Chapter 140

He laid out the same spread of photos that we had shown their mother the night before, and we carefully explained what needed to be done, as well as what it would pay.

“What do you say, guys?” I said.

“What do you think? We’ll do it, for sure.”

We handed them cans of Coke, went to the great room, and sat down.

“You’ve never told us what you had in mind doing after high school,” I said.

“We’ve talked about going to the community college, or maybe trade school,” Zeb/Zeke said, “but we just couldn’t figure out how to raise enough money.”

“If you finish even three of those houses by the time school starts,” Mike said, “you’ll have more than enough money for at least two years of school, maybe more.”

“Yeah.”

“So,” I said, “you need to spend some time this year deciding what exactly you want to do about it.”

“How are things at work?” Mike said.

“Good,” Zebe/Zeke said. “Both of us have gotten raises. Not big ones, but raises just the same.”