Jonas arrived to the workshop early the next morning. Kahn yipped and ran out to meet him. Aldo greeted him and took him into the shop to show off what he had been working on.

“This will be a nice workspace,” Jonas commented while gazing around at the interior of the shop. “I like the boulder also, its a nice touch in here.”

Aldo thanked him promptly and was grateful Jonas didn’t pry into why the boulder remained in the shop. That question was one that he feared would be asked and he didn’t yet have an answer to it.

Jonas left it as a compliment and asked, “Shall we get started?” rubbing the palms of his hands together.

The two of them spent the better part of the day lifting the heavy, linear windows into place. Aldo then meticulously installed them and tested their operability. Kahn laid around outside the shop the entire day, monitoring their progress.

After the last window was installed, they stood silently looking at the shop and admiring their work. From where they stood they could see straight through the shop, through openings on the east and west walls where large roll-up doors would soon go, down to the lake and even make out a glimpse of Jonas’ house.

Jonas had been admiring that view through the shop when Aldo broke the silence, offering dinner, “I caught a few trout this week which I’ve been meaning to grill if you’d like to stay for dinner?”

“That sounds wonderful,” Jonas said with a broad smile, bringing his attention back to where they were.

The man who answered the door was of average height, with short, cropped black hair. He had dark eyes that were deep set with a gaze that was difficult to hold for too long without feeling slightly uneasy. A crooked nose on the center of his face suggested a scrappy youth. He was dressed in exercise clothes that hugged an athletic form. When he came to the door he was sweating and short of breath.

“I live across the lake,” Aldo said in greeting. “I’ve been working on a shop on my property.”

“Oh, you are directly across from me. I’ve been watching that thing go up all summer. How’s it coming along?” the man inquired cordially.

“It’s just fine. Had its share of setbacks and surprises.”

“Which is to be expected.” Added the man.

“Right.” Aldo wasn’t sure how to carry on.

“So, what can I do you for?” He said, lending Aldo a hand.

Aldo appreciated the assistance, having never een strong conversationaly or socialy for that matter. Asking for anything whether it be a helping hand or simple advice was even more difficult for him. The level of independence he held required him to mostly rely on himself and made any level of vulnerability difficult. Additionally, he hated the thought of being an imposition on others.

“Well,” Aldo continued, “you see, I’ve hit a snag on the shop. I’ve been able to construct most of it on my own. I hit a wall when it came to the windows. I haven’t been able to lift them into place due to their weight. I was hoping to ask for your help. Lifting the windows that is. If it isn’t any trouble?”

“No trouble at all,” replied the man, “glad to help.

“You sure? I’d hate to put you out in any way.”

“Really, it’s no problem. Should we go knock it out right now?” the man enthusiastically suggested.

“No, no. It’s getting late.” Aldo said. “And I’ve seemed to have interrupted your evening already. How about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow it is. I’ll be over in the morning.”

“Thank you.” Aldo said as he turned to leave.

“It’s Jonas. By the way.” Aldo turned around to find the mans hand extended towards him.

“Oh, right. Aldo.”

They shook hands amicably, Jonas’ grip a little too firm.

“See you in the morning.” Said Jonas.

“See you then.”

• 

• 

Many of the properties that surrounded the lake were vacation rentals which families would lease for a short duration to use up half their vacation time they had saved up for the year. It was getting closer to autumn and less of the properties were occupied as most childeren where back in school and less people made it out to the lake. Aldo though had noticed lights on at night in a home across the lake from his and assumed someone was still around.

When the replacement window finally arrived, Aldo made a trip around the lake early in the evening to search for the home across from his. From the road, he could see most of the lake houses that he drove by. They were dark and closed to the world around them, knowing they were to abandoned for another season. When he did find the house it was easy to pick out, all the lights were on inside casting beams of light to the surrounding yard. It was a modest home, small in size with probably only enough space for one or two people. Old wood siding with paint peeling and flaking enclosed the entire exterior. A rusty metal roof sat atop the walls and announced the age of the building. A wrap-around porch continued to the back side of the house and formed a large balcony that overhung the hillside with broad views of the lake. Aldo parked his car and from where he sat he could see his lake house across the water and the nearly complete workshop beyond that.

