Page 167 of Yellow
Epilogue
Clashing Colors
Adam
Three months later
A penetrating, loud whistle made me look down from the roof I was working on to see Rick with a frown on his face.
“What is it?” I called to him.
“I don’t know, man, my sister and her friends are kinda pestering your woman – do you want me to send them home?”
I lifted my gaze to see Chloe sitting on the other side of the street with five preteens around her, while Faith and their mother Marianne were planting flowers next to the chatty group.
“What do you think?” I asked Spencer, Chloe’s father, who was with me on the roof.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Spencer assured me. “Chloe probably loves the attention and she’s not much of a gardener anyway, is she?” He lifted his faded baseball cap and dried away sweat. The July heat was worse than usual, and yet we had managed to build ten small houses this past week with the help of volunteers and professionals.
“It’s okay, Rick, don’t worry about it.”
“Okay, whatever you say,” Rick climbed onto the roof with us and handed us some bottled water. “Here, I figured you could use a break, and the view is nice from up here so I’m joining you.”
“Thanks man.” The three of us sat down and I emptied half the bottle right away.
“Looks amazing, don’t you think?” Rick exclaimed with a nod down the street of houses we had built.
“It does.” Spencer agreed. “And I have to say that I really like the idea of reusing building materials. That kitchen we put up in the red house over there, it looked brand new.”
“I think it was,” I said. “Some people just don’t like the style or color of the kitchen in their new house and then they exchange it.”
“It’s crazy,” Rick exclaimed. “If the kitchen is working, who cares about the color or the style?”
Spencer chuckled. “You’ve never been married, have you?”
“No.”
“Ahh, but the short answer would be that women care about color and style.”
“Some men too,” I added.
“I just saw Logan up at the main house,” Rick said.
“Was he done yet?”
“Almost.” Rick bumped my shoulder with his. “I can’t believe you convinced a dude like him to spend his week going over everything with the office staff to help us systemize and optimize. I’m telling you, man, the girls were all giddy about his accent and impressed with how smart he is.”
I laughed. “What is it about that Scottish accent?”
Rick shrugged. “Beats me, but he’s still a cool dude and he’ll have this place running like a Ferrari by the time he leaves.”
We sat for a few minutes before Rick made his way down the ladder again. “I’ll see you down by the lake in an hour; I’m going to check up on the food.”
“I think Ona’s got that under control,” I said but he was already halfway down.
“I’m glad I came,” Spencer said when we were alone. “It’s good to spend time with the girls and be part of this project.”
“Almost like a family vacation,” I joked.
