Chapter 29: Busy Bees

Tuesday 18-Sept 2007

Chris was blown away by the response to his working bee proposal. In fact, on the Saturday that had just gone by, there'd been an impromptu working bee. His family, Lisa and Janine, Joe and a couple of others had popped by to look over the work that was required, and they'd ended up spending a couple of hours cleaning and investigating.

Without question, the biggest problem was the floor in the bathroom. At least the shower base was leaking, if not the taps as well, and the floor was quite rotten. It looked like there was a good chance that the shower base would just fall through the floor. Chris and his dad spent an awful half hour under the house, fighting with the spiders, trying to work out what to do, but they didn't know enough to figure anything out. Chris's dad had jumped up and down in the shower to make sure it would be okay for the next week. They needed a plumber badly, and that was the one skill of importance that Lisa hadn't found.

The level of interest in the working bee was insane. They'd just had an informal meeting with Lisa about it and agreed that they were going to have to ban younger siblings; there just wasn't enough space on the property for all the people who wanted to come and help. That night, Lisa was going to door-knock all the houses on the street to let them know that there was going to be a traffic nightmare on the street on Saturday, and Chris was going to go with her so she wasn't alone.

Chris and Shahia were walking towards class when Jerry walked up to them, accompanied by the captain of the footy team. Since the fight, they'd hardly seen Jerry; in fact, he'd gone out of his way to avoid them. Chris had supposed that an apology would be nice, but he'd been just as happy not to talk to him.

Jerry looked troubled, even afraid. Chris had a feeling that if he said boo, Jerry would run away.

"Uhh, Chris, Shahia, may I please speak to you?"

Chris put his arm around Shahia, protecting her. "What do you want?"

"I know I've never said sorry, I didn't know how to say it enough to be meaningful for the dreadful things that I did.

"So I'll start by saying thank you, Chris. What you did probably shortened my career by damaging my knee, but you've definitely given me a career by forcing me to look at myself. I've realised that I needed to change. If I hadn't done that, none of the clubs would've taken me on. So I've come out a long way ahead.

"Now I've heard about your working bee. Please, let me come and help as a way of starting to say sorry, though I know it's just a start. I'll do anything, anything at all, just let me come, and please accept that I am sorry as hell for what I did."

Chris looked at him suspiciously. It was just like Jerry to want to get in on something big like this just for looks. The news that Chris had taken the beating for Shahia had spread like wildfire after what Mr Cartwright had said, and he surely would want to get himself out of this hole. He looked at Shahia, and he could see that she had the same doubts. Chris was gathering himself to tell Jerry to nick off when he spoke again.

"Please. I know you think that I just want in because everyone else wants in. So I'll come some other time, some time when no one knows that I came, and I'll swear to secrecy."

Chris looked at him in surprise. Now he was talking. The captain spoke. "Chris, you remember what I told you?"

Chris nodded.

"You don't have to say yes, but Jerry's serious."

Chris sighed. He checked, and Shahia nodded. He turned back to Jerry. "You don't happen to know any plumbers do you?"

Jerry broke out in a big smile. "Plumbing? Mate, I've got you covered. My uncle's a plumber, and I'm already working for him. What do you need?"

Chris explained about the shower floor. Jerry knew exactly what he was talking about and said that he'd need to pop in sometime later that day. They agreed to meet at Shahia's place after training — both the soccer and football teams trained at the same time.

Lisa was already at Shahia's house when they got there, and she nearly exploded when she looked through the window and saw that Jerry was with Chris; Chris could see the look on her face — it was priceless. The door opened and Jerry looked at Shahia, standing in the doorway.

"Miss Shahia Esfahani-Baracat, I've now heard all your story. I've apologised to Chris, but not properly to you. I'm truly sorry for what I did to you. I'll never do anything like that again." Then, to everyone's surprise, he knelt down in front of her. "What can I do to make it up to you?"

Shahia considered him for a moment, looking down at him with a frown. "Jerry, you were the scariest thing of all for me. You're probably going to be a famous football player. When you're famous, do something big to help orphans, and then I'll forgive you."

Jerry looked up at her. "Deal. I'll get back to you then."

Chris showed him inside, and he looked at the shower, measuring it thoroughly. Then he squeezed in under the house for a second, measuring the height of the joists. "Right, I'll see you on Saturday."

Lisa watched him go, shaking her head. "That's amazing. Miracles will never cease. I can't believe you're forgiving such a jerk."

Shahia looked at her. "Lisa, everyone is born a jerk. I was born a jerk. Wait till you have kids of your own. It's the harsh experiences of life that teach you not to be a jerk. Some people, their parents don't teach them, and so they just have to learn later than others. At least he can learn, even if it comes hard to him. I've already forgiven him, but this way he might go and do something for orphans. Maybe he'll join White Lion."

It took Lisa and Chris nearly three hours to work the street. Most of the families had observed that there were no grownups at Shahia's house, were really interested in her story, and keen on the working bee idea. In fact, several offered to let them use their driveways for parking, and a couple even wanted to help.

Friday 21-Sept 2007

Chris rode to school feeling a fair degree of anticipation. Just what would happen today? It was hard to concentrate on school work with so much going on.

The day before, two year-nine students, girls with siblings in Alyssa and Hassan's classes, had approached Shahia and him. Could they make a video of the working bee for their class project? They begged, saying Mr Cartwright had said that it was okay. Ahh, Mr Cartwright's hand at work; well, this would be the media he'd talked about. Chris said they were allowed to, as long as they didn't get in the way, and as long as Shahia got to approve the final cut before it was shown to anyone who wasn't at the working bee. The girls were thrilled.

What would happen today?

As he rode into school, he saw Malcolm walking into school carrying a spade and a pick along with his bags. Huh?

Malcolm was a small, quiet boy who sat at the front of the class. He didn't say much. Chris gathered his father was a rather important guy, political and all that, but he had high expectations of Malcolm, and that particularly included Malcolm not thinking for himself, just doing what his dad told him.