Through all those dreams and through the time spent working on the shop, Aldo developed a healthy level of respect and admiration for the boulder. He never feared it, though it tended to be the primary actor in many of his more ominous dreams and it always seemed to spook Kahn. After all, dreams are just dreams, and the boulder is just a boulder.

The workshop walls were framed and raised into place. He built in the rafters, collar ties, and ridge beam all himself, and followed those with the more tedious task of cross bracing all that framing. Over two day’s time, he was able to tack on all the sheathing and roof decking. On a third day, he layered on the shop weather barrier. The large clerestory windows arrived shortly after and at that point all the corrugated metal roofing was installed above.

Aldo rigged together a pulley system that would allow him to lift the heavy windows up to their eight-foot sill and install them himself. The pulley worked like a charm on the first window. When he moved it to place another, the pulley toppled over from the weight of the window, shattering the glass and mangling the frame. He wouldn’t risk that happening again. Breaking one window would already set him back in his progress. He resolved to find help installing the remainder of the glazing.

Those dreams varied in form and duration and complexity. Sometimes the boulder would speak to him, not audibly, but the words would be placed in his mind and the only visual aspect of these dreams was the boulder with a bright white background. Many times the dreams would be every day scenes of him working in his shop near the boulder or out at client meetings and there the boulder is with them. Other times the dreams would take on nightmarish states with scenes of fire, destruction, and blood, and the boulder was there in the midst of it all, stolid and undisturbed.

Aldo went and saw a therapist about the dreams, thinking he was not completely or properly dealing with the death of Sheila, and the therapist merely reiterated his thoughts. It wasn’t that the dreams were disrupting his quality or amount of sleep, no, he felt rested and energetic every morning. It was that he had never experienced such repetition in his dreams before. One thing the therapist suggested, that Aldo did put into practice, was documenting his dreams in detail, in a journal. That didn’t necessarily eliminate or lessen the frequency of the dreams, which would only happen after the workshop was finished. Journaling the dreams simply aided his memory in recalling the details of them and helped him to start picking out patterns and repeating themes. As time went on and with it the reappearance of the boulder in his sleep state, Aldo didn’t think the dreams were caused by his grief or inability to grieve over Sheila because she wouldn’t appear in all of them, but only the one scene of her in their car.

Construction on the workshop progressed steadily. Girders needed to be set around the boulder to support the floor joists there, which was something Aldo had not originally planned for. The floor joists were installed without any hiccups and he began to lay the floor decking.

The base of the boulder was becoming enclosed as the floor deck boards were cut to a precise length and angle where they almost butted right up against the stone when set in place. Once all the decking was installed, the boulder was wrapped with the lumber and looked as if it had a flat bottom and sat directly on the floor. Aldo would begin work the next day on the wall framing.

It was the very night the floor was finished when he began having dreams that would reoccur and last throughout the construction and occasionally they would come up again once the shop was complete. These dreams always involved the boulder in some fashion. The most memorable of these dreams was one that repeated night and night again. This particular dream always involved his wife, Sheila, in their car, pounding on the glass with an open palm, screaming at Aldo, begging him to help her. His feet were glued in place and he was hopeless as he watched the scene unfold. This dream varied in one detail, sometimes the boulder was rolling towards the car, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, in other instances it was falling from the sky rapidly, and others at a pace, gravity would disapprove of. Every time though, the dream would conclude with him being released from where he was held in place just before the boulder would crush the car with Sheila in it, jolting him awake.

The dog became Aldo’s shadow, that day and every day after. It didn’t seem to belong to anyone else. Perhaps it was left or forgotten by a family on vacation at the lake, perhaps it had been born an orphan here in the woods. The dog was soon known by the name Kahn, as Aldo needed some way to address it and he felt that name fit the dog’s demeanor. The dog soon began to accept the name and respond when spoken to. It did not take long before Aldo let the dog stay inside the lake house. They both gratefully welcomed the company.

The morning Aldo returned to work on the workshop when approaching the building site, Kahn began to growl and bear his teeth in warning. The dog bolted ahead and jumped into the pit, barking and maniacally lunging at the boulder. Aldo hurried over to calm the dog and let him know it was okay. Aldo patted the boulder in show, saying “See? Harmless”, but Kahn didn’t believe him. Kahn even tried grabbing Aldo by the pant leg and pulling him away from the boulder, trying to protect him. Aldo did all he could to shrug it off and ignore the unnecessary aggressive behavior toward a rock, calling Kahn a crazy dog, but the same scene repeated daily the moment they reached the workshop until Kahn would wear himself out. Aldo even attempted to lay food at the base of the boulder and around it to give the boulder a positive association, but the dog wouldn’t approach the food, although, the food was always gone by the end of the day. Kahn must’ve eaten it when Aldo wasn’t watching.

