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BENCHY

I walked into the shop and the lights turned on, which Illuminated wood dust in the corners, buckets and tools strewn about. A rabid raccoon could walk into this space and make less of a mess. I took a deep breath and smiled. Sawdust. Oil. Sawdust. Paint. Sawdust. Iron. Wood.
Home.Lights twinkled at me from my right. Next to the door was a large table, clean and clear, not a tool in sight.
"That's a trick I wish I could do" I said, as I walked around an oil spill with sawdust on top of it. I'll sweep it up at the end of the day today."You can. Technically." The lights twinkled back at me. The voice came from a speaker, mounted above the table in front of a tidy tangle of wires. I knew there was a camera up there too, but it wasn't where my eyes were drawn to.I chuckled. "Technically" I sat down on my chair - a torn up barstool with a worn-out and too-small child's coat tossed on top - and pulled out my phone. "What's on my list today, Benchy?"Benchy, my workbench, turned the little LED inside the 3D-printed boat on top of their computer and replied. "Five acute issues. Twenty ongoing projects. The to-do list has three thousand five hundred and ten items on it."I looked around at the projects on tables across the room. "Gimme those top five please?"Benchy's app dinged a notification on my phone, and I looked down to see a written list - with check marks boxes. The voice read them out loud as I followed along."First. You put oil on that knife handle yesterday. Check and see if it needs another coat, then wrap it. Steve is leaving for Great Falls later, he said he can deliver it to the post office there.""Second. And third. And fourth. We have three batches of seeds to start today to be ready when the cold hits. I can plant, but you need "Do The Legwork" I interrupted to... do the legwork. I do say that a lot.""Yeah, but it's ok. You're worth your power anyways.""Hey! I set up those solar panels, thank you very much! Just because you had to roll me out there doesn't mean I wasn't involved!"I smiled. A new joke! Benchy must have downloaded an update.I walked over to the knife and picked it up. It was BEAUTIFUL. A gift for my son, who had hiked the pass to get to Helena a few years ago. We mostly just sent each other memes, but he never missed his video chat with his mom every Sunday afternoon. Good kid. Looks funny with his new big city haircut."What's the last one, Benchy?"
"Yes. Your birthday is coming up, what do you want?"I laughed in surprise, a deep bubble from my belly rising up to pop with a gleeful "Ha!". I shook my head. "Jo conscripted you to work on me too, huh?" I shook my head again, smiling. "She doesn't believe me when I say 'nothing' does she? Should I ask for a specific kind of party? What kind of parties to guys turning 40 have? 'Hey everyone, let's all get together Saturday night. You can watch me fall asleep at 8:30 in my easy chair.'""I'll send Emily a message and inform them that they're all invited over for exactly that. On Saturday. Also, I am amending the acute tasks list to add another item. I have a grocery list." My phone pinged a new notification at me again. "I need milk, vinegar, charcoal, and mustard seeds. And a new three-way valve. Or 8 gauge copper pipe. Either could do.""When do you need those by?"
"Actually, Aaron says he has the copper tubing. He will bring it on Saturday. He specifically said to communicate that they will also be bringing permanent markers and... I can't read the rest out loud. Body art is involved."I chuckled again. "Ok. Send me your list. We're due for a delivery from Deerfield in the next few days, I can get the rest in town." I slid the knife into its leather sheath and looked at my phone screen face-up on the table in front of me. "What should we tackle first, Benchy?""Get me dirt, charcoal, and a barrel and I'll start planting." Benchy replied. "Then you can go into town."

“I don’t want my dining room to be a cafeteria. I want a table. Chairs. This is going to be ridi…”I smiled. My obstinate mother was standing in the doorway of the “cafeteria” with one hand on the doorframe for support and the other held over her mouth, which was hanging open in surprise.I smiled and waited behind her. She took in the mass of chairs, gigantic wooden tables, mixed-seating areas and, yes, even a few row-and-bench cafeteria tables. People were enjoying the space. Some were cleaning and tidying, but most were lounging, holding drinks and small plates of food. Some were alone, lost in their phones in quiet corners and on couches. Some were in large groups, including at least two parties, complete with streamers over their combined tables.
The energy of the place was part upscale bar, part coffee shop, and part hotel lobby, but each space flowed together against natural barriers that it felt more like… a home.My mother broke her silence. “Ok. I was being ridiculous. I can handle this. Look! Linda.” She didn’t look back as she saw one of her friends sitting down with a pitcher of beer.
