While awaiting for the father to return from the hardware store, 

the family continued to work on installing the new living room floor boards.

Mother Viviana oversaw the project,

peering over from the kitchen to get a good look at the half-finished space.

Brother Iggy sorted through the thin wooden planks gripping one and holding it up to his eye.

As he examined down the length of the board, 

he groaned as he discovered another warped piece for the trash pile.

Brother Sunny kneeled down at the border between complete and incomplete,

armed with a rubber mallet in one hand and a pneumatic floor nailer in the other.

Using the nailer to press a plank against already nailed-in sections, 

Sunny swung the mallet down onto the trigger mechanism of the nailer,

causing a loud punch to ring throughout the house.

Brother Tanner sat on the cold concrete garage floor,

surrounded by the sharp smell of sawdust.

Tanner was stationed with an electric saw to cut angled edges at the ends of several boards,

for the living room was not completely rectangular.

The aluminum garage door was closed,

only providing Tanner minor protection from the frigid winter wind.

Tanner brings down the saw onto a board,

making its shrills known to those inside.

Sister Aurora sat still in a kitchen chair near a window with a mobile phone in hand,

as she was deemed too young to work.

Aurora had a discontent look on her face,

Preferring the old shag carpet that her mother demanded be replaced.

The chaotic symphony of slashes and jabs were too distracting for Aurora,

adorning herself with headphones and setting her music to maximum volume to little effect. 

Father Atlas was visible from the kitchen window,

though no one in the family knew.

He lay strapped in the driver’s seat of his favorite black pickup truck freezing,

as he had driven into the ditch near the entrance of the driveway.

He yelled at the top of his lungs in an attempt to notify help,

only to be droned out by the sounds of machinery as his voice reached the home.

Unable to move, all Atlas could do was wait,

hoping that Viviana took her eyes off the work,

or that Iggy would go outside to throw away warped boards,

or that Sunny would visit the shed to grab another box of nails,

or that Tanner would open the garage door to air out the cloud of sawdust,

or that Aurora would look through the light green curtains that decorated the nearby window.