Caution: Men At Work

by April Kelly

About the Author: The crime/mystery fiction of former TV comedy writer and producer April Kelly has been published in Down & Out, Tough Crime, Shotgun Honey, Mystery Magazine (formerly Mystery Weekly), Mysterical-E and several other online and paper publications. Her literary and humor pieces have appeared in numerous regional or university magazines, and her Hell-based story "Oh, Here!" won medium bucks in the Mark Twain House Royal Nonesuch humor contest.

Excerpt

Anonymity. Invisibility. The lot of women over sixty and any man who works in coveralls. The first name embroidered on a faded, breast-pocket panel is less likely to be Remington, Bryce or Sterling than Ed, Ace or Buddy. If a passerby notices anything at all about this particular work site, it is probably the big, yellow digger, rather than the four workers in gray coveralls and hard hats.

The man controlling the joystick in the open-air cab of the Bobcat Tuff-Lift excavator drops the bucket down for another fifteen-inch wide chomp into the grass of the suburban park. The trench must accommodate pipes with an outside diameter of thirty-six inches, so forward momentum is slow, giving ample time for the two guys setting up the flexible fencing panels on either side of the dig track to stay ahead of the Bobcat’s progress.

The mesh tape sections are flimsy enough to be supported by slender, bamboo rods at eight-foot intervals, and could easily be breached by a determined Yorkie-Poo, but their day-glow orange color and attached DANGER signs deter nosy-parkers from stepping too close to the trench.

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