wedge-shaped platform to keep the barrel level, the insulated box went together fairly quickly on the roof. The glass panel he needed was pulled from a window on the house next door. After sealing the box, Daniel refilled the black water barrel with the same buckets that he had used to empty it. Effectively, what he had built was a giant passive solar oven, baking the barrel whenever the sun was out. By insulating and sealing the box, he hoped to help increase the contraptions heat retention during the night or long periods of cloud cover. If the dusts kicked up again, sealing the box would have an added benefit.
He drilled the only penetration that was going to be needed into the roof above the garage, fishing the garden hose down into it. With more epoxy than was necessary, Daniel sealed all the way around the new hole. He had to clear another pathway inside the garage to gain access to the pull cord of the folding, drop-down stairs that led up to the attic. Not only was it stiflingly hot inside the confined space, but it was dangerously dusty too. Learning to not breathe in the ashen dust was an easily absorbed lesson, which took a lifetime of careful preparations to accomplish. After he had donned a respirator, Daniel finished drilling the holes through the plywood and drywall, which spanned across the rafters above the garage. After sticking the hose through these holes, he sealed them up also.
Curious about how much water pressure there would be, Daniel grabbed two large wheeled bins, placing one under the impromptu new shower head. Knowing that the water would need at least a day or two to warm up did not stop Daniel from eagerly striping down to wash away the layer of gritty sweat that he had built up. In one way, the sun shining was a good sign, but he could already feel the heat of a mild case of sunburn radiating from his skin.
Daniel wheeled the dirty shower water over to the driveway’s edge and, naked as a Jay bird, dumped it out. No one lived in any of the houses across the street, and he lived furthest away from the Warehouse in this direction, so no foot traffic ever came down the street either. Modesty was not a huge factor in your life when you truly believe that no one can see you.
Standing inside the bin, watching it catch the already warming water, Daniel had an idea of how to go about washing small batches of clothing. If a few articles of clothing were put inside the bin during a shower, they could be agitated by that person’s feet, underneath the warm, soapy water, to try and clean them. They could then be rinsed out in a separate bin to help remove leftover soap and grime. He was not sure how well it would work, but anything had to be better than the knuckle-busting wash board, so he decided to go draw some more buckets of water from the barrels in the backyard, which he poured out into the unused second bin.
The sunshine and bracing breeze dried his exposed skin. The effect was invigorating, and he could now say that it had been sorely missed. Ripples of snowy white clouds stretched low across the azure sky. The effect looked strikingly similar to the sandy bottom of a body of water, like the same unknown force applied in both cases.
Securing the garage door and returning to fully dressed made Daniel ready to go back inside. He had more than earned some time to cool off after working up in the sweat box. He would forgo working on the sliding glass door and moving the bed downstairs, replacing that allotment with some quality time spent with the family. It was the perfect occasion to secretly celebrate the completed project with a shared lunch and board game. His appetite had returned, and it wanted to make up for lost time. Daniel decided that he was not going to tell Corinne or Rebecca about the new shower until after it had gotten a chance to warm up for a while, then he would reveal it to them.
Following lunch and a heated argument about Rebecca’s future sleeping arrangements, Daniel gathered together the bathroom waste bin and the garbage can that was used to collect table scraps. Putting the can atop of the far heavier waste bin, Daniel announced, “I’m going out back.” He needed