Cardinal Meadows. "A Journey of Faith in a New Place."

Episode 6

Cardinal Meadows"Just so you know? I looked in the house while you were gone and saw some stuff that looked like poop." Episode 6Ezra 6:11 .... and his house shall be made a refuse heap on account of this. Returning to the house I noticed three men standing next to a large dump truck parked in the driveway. Spooner and two guys a little younger than me looked up from their work. "What's all this?" "Dude, where've you been? So, where do you want to start?" I was completely shocked, unprepared for whatever Spooner had in mind. "Hey man this is Dex and Twit. Boys...this is Lenny, the dude I was tellin' you about." Dex, the more muscular of the two, extended his clenched hand for a "fist bump" and Twit didn't say a word. His eyes focused on his phone, he continued punching in a text message with lightening speed."Yo, Twit, say howdy to my neighbor Lenny." Twit looked up for a second then back down to his phone where he punched in a few more words, closed his phone and secured it into his back pocket. "Hey," he said. I responded the same and added, "How can you call out, I don't have service.""We're a one bar valley. Can't call out, just text.""Oh" For a second I thought you meant that there was only one bar in Cardinal Meadows. "That's what I said"."No, I meant one drinking bar." "Huh?" Spooner interrupted just in time. "So Lenny, whatta ya say we get started here?" I leaned in towards him. "Hey Spooner can I talk to you for a second?" "Sure dude." We walked a few yards away and stopped. I lowered my voice. "Spooner, what's going on here?" "Hey, you can call me Spoon. Spooner's kinda like a formal name, if you get my drift." "Sure, fine. Spoon. So what are these guys with the truck doing here?" "Bro, didn't I tell you last night that I was going to help you out around here? I saw that you were all bummed out looking at the mess, so I got a couple a guys to help us clean up some of this stuff." "I'm sure you mean well Spooner...Spoon, but we haven't even discussed whether or not I..." "Dude, yer breakin' a sweat here. You're worried about the cha cha aren't you?" "Cha cha?" "The money. Trust me man I got this handled." "Well, it's not just the money that I'm-" "They're comin' over here. Look, do not talk money- it's handled, okay?" Dex and Twit joined us. Twit finished yet another message and unconsciously slid the phone into his pocket. Dex interrupted us."Where do you guys want to get started?" "Follow me." Spooner walked the men around the back of the house. " All the metal on a pile over here and everything else in a pile over there. Oh, and a "save its" pile next to the garage." Twit looked at the mess and then down to his hands. "Gloves." The men walked over to the truck and retrieved several pairs of gloves from the front seat. "Hey Spoon, you guys need any?" "Coolio, thanks bro." Dex threw each of us a pair gloves. I had two rights and Spooner had two lefts. We quickly traded singles and put them on. One of my gloves had the pinky missing, but they'd work.As we all walked toward the back yard, Spooner asked me, " hey man, you're in charge, so if you want anything done a certain way, speak up." Other than doing simple chores around the house and for my grandfather I really wasn't used to organizing cleanup work, and I felt a little out of my comfort zone. "Hey, Spoon I really don't know these guys, and you probably know more about what needs doing than I do. Can you take charge?" "No problemo." Dex and Twit went at it like they were on a mission, with Spooner right at their heels. The piles had already begun to grow before I could even get a bearing. "Dudes, careful with that corrugated stuff, put it in a pile over there, he's keepin' that." And so it went with Spooner on occasion setting aside things that he said 'I'd need to keep'. It was going fast and Spooner had noticed that I was looking a little out of my element. "Dude, don't sweat the small stuff, looky, you go into the house and start throwin' out the stuff that you don't want into the front yard. We can do, what needs doin' out here." I started to turn for the house and stopped. "Ah, I really don't think that I want to into..." "Don't want to what, Lenny?" I already kind of looked like a wuss, I couldn't tell these guys that I was afraid to go into the house. I quickly recovered. "I don't want to...to leave you guys to do all the hard work yourselves." "No problem, Lenster. We've got the outside covered. Now don't toss out any good stuff, were gonna need some of it to get you started, okay?" "Sure, no problem." "Oh, yeah... and grab the push broom the rake and maybe a shovel out of the truck... Just so you know? I looked in the house while you were gone and saw some stuff that looked like poop." Spooner then turned around and ran back to help the others carry a rusting water heater.Poop? That's just great! People using the house for a toilet. God, it wasn't as if I didn't already want to go in there.1Nicholas Mull1 CommentLikeCommentShare