I called after her. “Mom! I know neither of you have to drive home, but you’d better share that pitcher with her, otherwise we’ll have to carry you to back to your room.” She waved me off behind her back while waving her beer ration ticket at Linda, calling out her hellos over the heads of one of the parties. Someone tried to playfully grab her drink ticket, and she swatted them away.I stood at the door and took in the entire scene. My mother was right. This IS ridiculous. Nobody’s paying to be here. Everything is tidy, managed by people who didn’t even have to leave the building to serve their friends and neighbors. It made my heart ache and leap at the same time.What did I want to do? It had been a long day. I eyed the couches at the edge of the alcohol area and imagined how loud it would be there. I wouldn’t be able to relax at all. And anyways, I can’t help but chat when someone wants to chat with me. I could go sit at the cafeteria tables, but that group of kids with their homework set out looked a little boisterous. The coffee area was pretty quiet, I could go get a tall table…Someone walked up behind me and held a cold glass of something against the back of my neck. I jumped at the touch, but then leaned into it. “That feels so goood…” I said, not looking around.My mate Aaron’s voice came from the glass “It tastes good too. Don’t even need a ticket, because I made it myself.”I finally turned around to accept the glass. He looked into my eyes and said “Congratulations on the move. You look like you need to find a quiet place. Smoke?”“Stopped. T-break until my birthday.”“Good for you man. You gonna come sit with me while I have some? I have a mullein stick if you want it.”“That sounds wonderful. I’ll do that.”I glanced over at mom, who had discovered a glass and was pouring herself a drink out of Linda’s pitcher. They were both talking at the same time, but they were also both laughing at the same time. She glanced at me and I waved at her, miming that I was going outside with Aaron. She held up her watch and then nine fingers. I gave her a thumbs up. She took a moment to look around her and then smiled at me, giving a sheepish shrug and gesturing to the room as a whole, then giving me a thumbs-up in return.I smiled as I followed Aaron outside. It might be our first day here, I might be tired and restless and sleepy, but at least I had hope again. Hope, and a beer with a friend.

Hey there! I’m Tank.
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“It’s called Gig” said Andrew, turning to show me the screen of his phone.“It’s a little frustrating to set up, but once you’re through it’s decent money.”“What do you do?” I asked. Andrew had done a lot of different things over the years I had known him. We were buddies from just after high school. Met at a job once and then kept in touch.He was my best man.He was where I crashed when I came into town, and we always stayed up too late talking and doing whatever.“It’s nothing too crazy. Mostly handyman work, but occasionally you get together with a regular crew for a while if they need help on a project. Went to California once.”“What? California is, like, 2000 miles away.”“Right? The algorithm on this thing is what makes it really cool though. It’s figured out what I like to do, and it gets good rates, with just, like… regular people. Does all the paperwork too.”“Damn.” I said. I pulled it up in the app store and checked it out. The reviews were interesting. Some were of the regular “Hey this app crashed my phone once. NO STARS” style, but they were from years ago, with template “tell us more here” dev responses bubbled below them. More interesting was that the 5-star reviews were ALL well-written, articulate, and specific, each with a thoughtful response floating below.“This looks fake.”The 4-star reviews were from months ago. There were nearly no 3- or 2- star reviews at all. Or 1-stars.Huh.“Is it legit?” I asked him.He ran his fingers through his sandy blonde hair. “Yeah?” He shrugged. “It’s as suspicious as any other big tech app. It pays weekly. Pays the bills. Kinda fun too.”“What do you need to do it?” I asked.
“Nothing, really.”----------
It wasn’t quite nothing.
It was a lot of fun.----------
I tapped the button on my headphones, listening for the chime. “Hey Gig. What’s price of a new toilet, shipped to my current location?”“Let me work on that” responded the sensible voice in my ear.I continued taking the bolts off the base of the toilet. It wasn’t hard work. It was sometimes a little dirty, and sometimes I went home a little sore — which wasn’t always a bad thing.And it was all stuff I could figure out how to do. Like replace a broken toilet.
“Hey Gig. Press play on YouTube.”----------
I saw a lot more of Andrew that summer. We both got paid better to travel somewhere and work on bigger projects.Construction crews shorthanded for a few weeks, run a bunch of guys through and see if any of them want to stick around longer? “Gig em up here.”Aunt Mary has a flooded crawlspace? “Gig it up, I’ll take a few days right now and get it done.”Barn-raising? “I’m just a tap away, let me know when you wanna do it.”Harvest? “I’ve got that big ladder and those neat little electric snippers. How does Saturday afternoon work? Can you share it with me on Gig so that I remember? Thanks. I’ll be there.”I got good at things, like finding decent how-to articles.
