Woken early

I was woken early again this morning.  It was still raining and I could hear it against the bedroom window like handfuls of small pebbles being thrown against the glass and the drip, drip, drip of the water overflowing from the gutters.  It seems to have been raining for ever.  I knew it was early by the quality of the light coming through the cracks in the curtains and didn’t need to turn to look at the clock to know for sure.  Something had woken me early and it wasn’t the first time.  It had happened a lot since the family moved in next door a few months ago.  They have kept themselves to themselves in the main, we did say hi but I can’t remember his name, something foreign sounding I think.

An engine revved and the beeping noise of a reversing lorry got into my head.  What was it this time?  There have been trucks coming and going over the last few weeks dropping off all sorts of supplies to next door.  I got out of bed and peaked through the curtains to see a flat bed truck filled with wood in all shapes and sizes.  The lorry parked up and the driver got out to operate the crane mounted behind the cab.  He pulled up the collar on his high viz jacket against the blustery rain while the engine coughed and roared as the crane lifted the pallets of wood off the truck and onto the driveway.

My neighbours came out front to sign for the delivery and started to carry the cargo by hand through to the substantial piece of land behind their house. With the lorry gone I could make out scraping, banging and rasping sounds coming from their garden.  They’d started early this morning.  What could they be doing at this time and in this weather?

I slipped on my jeans that I had cast aside last night when I got into bed and went through to the back bedroom to get a better view.  It was quite light now and the next door’s back garden was strewn with allsorts of materials, wood, hardware, tools, paint and rope.  There was hardly a piece of grass visible.  In the middle of all of this mess was a wooden structure, quite large that looked like the rib cage of some large animal lying on its back with its chest open but made of wood.  The neighbours were working on whatever it was, banging in nails and sawing planks of wood, daubing paint here and there.  It looked too big to be a shed or a garden room.  I’m sure we would find out what it was soon enough.

One of them dropped a hammer and this set off their two dogs barking madly at each other, kicking off a chain of squeaks and screeches from the menagerie of pets that they seemed to have both inside and outside of their house.  Even the couple of goats tethered to the back fence got in on the act.  After a while the animals calmed down and the woodworking noises came back to my ears again.

It was still early and it was still raining.  I went back into my bedroom, took off my jeans and slipped back into the still warm bed.  What a strange family.