If they’d only—”
Again he repeated, “It was a movie.”
She was somewhat irritated. “Aren’t you involved? Didn’t you figure out what they were supposed to do right away and not let it get all out of hand?”
He laughed, then said, “What you need is a good cherry soda.”
“Chocolate.”
He was shocked. “You don’t want a cherry soda? You’re waggling my understanding of you.”
“Probably.” She was sassy and slid her eyes to look at him. She really wasn’t finished with debating the movie. “So you’ve seen it twice now?”
Frank nodded. “I had to check it out to see if you’d like it.”
That touched her. “Thank you.” But she was irritated by the film. “It should have gone differently.”
“How?”
“The female lead should have been more in charge of the situation.”
He nodded. He did that because he wasn’t entirely sure exactly what she intended for the characters to do. Frank looked over at her and watched her tilt her head as she looked out the car window into the night’s darkness.
She was precious.
He took her to a busy ice-cream place that had sandwiches and beer. They got out of the car and went inside.
“Hey, Frank!” The call was for Frank, but the table of guys were looking at the remarkable Geri. The males got up and joined them at their table so that they could each sit by Geri.
Frank smiled. But he kept a good strong hand on the woman who was with him. He said, “Hush, now. Watch your language. This is a lady.”
Two
How interesting it was for Geri Jones to listen to the men speak and tease and laugh. They acted as if they had no other way to spend their time. What did they do?
So she inquired.
Their jobs were odd. She asked, “How did you find them?”
They shrugged and looked at each other. One man painted traffic signs. One was an electrician who strung new wires where they were needed. Another was in construction and altered buildings that were unsound.
All of them adjusted things. They knew how and it wasn’t difficult. And they knew how to read the drawings and help in the building of a building.
She asked, “How’d you know to do that?”
Some of them shrugged and one said, “It was logical.”
She asked, “How did you know what to do?”
It was Mark Goode who listened and replied, “How it was, wasn’t working, so we figured how to change it so that it would work.”
Geri was amazed. Anyone who could do something like that was clever.
Jack Smith told her, “We have lots of help on such things. There’re men who draw and figure and decide.”
“Who?” she asked.
“Guys that can figure out why it isn’t working. They can be desk people or people who do that kind of thing and knew it was crooked at the time they put it in. Some ideas for buildings are really dumb.”
She watched the speakers seriously and suggested, “Do any of you ask about things you know are wrong?”
“Yeah,” one of the older men said. “But the one that designed it doesn’t allow us to comment.”
Geri asked, “So you figure then what you’d have done if you’d drawn the layout?”
“Naw. They could be right. It’s when we find they’re wrong, and nothing really works right, that we figure how to save it. Some things don’t save. They’re empty and dead.”
“Ahhhhh, ” she said softly. She was thinking and considering. The apartments where she lived were somewhat that way. Some of the places were without good views. It was almost as if they’d been slapped in place and left that way.
One of the older men told her, “The place you live?”
Now how did he know where she lived? So she just looked at the man.
Easily he went on, “Some of the apartments were redone. We had to change them. The people who’d moved in didn’t understand outside walls that nobody could look out of.”
She nodded as she said, “Ahhhh.”
The older man who was called George said, “We put in the windows.”
So she asked, “How about an outside porch?”
George shook his head. “No support below. With the windows, you get to see out. That’s as good as we could do.”
She laughed. “It’s perfect! Thank you.”
And another of the men, John, told her,
“You should have heard the people complaining because they couldn’t see out. That’s when we finally got to put in the extra windows.”
Geri told him, “It was brilliant. How long ago did they finally agree to allow you all to put in the missing windows?”
“Some years ago. The people that were to move in there objected to not being able to see out the walls. Other people just didn’t move in. So the ones in charge of that place called us back. And we charged them double.”
They all laughed.
She smiled at them until they were silent, then she said, “It was worth it.”
They smiled at her.
With subtle élan, she said, “They charge me three times as much because there are the windows.”
The older man waited for the laughter to soften, then he told her, “We’ll talk to them and straighten them out.”
They all laughed, including her.
The older man looked at her and smiled gently. But he was silent.
She said softly, “Just having those windows is worth your work.”
He smiled, but he was still silent.
She thought she’d offended him with her laughter.
So it was only three days later that the receptionist of Geri’s development called to Geri as she went by. The woman told Geri, “We are startled because we’ve been overcharging you for rent!” The woman smiled. “You get a refund.”
And
