asked.
"Umm. Mostly getting things off trucks, carrying boards, cleaning up."
"You were a helper, not a carpenter." Gary said.
Peter was getting nervous, he was afraid he was going to get in too deep and not get a job. "I guess that is what you call it."
"Maybe you should tell me more about yourself so I can get a feel of what you might be able to do." Gary asked.
Peter had to think carefully, he didn’t want to say something too complicated, but it had to be reasonable and believable.
"Jenny and me got married, but both our families hated each other. We figured that if we was married, that would make them get together and things could be better." He started.
"I am betting that things didn’t get any better." Gary interjected.
"No, sir. Things got even worse, my family was mad at me and Jenny’s was mad at her for doing what we did. It made them even madder and we couldn’t stand it, so we took off. We just took a few things and walked to the road and got rides for a while. We ended up in Virginia and decided to try to get jobs."
"Where did you start from?" Gary asked.
"We lived in South Carolina."
"Go on."
"I got a job with the builder, he was working on a lot of houses. I started doing pretty good and jenny got work in a place where lots of women made clothes. We was doing OK and we started feeling better until Jenny got sick. She had to quit her job and she had to take a lot of medicine."
"What was wrong with her?" Gary asked.
Peter looked down at the table, his voice low as he offered "they said it was cancer, breast cancer."
"I’m sorry to hear that…"
"The doctors gave her medicine and it made her tired and sick. She lost her hair and couldn’t do nothing for a few months. I worked hard to take care of her and to pay the bills. The doctors said they fixed her up better’n new, so we was both happy. But, they started asking for their money and I couldn’t work enough to pay them. I gave them everything I had and was working as many hours as I could to try to get more."
"One day, I was home from work and the sheriff came by. He said they sent him to get our things to sell to pay the doctors. We didn’t have much, but they still wanted it. I guess he felt sorry for us because he said he needed to get a coffee. He would come back in 15 minutes, but since he didn’t know what we had, if anything disappeared before he come back, he wouldn’t know it. I didn’t want to, but we put a few things into cases and lit out."
"That sounds pretty hard to do. I am not sure I wouldn’t do the same thing if it happened to me and my wife." Gary stated. "So, how did you end up here?"
"We went to the bus station and bought tickets, this was as far as they went." Peter answered.
"How did you pay for the tickets if you didn’t have any money?"
Peter again looked embarrassed, he was thinking about what to say. "Jenny sold her ring. All we got is what we have in our bags."
"I can hire you as a helper. The work is hard and you will have to do a good job. If you learn, maybe we can teach you enough to move up to assistant carpenter."
"I ain’t afraid of hard work." Peter answered.
"I didn’t think so."
As they sat, the waitress came by to refill their cups. Peter hadn’t had more than the first sip from his, but Gary had finished the cup he started with.
"Gerry, you need any more waitresses around here?" Gary asked.
"You don’t have the legs for it." The woman laughed at the question.
Gary chuckled too, but added "Peter’s wife is looking for something. They have just moved here and are trying to get established."
"Can she waitress?" Gerry asked, directing the question to Peter.
"She hasn’t done it before, but I reckon she can learn." He replied.
"Well, we all had to start somewhere. We really don’t need much more help, but I can square it with Nick." She said to them both.
"Thanks Gerry, I’ll let her know and we’ll see when she can come by to see you."
Gerry continued to fill cups on
Heidi Hunter, Bad Boy Team