Chapter 57: Working as a Laborer (3)

  Liu Chao gave Ju'an a circular magnet and patted him on the shoulder, then climbed up the ladder. Ju'an grabbed his leg and said, "Damn it, I'm not a kid, I don't want to play with this thing, I need to go to the rooftop to work." After saying that, he picked up the ring-shaped magnet in his hand and swung it several times. The more he looked at it, the more it resembled the kind of toy his dad used to make for him when he was two or three years old - a small ceramic wheel attached to a string. "Damn it," he thought, "I'm not three years old, I'm in my twenties, and you want me to drag this thing around the house and play with it? I'd be embarrassed to death."

  Liu Chao swung twice, and when he couldn't shake it off, he said: "Damn! The rooftop is dangerous, you have no experience, I won't let you go up even if you die. If you fall down, who will I blame? Be obedient and just pull this thing from below." After finishing, he explained again: "Actually, this job is very important. If the nails are not handled properly, they will pierce people's skin. So don't look down on this work, it's very important. Revolutionary work doesn't distinguish between high and low, we must obey organizational arrangements and not pick and choose."

  "Damn it," said Ju An, "I still think you're up to no good, talking about some conspiracy."

  "Liu Chao exerted himself and said: 'There's a fart conspiracy, it's not like you're going to play this all the time, go, first help the old man put plastic sheets here, soon we'll start shoveling over there, go, don't dawdle'."

  Just then, an old white man who was dragging a large package from the pickup truck shouted at Ju An: "Hey! Buddy, come and give me a hand!"

  He immediately put down the things in his hand and went to help. The two of them pulled down the things behind the pickup truck, then spread them out under the eaves of the house. It turned out to be a large piece of oilcloth, which was quite heavy, and the two of them had some difficulty lifting it.

  As soon as the oilcloth was spread out, a guy on top shouted: "Buddies, are you done? If so, scatter, I'm going to shovel the roof!" Juren and Old White immediately dispersed, leaning against the pickup truck watching the several guys on the roof holding square iron shovels, scooping off the roof, and then the shoveled stuff slid down the roof into the oilcloth below.

  The old white man walked over to the pickup truck near the lawn, pulled out a large red radio from the truck that looked like the kind of record player he had at home when he was young, placed it on the lawn, tuned in the station and started playing music.

  The old white man took off his gloves and said to Ju An, "Buddy, it's your first time fixing the roof, isn't it? You don't live in this neighborhood, do you? You're a friend of Steven's."

  "Ah, yes, I'm his friend," said Ju An with a smile. "I didn't think he'd still be fixing the roof."

  The old white man smiled and said to Ju An, "When we first moved here, Steve didn't know how either. We all got used to living together and helped each other out. When our family was fixing the roof, we asked him to come help. At that time, his job was what you're doing now. I knew it was his first time doing this kind of work, so I arranged some simple tasks for him. After doing a few times, he's doing pretty well now. The barbecue grill in their backyard was something everyone worked on together. It took my friend and me almost three months to finish, working two days a week. Unfortunately, I'm getting old now, and they won't let me go up on the roof anymore."

  "Are you fond of doing these things?"

  The old white man smiled: "Yes, build a barbecue platform, repair the roof. When I was young, I even helped people build houses. Look, that one wearing a blue baseball cap is my son." He pointed to the white man who was diligently shoveling the old roof on top of the house.

  "Your neighborhood relationships are really good," said Ju An with a smile.

  The old white man smiled and said, "We all live together, it's inevitable that there will be some difficulties. When Steve and his family first moved in, his wife became friends with my wife, and then we got to know each other."

  In less than half an hour, the roof of a small house had been shoveled down, and the old white man beckoned to An to come over and dump the debris into a large garbage truck. Then he spread the tarpaulin under another eave, waiting for the people on the roof to shovel down the debris.

  At this time, a guy holding a long ladder leaned against the newly dug eaves, climbed up the ladder and helped the people on the roof to spread a nearly one-meter-long black material to the edge of the roof.

  An old white man asked while sitting at ease: "Why is this material only paved along the edges and not in the middle?"

  The old man explained: "This material is used for anti-freeze and anti-ice in winter, there's no need to pave it in the middle."

  Looking at these guys laying down the anti-freeze material, and then looking again at the blue material laid on top, the old man explained that this is waterproof, and it will be fine for decades. Looking at the several people busy laying materials on the roof, Ju An sighed and said being a man in America isn't easy either.

  Watching a group of people lay down blue materials and then lay another material on top, estimated to be thermal insulation or something, tightly attached piece by piece.

  Thinking about it, the two outsiders also finished shoveling one roof, and then repeated the previous work with the old white man, putting the shoveled roofs into the garbage truck.

  A group of people worked with great enthusiasm, occasionally someone would follow the radio and sing along loudly.

