With apologies to the Beatles, the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, and the state of Vermont.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: Almost Normal

Dan looked at the faces of the construction/maintenance crew.  “I think that we’re most of the way there.”

“Well,” said Lois.  “It helps that we’ve got water again.”

“I gave all the hoses to the gardening crew,” Sowbug said.  “They have so many leaks in all of them now that the only thing they’re good for is drip irrigation.”

“Thank you for all your help when things got rough,” Dandelion said.  “Even having one more person made a big deal of difference when all heck was loose.”

“It’s the least that I could do,” Dan said.  “Maybe it partly makes up for all the difficulties Sal and I caused when we tried to run the crew.”

“Oh, it wasn’t really any difficulties,” Earthworm said.  “We just ignored both of you.”

“But having you working on the floor of the produce stand gave us time to focus on the hoses and the thermostats on the new stoves,” Sorrel said.

“Now we’ve just got to focus on the ceiling of the seed office,” Mo said.

“Yeah.  What’s going on with that?” Dan asked.

“We’re going over there to check it out,” said Sowbug.  “Want to tag along?”

“No, thanks,” Dan said.  “I’m still avoiding being around Sal too much.  We’re doing well with each other these days but I’d like to keep it that way.”



                                                                   *


Sal looked at Sally.  “The tarp is helping.  At least we’re keeping the debris out of the seed packets.”

“Yeah,” said Sally.  “I’m tired of people asking what the plaster that we enclosed with the seeds was for.”

Sowbug and Sorrel showed up a couple of minutes later.  “Sorry this has taken so long,” Sowbug said.   “We’ve been dealing with a lot of difficult situations.  We’ve got most of them under control now and we can focus on your ceiling.”

“Okay,” Mo said.  “Let’s get everything out of here.  Once we’ve cleared out your stuff we’ll be able to begin working.”

Sal and Sally shrugged and left.  As soon as they disappeared, the construction folks moved everything out of the office and got to work.  Sal and Sally came by periodically to see how the work was going.  Mostly it was hard to tell.

Two hours later,  the crew stopped.  

“That’s it,” Earthworm said to Sal who was waiting anxiously outside.  “It’s all scraped and primed.  We’ll come in tomorrow and paint it and your ceiling will be as good as new.  You can move stuff back in and start working again in a couple of days.”

“Great,” Sal said.  “I’ll be glad to get back to work.”

“Yeah,” Sally said.  “And without even having to stop every two hours to wash my hair.”




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