Oh, Boy

I'm still not posting the end of the story about the itty-bitty screws (which is going to be such an itty-bitty let-down when I finally do) because here's what happened when I went to pick up Johnny. Which actually, technically, had already happened by the time I picked him up, but I found out about it when I got there:

The scaffolding collapsed.

A board propped between two ladders (which it wasn't really a board or ladders -- there are names for the parts of the real thing that they are -- but I don't know the name-parts and you wouldn't understand me if I used them, just like I didn't understand Johnny for the first half-hour when he did).

The Carpenter was on the Board, Johnny on Ladder #2. Which, he realized after the fact, was being held together with electrician's tape. Not even duct tape, which would at least not freaking stretch when the thing commenced to fall, but electrician's tape -- which is, of course, made of rubber. So as to be, you know, safe.

Ladder 2 starts to give, Johnny jumps off and, with a paint-pot in one hand (now only half-full and Johnny splashed with the rest of the paint) he grabs the ladder with his other hand and leans in with his entire weight to keep the Carpenter (who, remember, is standing on the Board) from crashing down.

Except the Carpenter (and who can blame him?) pretty much simultaneously hops from the Board onto Ladder #1. The Board (sans Carpenter) comes crashing down and Johnny, expecting to be holding the weight of the whole contraption (plus Carpenter) with that one arm, overextends and wrenches the muscle underneath his shoulder blade.

Nobody got hurt, t'ank god, except for Johnny's wrench'ed shoulder. And Carpenter -- over a shaky smoke -- said he'd never seen anybody move that fast.

If he hadn't done it, if he hadn't moved that fast, the whole contraption would have come down on the Carpenter no matter if he'd jumped or not. So Johnny's a kind of hero. And also a kind of gimp.

He says he's working tomorrow, but I don't see how he can.