He says you dont say much, she reported, but you dont miss much, either. Hes not a guy that you have to tell him something twice. His very words, according to Patsy.
I didnt know what the hell I was doing, he said, but by the time we were done for the day, I guess I pretty much got the hang of it.
The next day he did some more painting, finishing the rest of the ceiling and starting in on the walls, and the day after that there were three of them, all painting, and Donny had switched him to a brush and put him to work on the wood trim. On account of you got a steadier hand than Luis, he explained privately, and youre not in such a damn rush.
When the paint job was finished, he showed up as instructed at eight, and there were just the two of them, him and Donny. He wouldnt be using Luis for the next couple of days, Donny confided, because the man didnt know dick about sanding floors.
Actually, Keller said, neither do I.
That was okay with Donny. Least I can explain it to you in English, he said, and yallll pick it up a damn sight fastern Luis would.
The whole job lasted fifteen days, and when it was done the place looked beautiful, with a new open-plan kitchen installed and a new tile floor in the bathroom. The only part he didnt care for was sanding the wood floors, because
you had to wear a mask to keep from breathing the dust, and it got in your hair and your clothes and your mouth. He wouldnt have wanted to do it day in and day out, but a couple of days worth now and then was no big deal. Laying ceramic tile in the bathroom, on the other hand, was a genuine pleasure, and he was sorry when that part of the job was over, and proud of how it looked.
The owner had shown up a couple of times to see how the job was going, and when it was finished she inspected everything and pronounced herself highly satisfied. She gave him and Luis each a hundred-dollar bonus, and she told Donny shed have another job for him to look at in a week or so.
Donny says shell be able to ask fifteen hundred a month for the place, he told Julia. The way weve got it fixed up.
She can ask it. She might have to take a little less, but I dont know. Rents are funny now. She might get fifteen hundred at that.
In New York, he said, youd get five or six thousand for a space like that. And they wouldnt expect ceramic tile in the bathroom, either.
I hope you didnt mention that to Donny.
And of course he hadnt, because the story theyd gone with was that he was Julias boyfriend, which was true enough, and that hed followed her down from Wichita, which wasnt. Sooner or later, he thought, someone familiar with the place would ask him a question about life in Wichita, and by then he hoped hed know something about the city beyond the fact that it was somewhere in Kansas.
A friend of Donnys called a day or two later. He had a paint job coming up, just walls, as the ceiling was okay. Three days for sure, maybe four, and he could pay the same ten bucks an hour. Could Nick use the work?
They wrapped it up in three days, and he had the weekend and two more days free before Donny rang up to say that hed bid on that job and got it, and could Nick come by first thing the next morning? Keller wrote down the address and said hed be there.
Ill tell you, he said to Julia, Im beginning to believe I can make a living this way.
I dont know why not. If I can make a living teaching fourth grade
But youve got qualifications.
What, a teaching certificate? Youve got qualifications, too. Youre sober, you show up on time, you do what youre told, you speak English, and you dont think youre too good for the job. Im proud of you, Nicholas.
He was used to Donny and the others calling him Nick, and he was getting used to being called Nicholas by Julia. She still called him Keller in bed, but he could sense that would change, and that was okay. Hed been lucky, he realized, in that the name hed found in St. Patricks Cemetery was one he could live with. That hadnt been a consideration when he was squinting at weathered headstones, all hed cared about was that the dates worked, but he saw now that he could have been saddled with a far less acceptable name than Nick Edwards.
Hed taken to giving her half his pay for his share of the rent and household expenses. Shed protested at first that it was too much, but he insisted, and she didnt fight too hard. And what did he need money for, aside from buying gas for the car? (Although it might not be a bad idea to save up for a new car, or at least a new used car, because he was fine until somebody asked to see his registration.)
After dinner, they took their coffee out on the front porch. It was pleasant out there, watching people walk by, watching the day fade into twilight. He saw what she meant about the shrubbery, though. It had been allowed to grow a little too tall, and cut off a little too much of the light and the view.
He could probably work out how to trim it. As soon as he had a day off, hed see what he could do.