He’d been at it all day, but the noise was still unbearable: a rattling, clanging din punctuated by shouts and the intermittent, earthshaking clatter of jackhammers. John closed his eyes, trying to blot it out: the vibrations resounded in his chest, filling him up, and amid the noise the sound of desperate laughter suddenly rang in his ears. The figure from his dream came to him again, just out of sight, and he felt as though, if he just turned his head the right way, he could see the face behind the door …

“John!”

John turned: Luis was standing a foot away, giving him a puzzled stare. “I called your name three times,” he said. John shrugged, gesturing at the chaos around them.

“Hey, some of the guys are going out after this; you coming?” Luis asked. John hesitated. “Come on, it’ll be good for you—all you do is work and sleep.” He laughed good-naturedly and slapped John on the shoulder.

“Right, good for me.” John smiled back, then looked at the ground as the expression faded. “I just have so much going on right now.” He tried to sound convincing.

“Right, lot’s going on. Just let me know if you change your mind.” He clapped John on the shoulder again and headed back to the forklift. John watched him stride away. It hadn’t been the first time John had turned them down; not the second time or the third; and it occurred to him that eventually they would stop trying. That there’d be a moment when they would all just give up. Maybe that would be for the best.

“John!” another voice called.

Now what?

It was the foreman, shouting at him from the door of his standalone office, a trailer that had been brought onsite for the duration of the construction and sat precariously on a dirt ledge.

John trudged across the construction zone, ducking through a vinyl sheet in the trailer’s doorway. Moments later he was standing across a folding table from the foreman, the plastic wood-textured paneling barely holding to the walls surrounding him.

“I’ve got a couple guys out there telling me you’re distracted.”

“I’m just focused on my job, that’s all,” John said, forcing a smile and trying to prevent his frustration from leaking out. Oliver smiled, unconvincingly.

“Focused,” Oliver mimicked. John dropped the smile, startled. Oliver sighed. “Look, I gave you a chance because your cousin said you’re a hard worker. I overlooked the fact that you walked off your last job and never came back. You know I took a risk on you?”

John swallowed. “Yes, sir, I know.”

“Stop with the ‘sir.’ Just listen to me.”

“Look, I do what I’m told. I don’t understand the problem.”

“Your reactions are slow; you look like you’re daydreaming out there. You’re not a team player.”

“What?”