The Work Party

by Douglas J. Eboch

Hear the story read by the author.


In the town of Normal, Pennsylvania, there’s a little church at the corner of Wilson and Elm. A recent rain storm had done extensive damage to the basement classroom used by the “Guppies,” the pre-school Sunday school class, and the hall outside. So the church held a work party one Saturday to replaces some damaged dry wall, repaint and re-carpet the affected areas. Using volunteer labor from the congregation for such tasks helped the church save money. Nobody ever thought to consider the cost in emotional stress until after the events were over.

The work party had been listed in the bulletin and mentioned in the announcements during the three previous services. Pastor Henry O’Donnell had also reminded everyone he talked to during coffee hour the week before. Yet he was still not surprised when he showed up Saturday morning to discover only Ralph Billings, his wife Tammy, and Del Winslow in the lounge.

“Just us?” Del asked.

“Looks like it,” Ralph said.

“Are you helping,” Henry asked Tammy.

“Oh no,” said Tammy, who was the church secretary. “I’ve got work to do in the office.”

The three men started downstairs when a cheery, “Good morning” stopped them. Missy Moore strode into the room wearing brand new blue overalls, a pink tool belt, and a broad smile. “Is this where we’re meeting for the work party?” she asked.

The men looked at each other. They weren’t quite sure what to make of this development. “I brought donuts,” Missy added, holding up a box.

The men grinned. “This is the place,” Henry told her.

After fortifying themselves with a donut each, the first thing they did was remove all the furnishings and toys from the classroom. They moved everything upstairs into the lounge, carrying supplies and tools down on the trips back. They set up a staging area in a classroom across the hall from the Guppies’ damaged classroom.

The next task was to tear out the old, water damaged carpet. Ralph cut the carpet into four strips with a carpet knife. The floor under the carpet was cement so it had been glued down. Whoever did it had used liberal amounts of glue and hadn’t limited the adhesive to the edges of the room. Each of them took a strip and began peeling it back.

When Henry had about three quarters of his carpet strip free, he hit a particularly stubborn patch of glue in the middle of the floor. He adjusted his grip on the loose carpet and leaned back. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then, the carpet jerked up with a tearing sound - and Henry lost his balance. He fell back and his elbow went through the wall behind him.

“Are you all right, Pastor?” Ralph asked.

“Uh huh,” Henry said, yanking his elbow out of the wall.

“Good thing we’re doing some drywalling today,” Ralph said. “We’ll add that spot to the list.”

Perhaps because of this mishap, Ralph suggested that he and Del hang the drywall in the classroom while Henry started painting the hall. Henry might have felt insulted but the truth was he knew he wasn’t particularly handy. Painting seemed like something he could handle.

“What should I do?” Missy asked.

“Well,” Ralph said, “the legs of the furniture upstairs need to be cleaned off. Maybe you could start on that.”

Missy seemed a little disappointed, but headed upstairs to work on the furniture while Roger and Del began replacing the drywall under the window where water had leaked in. Henry, meanwhile, prepared to paint the hall.

Karen Winslow, the Sunday school teacher, had suggested painting the walls yellow and the baseboard and trim white to brighten up the classroom areas. Everyone agreed it was a good idea at the time. But Henry noted that Karen hadn’t shown up to execute her wonderful plan. It meant he couldn’t just paint over the water damage on the lower few inches of the previously white walls. He was going to have to paint the whole thing.

He was using a roller to apply yellow paint on the first section of the wall when Del came out of the classroom to get some more drywall nails. “What are you doing?” Del asked. “You should paint the baseboards and trim before you paint the walls. That way it doesn’t matter if you slop over onto the walls because you can just paint over it.”

“Oh. Okay,” Henry said. He put the roller down and got out the white paint and a brush. Del nodded his approval and returned to the drywalling.

Henry bent over to begin painting the baseboard and heard a ripping sound. He reached back and discovered his old work jeans had split in a most embarrassing spot. He was not having a good day. He found a carpenter’s apron among the tools and tied it backwards around his waist. Then his eyes fell on the donuts. He decided he could use another to lift his spirits.

While Henry enjoyed a jelly filled pastry, Missy came downstairs to check on the boys. When she entered the hall, she was shocked to see that Henry had stopped painting the wall before covering a complete section and hadn’t smoothed the edges of the paint or the drips. She grabbed a brush and did it herself so there would be no bumps or seams in the finished paint job. Then she noticed nobody had removed the switch plates or socket plates. Fortunately, she had a screwdriver in her tool belt and took care of that detail in no time.

By the time Henry came out licking jelly from his fingers, she had returned to the lounge. He didn’t even notice what she’d done as he returned to his work on the baseboards.

Then Ralph came out to get drywall tape. “What are you doing?” He asked. “You should paint the walls before the trim.”

“Del told me to do it this way,” Henry said.

“Del doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Ralph snorted. “Paint rollers create a fine spray. It’ll spot your trim if you do it last.”

“Oh. Okay,” Henry said. He put down the brush and returned to the roller.

About twenty minutes later Del came out. “What are you doing,” he started to say.

“Just let me do it my way,” