As Is by Rachel Michael Arends

Author:Rachel Michael Arends
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION/Contemporary Women
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2014-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Caroline

Suzie blows a swath of hair out of her eyes that had escaped her ponytail. There are also several strands clinging to the back of her sweaty neck, and some plastered to the side of her face. My sister is a redhead, and her skin matches her hair when she works hard.

She adjusts her jeans over her stomach unselfconsciously. While I might go up and down ten pounds over the course of a year, Suzie stays plump. I used to feel somewhat superior that I could at least enjoy thin times, but lately I wonder if steadiness isn’t a smarter course.

I pause to wipe my forehead. I’m cleaning a paint roller in the sink while Suzie scrubs mildew from the tub in an upstairs bathroom of my new house.

“How will I ever repay you?” I ask.

“Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible. This is so gross.”

I chortle a little in exhaustion. “I’m so glad I didn’t let the kids see this place when I first got the keys. They’d be plagued by nightmares.”

“Thanks a lot! Now I’ll probably see this tub in my dreams,” she says.

I’m so glad Suzie is here. I had insisted I could tackle this house alone, but she said like hell I could. She started working alongside me, and now I realize how much I needed her.

“The primer is dry, so I’ll start rolling the color on. Sunny Day should make us forget how nasty this room was,” I say.

I shudder a little, despite my words. I still get the heebie-jeebies when I think of how horribly neglected this house had been. I’m proud, too, because I feel like we’re healing it, one layer of filth cleared away, one repair at a time.

I look at my watch and calculate. “I should be able to get two coats on before I have to go meet the bus. How’s that looking?”

“Vile. But underneath the cooties it looks good. I don’t think there’s any permanent damage.”

“Thank goodness.”

Suzie looks as spent as I feel. Over the past two weeks she has helped me shovel out this house on the far end of our neighborhood. The family who owned it had left their creditors in a hurry, and it was in absolutely obscene condition, beginning with the fish tank full of decaying creatures and stench, progressing to piles of garbage that seemed more suited to a third world city than a Midwestern suburb—and I haven’t even seen what’s under the lumps of snow in the back yard. This house was as “as is” as possible. The dumpster I hired has already been emptied three times.

Every weekday since I’ve had access, when I haven’t been working at the library I’ve been working here. I traded all my shifts this week so that I could be here nonstop, from the moment I put the kids on the bus until forty minutes before they get dropped off. That leaves me just enough time to race home, shower, dress, and get outside to meet the bus.

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