It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving and Kent was hoping he could wrap up work on a project in Queens Shay had started on Monday.
There was a new girl on the list and Kent waited for her outside as she walked toward the project.
“You must be Liza McDuffy,” Kent said.
“Are you in charge?”
“I’m Kent Marlon. I’m a volunteer, but I help Shay run jobs.”
Liza nodded. “I work at NYC SysCo. I was expecting Devon to be here… Um… he doesn’t know I’m coming… I don’t think he really knows me, but I heard about Habitat Housing when he and Hannah were talking.”
Kent nodded. “Devon is on a different site today in the Bronx with Shay. And something happened, so Hannah had to go to the office to fix it.”
“Oh, wow,” Liza looked down. “Did she say what?”
Kent shook his head. “A glitch, she said. I didn’t ask for details.”
“Oh, wow… I’d wanted to work with Devon…”
At that point, Kent got a strange vibe from Liza. Something about her not knowing him but wanting to work with him seemed off.
Kent looked back at the house then at Liza. “I can call… Shay, but they’ll be half done before you can get to the other site. If I’d have known, I could have worked it out ahead of time.”
Liza’s reply seemed slightly edgy, but Kent figured she was just uncomfortable with strangers. “You couldn’t have known. I guess I can… be of some use…”
Kent was glad to hear. “The painters just finished yesterday. There’s another guy and girl already inside. They are taking tape off trim, putting faceplates on outlets and light switches, and putting the doorknobs back on all the doors. We should be able to knock it all out by lunch and… If you’re up for it, I promised the others I’d treat everyone to pizza. I really want to deliver the house back to the owners before Thanksgiving.”
Liza looked at the house. “Oh… Thanksgiving… That would be really nice, wouldn’t it? I’ll do my best. I’m no dummy, so show me how doorknobs work and I can learn.”
Kent nodded at the house and led her inside.
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