Anna's Story - Part 10

(Sorry I'm so late -- got up this morning and FORGOT to update the blog.  So this posting is for Saturday.  But the ivy is cut back on the driveway and I went to Joanne's Fabrics and got some material and some yarn for more baby blankets for Community Pregnancy Services.  So all good.

Anna Smithson is in Kentucky on the mission trip for her church.  They are remodeling a home, and getting to know one another much better.  Anna doesn't miss home or work at this point.)

Part 10

Anna’s job was to help with the painting, and it was fine by her.  The boys and their supervisor were making a huge racket on the roof, including replacing a few of the boards that had rotted from all of the leakage.  The plumber and a helper were busy redoing the bathroom while everyone used a porta-pot that had been delivered to the house. 

The living room was painted a nice deep cream color, and the trim white.  The ceiling got a coat of paint too.  The kitchen color was a blue-green shade that looked really nice with the old white cabinets.  They got painted too.  The kitchen floor could have used some help, but they only had a week and they were also on a budget restricted by whatever funds the group had been able to raise.  Mrs. Licci said they sold donuts after church, sponsored some spaghetti dinners the Lent before, and held car washes numerous times.  A lot of work had gone into the project, and the work began the week after they got back last August.

Mrs. Dunlap stopped by once but she was overcome with emotion and returned to the neighbor’s house.  She just kept thanking them over and over, and wiping tears from her eyes.  The children hung onto their grandmother’s skirts the whole time, with big doe eyes staring at the house that was starting to look presentable again.

 Erin, Will, Kirsten, and Brady were in different groups but the friendship that started on the long trip had flourished from what Anna could tell.  The foursome always sat together for dinner and seemed to have found common ground between them.  Erin was the quiet one, hard to read.  “Still waters run deep,” Anna had always heard, and she wondered if maybe there was more to Erin’s quietness.  One afternoon, it was just Anna and Erin in the kitchen, painting the cabinets.

 “Miss Smithson, did you get along with your dad?” she asked Anna.

 “You can just call me Anna, Erin,” Anna answered. “I think maybe I’m still too young to be called Miss Smithson.”

 Erin laughed a little. 

 “But in answer to your question, sure we got along pretty well.  Both of my parents were good people, and good to me.  I have nothing to complain about.  Why?” Anna asked.

 “Oh, nothing really.  My dad, he’s just hard to understand, or hard for me to understand.  He’s so moody.  I hate it in the morning when I’m getting ready for school and eating some cereal, because I never know what he’s going to be like.  One day he’s okay, joking, and the next day he’s like angry about everything.  It scares me,” Erin said.

“What does your mother have to say about it?” Anna asked, hoping not to probe too much.

“Not much.  She’s really quiet, like me.  We don’t answer him at all.  Seems like it works because if we don’t answer him, he’ll finally settle down and maybe go watch morning TV shows or something,” she said.

“Does he work?” Anna asked.

“Um, yeah, he works.  He works from 3:00 to 11:00 at the hospital as a janitor.  So at night he isn’t around and my mom and I can do whatever we want and it feels comfortable.”

Just then Mrs. Licci came in and was asking them some questions.  The conversation ended, but Anna wanted to be sure and talk to Erin again.