The House That Lou Built by Mae Respicio

Author:Mae Respicio
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2018-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

From the box I brought, I pull out face masks, goggles, pairs of work gloves, and metal wire brushes. Everybody gets one of each. We slide on our masks, even Jack, who makes Darth Vader noises with Arwin.

I point out smears of orangey-brown. “Find any rust and erase it.”

“That’s easy enough,” Gracie says.

We start, getting on our knees and scrubbing in circles and lines, like brushing teeth. It’s trickier than I thought. At first everyone’s acting silly, but soon they start to concentrate. Even Maribel puts on gear to join us for a little while.

I stop for a second and notice: No one’s talking. Everyone’s brushing.

I get up to inspect.

Arwin and the others push their masks off and stretch.

“Check out these biceps. I’m getting a solid upper-arm workout,” Sheryl says, flexing.

“How’d we do?” Gracie asks.

I walk around and look for any spots we might have missed, but it’s clean. Practically like new.

“You did amazing! This would have taken me forever by myself.”

Gracie runs to the van and brings back bottles of water that she hands out, but before they can rest, I say, “You guys are gonna love this next part.”

I grab cans of spray paint. “Now we coat the beams.”

Arwin slides his mask and goggles back on. “Me first!”

He shakes a can, holds it away from his face, and aims, spraying the paint back and forth. He’s doing pretty well. I put on my gear and join him.

“That’s a ton of chemicals. Don’t breathe any of it in,” Sheryl reminds us, pulling on her face mask.

They stand back as he and I aim and spray in long, flowing lines. After we finish, I say, “Let’s let it dry before the next coat.”

When Arwin pulls off his gear, there’s a haze of black paint outlining his eyes and nose, like a reverse raccoon. I take mine off, too, and I guess I look the same, because Arwin starts snort-laughing.

After a while the others spray on another coat, and the trailer’s ready for the subfloor.

We did it. We really, truly, amazingly did it—just like I knew we would.

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