He looked tired as he stared at the pile of materials sitting on top of the roof.  He looked around him almost with a desperate look as if looking for someone to come to his aid.  For a long moment he stared at the black material packed in bunches waiting for him to put them in some sort of order.  He didn't want to work this morning, he didn't feel like lifting and nailing and thinking.  He just felt like sleeping, like curling up in one corner of the roof and falling to the wonders of dreams while the warm sun and gentle breeze of the  Southern California sun caressed him and lulled him into wonderland.
As if waking up from a dream he finally bent down to one of the many piles of roofing material and laid both his hands while his body leaned over and rested on his powerful arms.  His head dropped between his arms, his eyes closed.  He didn't know how he would get through the day today, he didn't know how he would be able to move one more inch, he didn't know where to get the strength to continue.  He had made it up the roof so far with a tremendous amount of effort.  Walking up that ladder seemed to him as if he was walking up a hill carrying the world on his shoulders.  The weight of his thoughts seemed insurmountable, he felt that as soon as he stepped on that weak roof he would fall through and die.  The thought was a welcome relief in his mind.  The thought of dying and leaving his body and being free of his emotions and feelings gave him the strength to take that one last step onto the roof.
He finally moved away from the pile of black materials and as he moved, the materials  began to slide out of order being drawn by gravity onto the steep part of the roof.  He tried to stop them with his body and then slowly, changing his mind, he let them slide until they found nowhere to go.  Six bunches of roofing material now laid on the steep roof that a slight movement would send tumbling down into the ground.  He stood there looking at them not wanting to pick them up and put them on the apex of the roof again.  He didn't have the strength.  He looked around again as if looking for someone and wondered where his assistant was.  For now he would leave the materials there and hope they wouldn't fall, that seemed to be the last straw in his universe, as if that insignificant happening had moved his world and now there was nothing left for him to hope for.
He moved to the other end of the roof taking a deep breath as if wanting the air in his lungs to become the strength he needed to continue.  He looked at his watch and realized he had only been officially at work for an hour.  The frown on his face and the frantic look in his eyes expressed the desperate feeling in his heart for this day to be over.  He felt he had an eternity to go before he could go home, crash on his bed and deal with the pain in his heart again.  He pulled out his hammer from his tool belt and waved it around in the air and looked at his feet.  He wanted to get busy, he felt that the only way he would finish that awful day was to begin it somewhere, and nailing something with all the force of his arms would be a good way to make him forget.
With his left hand he pulled a bunch of nails from the pouch of his waistline, put them in his mouth and looked around for a place to nail them.  He knew he needed to so something else in order to finish the job on time, but right at that moment he could only think of doing something menial instead of thinking of how to end the project.  He couldn't get his mind off his problem and the thought of moving his thoughts away from the pain in his heart was too much at that moment.  He only wanted to look busy, he only wanted to pretend he was working, he only wanted to move his body in a routine way, something he could do without thinking, something he could do automatically so to let his mind wonder to better thoughts, places and people.
The nails began to move into the wood at the pounding of the heavy hammer, the fingers moved out of the way of the hammer just moments before hitting them, the nails got the full pounding of the force of his arms and sometimes the pounding continued even after the nail was out of sight, making indentations on the wood.  He didn't care, the roofing material would be covering up the wood and no one would ever see the marks.  He thought about it carefully, had it been a piece of fine furniture he was working on, he would be more careful nailing the large nails.  He would be concentrating on his work, he would be treating the wood as a mother would the soft skin of a baby, he would be making love to the wood and feeling it with his fingers while the smile on his face showed the pleasure it gave him to work in his shop, away from the heat of the sun, away from the wind and the slanted footings, away from his problems.
In between the pounding noise of the hammer he heard footsteps near him.  He stopped and turned to find his assistant arriving with a big smile on his face.  He bounced like a kid on a playground, waiting anxiously for his boss to give him instructions what to do.  Joe did not share in the happiness of his assistant Jose.  He wasn't in the mood for chit-chat or smiling good mornings.  With a grunt in his voice he pointed at the piles of roofing material that slid earlier and told him to pile them up again in neat order.  Jose moved immediately to the edge of the roof and picked up a heavy bundle and carried it to the neatly piled bundles at the apex of the roof.  His smile never disappeared from his face.  Jose was happy to have a job doing anything, and his attitude showed it.  Joe liked that attitude, but this morning he couldn't tolerate Jose's happiness, this morning all his could think about was getting off that roof and dying somewhere.