In Dreams

“Jose, I need you to follow these instructions carefully.”

“All right.”

Kristin found his penetrating eyes somewhat disconcerting.  Kristin almost always used her hands and arms when communicating, and today her gestures seemed exaggerated and contrived, so she tried to minimize her clumsiness by saying “I need all this material to be moved to that upper scaffolding. There should be blueprints to show how everything is laid out.”

Kristin could feel the color rise in her cheeks as she moved her hands as if she were layering material and made up and down motions as if she was pulling on a rope as she was describing how she wanted this phase in the construction to be done.  She noticed that Jose would not remove his eyes from her face and that he only said “Okay” as he nodded his head to each instruction.  She felt a little uncomfortable, trying not to trip over her words, and still maintain some type of eye contact. Jose did not seem to notice or care that Kristin was dressed like one of the work crew, or that she was stammering most of the time.

Kristin’s eyes popped open.  She reached over and hit the snooze button on the alarm.  She had dreams of Jose frequently.  At least that’s what he was called in her dreams.  This time “Jose” was a co-worker and she wanted to take a few seconds to remember the details of her dream.  In other dreams, they were holding hands on a beach, laughing at the antics of a squirrel, or playing baseball with friends.  Kristin allowed her eyes to close and a smile formed as she visualized Jose again.  In her dreams, he was not a tall man, only a few inches taller than herself, and was of a stocky build.  He had deep brown eyes, swarthy skin, and loved to laugh.    When the alarm interrupted her reverie a second time, Kristin slammed her hand on the alarm, cursed at the sharp pain that ran up her arm, and slid out of the bed to begin the transformation to the androgynous. 

Kristin surveyed herself in the mirror and was somewhat satisfied that the button-down oversized long-sleeve blue work shirt and relaxed fit jeans made her look a little like a man.  With a resigned sigh, she sat on the edge of the bed and tugged her steel-toed work boots over the thick athletic socks that she needed when she was going to be on her feet all day.  She pulled her dark hair into a pony tail to complete the next step of the makeover from girl to construction site supervisor. 

This was her daily routine for three years.  She landed a job working in construction straight out of trade school.  She worked hard, taking every opportunity to work her way up to the position she had today.  She had foregone dating and gatherings with friends so that she could save her money and build a decent career.  There were only a few times that she daydreamed about having a husband and kids, and longed for the path not taken, and today was one of those times.  She allowed herself a few more minutes of imagining a life with a pretend man before grabbing her daily gear and heading off to the Phase I project she had been assigned by her employer.

At the construction site, Kristin was satisfied that when in full work gear (work gloves, hard hat and sunglasses), she looked like just one of the guys.  The only way that anyone had an indication that she was female was when she opened her mouth to bark out instructions to her workers.  It would have been funny, if not so depressing. 

Kristin heard a set of footsteps coming across the landing to the work station and could hear Danny, her foreman, pointing out different aspects of the construction progress.  She smiled inwardly that Danny was telling someone all the highlights of what to expect as the job moved forward.  She was very fortunate that Danny and she had such a good working relationship.  She did not have to put up with unwanted advances from him and he made sure the rest of the crew did their job without all the usual inappropriate comments that women of previous generations had to put up with.

“Kristin, this is our new lead man for the job.”

Kristin turned and felt the color drain from her face.  She then felt a wave of electricity roll up her arm as the new worker accepted the handshake greeting she had automatically extended. 

Through the rushing sound in her ears, she heard Danny say, “Boss, this is Jose Hernandez.  Jose, this is Kristin Whittier, our Site Supervisor.”

Word Count:  794