thanks, Uncle Joey.”

Maria and her two cousins help take everything into the house. Joey, Ralph, and Mary sit outside and watch them. Mary wasn’t worried about where they put everything. Maria knew what went where.

Joey drops Maria off at her apartment. “Night, peanut.”

Maria doesn’t even argue with her uncle as she waves goodnight to him.