Will Work for $6

The vegan skateboarder walks in through the garage door and said, “Give me $6.”

“You’re at your Dad’s this week,” I said.  “We aren’t required to give you anything.”

“I want to go to a skateboarding video premier.”

“Earn it like everyone else.”  We’ve been helping the vegan’s sister learn a little financial lesson this week.  She worked hard and earned money then borrowed the credit card.  She’d spend only what she earned, she promised. 

Don’t ever believe a fifteen year-old girl with a credit card.  She’ll owe us past Christmas.

“Okay, I’ll work.”

“Really?” Charlie said.  “Pick up that red-handled hammer there by your feet and get to work.  Your country boy skateboarder friend is downstairs pulling nails.”

“The premier is in an hour.”

“I guess you’d better get to work, then,” I said.  “Half an hour for six bucks.”

The vegan picks up the hammer and almost runs downstairs.  He must have eaten a veggie burger or something.  He never moves this fast.

Not a minute goes by before we hear lots of pounding coming from the cold, damp awful spot that is our downstairs.  It’s more noise than one kid could make.  Maybe the vegan can work, we think.  Better check, but not right away.  We don’t want to distract him.

His friend, the country boy skateboarder, called early this morning.

“Where have you been?” he asks Charlie.  “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you.  Do you have work?”

“You’re calling before 8:00 am on a rainy Saturday to ask for work?”

“I’ve been calling since Thursday.  Where have you been?”

“Working.”

“That’s what I want to do.”

An old friend of ours, Kevin, does beautiful construction.  He has steady work but because he’s better at construction than promoting himself, he doesn’t have a huge backlog.  Now that we’re loaded with equity loan financing, we’ve gotten picky about what jobs we want to do ourselves and what jobs we don’t.  We’ve noticed there are a lot more jobs in the second category than in the first.

Kevin knows our house.  He and his wife have been remodeling their Victorian for as long as we’ve been working on this house and our previous coastal-looking bungalow.  They’ve done things like dig out a basement and change the structural front of their house.  We’ve done a couple of cheap Mill’s Pride kitchens and a lot of demolition.

Kevin came right over when we asked him to bid on our icky jobs.  He seemed excited.

He walked around the dry rot kingdom with a confident expression.  He was business-like, taking measurements and writing things down on his notepad.  We don’t know him like this.  Usually he’s offering us a homebrew and giving us a remodel and tomato plant tour.

“It would really help me if the previous drywall nails and construction adhesive were off these studs,” he said.

“I’ve got just the kid for that job,” Charlie said.  “You’re a carpentry artist.  You shouldn’t waste your talent on pulling out nails.”

“Yeah, right.”

The cowboy skateboarder showed up a few minutes after Kevin left.  Charlie put him to work in the cold and wet dungeon downstairs, removing drywall nails and construction adhesive.  We heard nothing but country music and a lot of banging.

After ten minutes of both the country boy and the vegan downstairs, Charlie couldn’t contain himself.  He had to see if there was nagging to be done.  When a kid works on their own house, for their own parents, they need nagging.  Who works hard unless it’s for someone else?

The country boy was closest.

“He’s really working,” the country boy whispered to Charlie, pointing to the vegan.

Charlie went over and watched him for a minute.

“What?” the vegan said.

Charlie quickly went back upstairs.  He didn’t want to say anything to break the spell. 

After twenty-five minutes of steady solid work, I went downstairs with $16.  “We already owed you $10 for work you did last weekend,” I said.  “You really didn’t have to do any of this if you only needed $6.”

The vegan pounded at old drywall adhesive with the red-handled hammer.  “If you say so,” he said without stopping.  “This is coming off easier here.”

“Do this one,” the country boy told him.  “It’s got more.”

“Okay.”

I went upstairs before the kid changed back in the stoner vegan I thought I gave birth to.  He was still working when I left a little while later.  I don’t know if he made it to his video premier.

I don’t plan to tell the vegan that his country boy friend earned $235 during the past week.  Starting out small is still starting out.

A little help? [] 5:22:36 PM