And using power tools.----------
“OK Gig. Let’s do the math for putting up a greenhouse in the back yard. What prices should I make sure to consider?”“There’s a link in the notification on your phone that has a list of materials, permits, and potentially unexpected costs for constructing a greenhouse. You will also find plans for a greenhouse suitable for use in Zone 4b in your Gig app.”I took a minute to look through the articles.I downloaded the plans.I looked at my phone.I could just… do… this?
I could do that.----------
I got healthier.I got happier.
I got help.----------
I got Gig to get Andrew to come visit for a month.He brought his whole family and rented a decent hotel room a few blocks away. It was almost like moving, for a bit, but without the stuff.We built the greenhouse. We built a composting system. We built fence. We planted a bunch of trees. And bushes. In a month.Gig lent us money for materials, and even some new tools.
It was great.----------
“Where we going this time?” Andrew said as he tossed his backpack in the back seat of my truck.“You didn’t look?” I laughed. “It’s right there in your phone, you didn’t look at it?”“Nah. I glanced at it, saw you were driving, figured I’d take a nap.”“You’re good at that. You wanna stop for anything before we go?”It wasn’t California this time. It was Ohio.We were with a few other guys in a small shop in some industrial district. Gig had us building panels out of plywood and two-by’s, then delivering them to another group of people who met at a bigger shop at the end of each day.It wasn’t hard.It wasn’t even really dirty, as long as you didn’t count sawdust as dirty.We heard snippets of what the bigger project was when we dropped off what we’d made after we got a full load. We got paid by the piece, and it was GOOD money, especially once we got back home.I took a month off after that one.
Just told Gig to spread out the payments on the check.----------
Life got better.The world got worse.
Gig kept us moving.----------
It was always good money, it was always interesting, and it was always what I did.I got plenty of time off to work in the garden, paid all the bills, and bought a few bigger things — like solar panels and a hydroponics system.Life was good.Ehh… life was OK.Life was life.Gig started getting us into some pretty obvious climate remediation work.We built houses.We cleaned rivers.We took samples and mailed them in to labs.We got paid.
Just like any other job.----------
Andrew groaned as he opened the passenger seat and slung his bag into the back seat. “Why. Am. I. Awake.”“Because I like early morning driving, and this is an easy drive.”“Why. Are. You. Like. This.”“It’s intentional, I’m torturing you. Go to sleep now. And be nice to the car, you know this is Kelly’s. Keep your lid on your chew bottle. Nasty.”“I don’t do that no more.”“Well you did once, and you spilled it that one time, and I had to scrub that shit out. Go to sleep. Nasty.”We got out of the car to smell food cooking. Gig had us meet the rest of the crew in the parking lot of a local hardware store.We chatted with the tailgating breakfast cook while we waited for more of the crew and ate our food. Turns out that Cookie was the crew boss, and he liked to make a good breakfast to share with the team.No complaining about that.We had our tools, we had our gear, and we had our Gig.“What’re they going to do with all this?” I asked Cookie as I tossed a piece of scrap metal into the trailer.“Hell if I know. I could make a heck of a tractor shed out of it though.”“Yeah that’s why I’m asking. This seems like decent stuff, even if it was part of an oil refinery.”
“I’ll ask around.”----------
The farm expanded.We grew enough for ourselves and plenty of other people.
We started growing.----------
Andrew drove. He’d convinced me that this trip was too far away to drive in the morning and we were heading over the night before.
Gig got us rooms.----------
“Hey Cookie.” I said as we pulled up next to his shop. “How’s it going?”“Not good guys. I had a heart attack. Which means you’re cooking this morning.”I laughed and got out of the car. “You’ll have second thoughts once you eat it.”“Nah, Gig up a YouTube recipe. There’s ingredients, you can’t mess it up.”“Ok. I’m gonna wear your apron.”“Naa you won’t.” He looked at Andrew. “The keys are in the ignition on that skiddy. Can you put this pallet on the trailer while chef here cooks?”Andrew grins. “Sure. Hey Cookie what’s your real name?”“Scott. Why?”“I’m going to call you that since you don’t cook breakfast anymore.”
“Naa. You won’t.”----------
We got older.Rain came.Dry came.Floods came.Fire came.The world kept turning.Life was good.Life went on.Life got better.