  It was almost noon, and everyone showed no signs of stopping. Ju An wore gloves, happily working with a group of people, feeling particularly happy in her heart, without any hard labor feelings, but rather like the annual school gardening activity organized by the school at the beginning of each semester, happily messy.

  Just when I was having a great time, I heard a childish voice shouting: "Ice-cold lemonade, one yuan per cup!" Turning my head around, I saw the little girls from last time had moved their cold drink stand nearby, they really have business acumen.

  At this time, the old white man walked over, and a little girl immediately shouted: "Grandfather, grandfather, want to have a glass of iced lemon water?" The old man nodded several times, then took out some change and handed it to the little girl. The little girl happily accepted it and handed him a glass of water.

  Ju An also felt a bit thirsty, so she walked over and bought a cup of water. Just then, someone on the roof called out: "Girls, are your drinks being delivered to your doorstep?"

  Then the little girls shouted together: "Yes! Yes!"

  The person upstairs responded with "Alright, I'll have a cup!" Then several people on the upper floor echoed in unison, "I'll have a cup too!" The little girls were overjoyed. Using a small tray, they carried several cups of drinks and handed them out under the eaves. After that, everyone came down from the rooftop, each giving a small tip to the little girl who had delivered the water. They then raised their cups in a toast and drained them in one gulp before returning the empty disposable cups to the little girl who had brought the water.

  The old white man smiled and said to Ju An, "That's my granddaughter. The other little girls are from around here. Last week they sold ice water and each made almost three dollars. They've gotten a taste of the sweetness."

  "Gu An said with a smile: 'I saw them doing business when I came, and as soon as they saw the car coming, they shouted together, it was very interesting'."

  The old white man said: "Let them do some small business, mainly to let the children know that money is not so easy to earn, and next time they spend money recklessly, they will think twice."

  In the midst of busy idleness, I also took notice of a few little girls' cold drink stand. Every time a car passed by, the little girls would shout out a few times. Most people who didn't want any cold drinks would roll down their windows and wave at the little girls as they drove away. After several cars had passed, not one sale was made, but the little girls were not discouraged. They still happily shouted whenever they saw a car coming.

  Finally, a car stopped and bought some drinks, the little girls were happy. After a while, I found that there were three cars lined up in front of the little girls' stall.

  On this side, the house has already cleared about half of its roof. In the middle, the old white man even drove a garbage truck to dump some trash. The time it took was not short, and when he came back, he told Ju'an that all the trash had been dumped in the designated area, which is quite a distance from here.

  Just as I was sitting comfortably and raised my head, I saw Liu Chao holding a camera on the rooftop taking pictures of something.

  "What's the point of taking pictures of the roof? Are you checking something?" asked Ju An with curiosity.

  "Yes, the city hall will arrange people to come and inspect, as well as insurance company personnel. These photos are for them to see what materials were used inside, which ones are not qualified, they all need to see the materials used on your roof. When renovating the roof, you must take these pictures." The old white man explained.

  It wasn't until after 3 pm that a group of people started having lunch, which was quite simple, just some grilled sausages and hamburgers, with chopped onions and vegetables on the side. Overall, it seems that Americans' stomachs are more capable of handling food than ours.

  After finishing a simple lunch and resting for over 20 minutes, a group of people continued to work, and Ju An also started his job that didn't require much technical skill.

  After a while, I saw the little girls chasing two little boys. After watching for a while, I realized that the two little guys thought the little girls' business was good, so they said they would sell cold drinks tomorrow too, which made the little girls very angry and chased the two little boys away.

  By the time it was past five o'clock in the afternoon, the little girls had packed up their stall and were called back home by the adults to have dinner.

  Everyone was busy until dark, and only then did they get off work. After getting off work, everyone drove their cars back home. Originally, An still thought that according to our traditional Chinese customs, we should at least have one more gathering in the evening. Who knew these Americans were too self-aware, as soon as they got off work, each of them went back home.

  The next morning, everyone gathered here on time again, had breakfast, and started working busily. Today's work went very smoothly, and by a little after one in the afternoon, everything was finished, leaving only Ju An, who was still dragging a magnet around the house to pick up nails. A group of old Americans cleaned up their tools, and Liu Chao gave each person their wages. Some old Americans accepted it, while others didn't want a single penny. Old White belonged to this category. Later, Liu Chao explained to Ju An that some people didn't want to accept wages because they liked helping others do things as a hobby. In their opinion, it was something enjoyable. Some people were just very good friends, like Old White, and since the two families were so familiar with each other, there was no need to pay.

  After two days of busy work, Ju An was also preparing to return home. On the way, he went to a Chinese-run supermarket in San Francisco and bought a lot of things. Only after arriving did he realize that one block of tofu cost one US dollar per pound, and dried noodles were even more expensive at two or three dollars per pound. Damn it! In the end, he still bought a lot of things and had them transported back through the airline.