The excavation proceeded and concluded without any further obstacles. The footprint of the workshop was increased to accommodate the extra space required by the boulder. Aldo built up the formwork for the foundations all around and tied and laid the reinforcing bars in their place. A concrete truck brought an entire load for the foundation pour. After backing up near the pit, the driver exited the truck and walked over to the boulder, looked at it for a brief moment, turned to aldo and said “Need halp moving it?”

“Its fine as it is” Aldo said in reply.

The driver just shrugged and returned to the truck, where he would remain all day, opening and closing a hatch that dispensed concrete, oozing down a slide to fill Aldo’s wheelbarrow.

Aldo took a week off from the workshop to give space for the concrete to set and cure. The time he had available was spent dipping in the lake or sitting on the shoreline with a book, watching the boats speed by.

It was during that short break when he first saw Kahn, though he didn’t know the dog by that name yet. While sitting on the shoreline one day he noticed Kahn scavenging for food along the water’s edge, searching for anything that washed up. That very night, Aldo saw Kahn again, off in the woods, as Aldo retired to the lakehouse for dinner. He always had a soft spot for animals and it pained him to see them struggle or suffer, so after he finished eating he placed his leftovers outside on the doorstep in hopes the dog could find some nourishment. The following morning, there was Kahn, asleep at the foot of the door, the food scraps all licked up. When Aldo exited the house that day, he rubbed the dog up and down, feeling its loose skin and bony frame, and he left the dog some breakfast when he left for the lake.

• 

• 

The boulder now sat in the pit, off towards the northeast corner of the workshop footprint. Aldo descended the dozer to inspect that massive stone. The size and shape of it were perplexing to him. Never in his life had he seen any mineral that was nearly so perfectly spherical. The surface, up close, was rough and dimpled with small craters, similar to the shell of a geode. It was somber and colorless, covered in dust and dirt from being underground for ages.

In his stricken state, he broke from the labor of removing the boulder and sat on the earthen wall he had carved out of the ground, to study and admire that stone. With his sketchbook and markers, he dashed off a few quick drawings of the boulder’s form; how it sat in the pit, its relation with the background and the woods beyond. He did his best to represent the feel and the force that this rock expelled.

The sun proceeded on its usual declining course through the sky and he only left the stone to go make dinner, which he ate outside with the company of his freshly excavated companion. By the time it was dark and the boulder was barely visible, he had made up his mind to not move the stone again. Over that afternoon, he had grown to be so enamored with this odd rock that he decided it would be best to leave it where it lay and to allow it to become a part of the workshop. For how could something so incredible be discarded and slowly lost and forgotten with the sands of time? No, this boulder deserved much more. It deserved admiration and he felt it was uncovered by him to be the one that appreciated that magnificence.

The excavation and trenching was underway. Aldo would be up at first light every day to take on the back-breaking labor. All the digging was done by himself, with a shovel and a pickax. The option was open to bring in a front-end loader but he wouldn’t take that option until later. For now he wanted to see how much he could do himself.

When the pit he was digging out reached about two feet in depth he finally hit solid rock. The rock was right in line with where the foundation stem wall would be trenched so it could not be ignored. The next day he went into town and returned with a dozer in tow and a jackhammer to break up the rock into smaller pieces. The first thing he did was to go at the boulder with a jackhammer. After a continued attack on the rock, nothing had resulted, tiny flakes were chipping off but the boulder itself would not break up. He continued at it until he was finally drained, having seen no results, and the jackhammer eventually overheated. The war on the boulder continued the following day. He proceeded to dig all around the rock and unearthed what appeared to be a stone almost spherical in shape with a diameter of about five feet. This was larger than he anticipated and the only option he had now was to try and move it out of the way. He wrapped a large chain around the boulder and clipped the opposing end onto the dozer shovel. With all the strength of that small machine, it pulled and heaved and weaved side to side, trying to wiggle the boulder out of the ground. With all that force, all the loader could manage was pulling the boulder a half turn out of the ground. It now lay in the center of the pit.