“The little one will grow up and he’ll need a place, and perhaps in time they’ll also have another one. This should really be taken into account, and if the room is too small, he wouldn’t really fit,” Santi told us, who until now had been very quiet, but we noticed from the tone of his voice how much he had embraced the idea.
“I don’t imagine they’d have another kid, you’ve already seen that he doesn’t seem to be very well, but if they did, they could put in some bunk beds.”
“My brothers sleep in them and they’re very practical, because there’s no need for any extra space in the room, they occupy the same floor space as a single bed.”
We all agreed and we decided that it was best to make only one connecting door, so as not to weaken the load-bearing wall too much and the two bedrooms would be connected.
Seeing that we’d all liked the idea, Simón opened a notebook that he’d been holding in his hand the whole time and we saw that he’d prepared some sketches. Then, with great skill, he plotted some lines, making a new sketch. When he finished, he showed it to us:
“What do you think?”
We all looked at it, and although we didn’t really understand much of what we were looking at, it seemed to us that it would turn out well, and we gave it our approval.
“Okay, we’ll tell them, let’s see if they agree,” Jorge said, “because their opinion is the one that matters, it’s their house and they have to live here.”
Happy with the idea, we went to tell them about it. When we went to knock on the door to enter, we heard that the man was sobbing and we didn’t think we should interrupt, but we heard:
“Yes, come in, come in.” As we’d all been talking, I’m sure they’d heard us as we approached.
“What’s wrong mister?” I asked him without thinking as soon as I saw him. I instantly regretted it, but it was too late.
“I don’t know how we’re going to be able to pay for it,” he answered tearfully.
“Look, honestly, we’ve told you before, this isn’t going to cost you anything, we’ll take care of everything,” said Jorge.
“But, that takes a lot of material and your labor on top of that, why would you do that?” the man went on, asking but still crying.
“Well!” said Simón, who was more confident with them. “We do it to stave off boredom during vacation time.”
“Really?” said the woman. “Such good-looking boys bored? You’ll get a girlfriend and then you’ll know when you start ‘Courting’ that time is precious, to spend it together.”
“Well, some of us have one already,” Santi said jumping up. “No one said we didn’t, but they’re very supportive, and they let us be free to do what we want.”
“Yes, of course and also, perhaps, she’s gone to the beach to spend her vacation with her parents, and she’s ditched you,” I told Santi who knew that this was what had happened to him.
“Shut up foghorn!” he said at once, and turned red.
“Alright, let’s change the subject,” said Simón. “I’ve brought some sketches that I’ve made, and I want you to take a look at them to see what you think, and if we can do it.”
“Son, we don’t know anything about all that, just do whatever you think is best,” the woman was saying somewhat nervously.
“Well, take a look at them to see if you like them,” and he took the notebook he had brought over to the bed.
We saw that the man didn’t take his hands out from under the sheet, that it was the woman who took it and showed it to him.
“The blue lines represent what’s standing now, and the red lines are what we can do in the yard, and those pencil marks, I just drew there behind, we’ve all agreed that if we expand this just a little, instead of one, you could have two extra rooms,” Simón was saying, excited about the idea.
The man could no longer contain himself and began to cry inconsolably, so we decided to go out and leave them in peace. I took the child in my arms and said:
“Let’s play! I can teach you a game that I’m sure you won’t know: Hide-and-Seek.”
Because he didn’t understand what I was talking about, the little one, looking at me with a face full of surprise, looked back:
“Dad, Dad,” he was screaming, but as soon as we had left the house, he immediately saw a hen, and he began to struggle in my arms, because he wanted to get down. The instant I put him down on the ground, he ran off after it.
The four of us stayed outside for a while, a little serious because of the situation. The woman came out with eyes red from crying, and said:
“Forgive him, he’s always been such a hard worker and he could never be still, and now he can’t bear anyone having to do things for him.”
Simón came forward and, resting a hand on her shoulder, said:
“It’s alright, just tell us where to start.”
She used her apron to wipe away some of the tears that had escaped from her eyes and ran down her cheeks, and then she said:
“This is everything we have, I can’t offer you anything else.” She showed us some tools, which were piled up in one corner and covered with an old sack.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find out everything we’ll need and bring it here ourselves,” Jorge said, taking a hoe in his hands. Lifting it into the air, he continued: “This works for me.”
“But I don’t know how we’re going to pay for it,” she said in a sad voice. “We barely have enough to eat, and the little one needs so much…”
“I think we can also solve that, you’ll see, trust us,” I said immediately.
She was staring at me and I saw that her eyes were once again filled with tears. Turning around she went into the house saying:
“What strange things these young men are saying!”
Out there alone and all in agreement, we said:
“We should start immediately so that this family eats every day. We have to, without fail, get in touch with those ladies who help the needy.”
Then we started to make a list of the materials we needed, the tools, and basically everything we thought we would need to get on with the work at hand.
“First of all, we have to take down that roof,” Santi said. “It’s in a very bad state and as soon as we begin to make a start here, I’m sure it’ll fall. That being said, you guys know more about this than I do,” and he added, “Sorry.”
We all agreed:
“But what do we do with the sick man’s bed in the meantime? It’ll take us several days” Jorge asked.
“We’ll deal with the problems as they arise. First of all, let’s remove the chicken wire from the yard and clean everything up to start with the foundations,” Simón suggested.
“Okay,” we said in unison, “let’s get the ball rolling.”
We headed to the back of the house. When the little one saw us, he came up behind us. We had to call on his mother to take him, because it wasn’t safe for him to be around where we had to work.
His mother, who, like all mothers, always had resources for every situation, brought out a big cardboard box, which had been flattened in a corner, reassembled it a little away from where we had to work, but from where the kid could see us properly, and she put the child inside it, and said:
“See, now you can watch those gentlemen playing from here inside your little house.”
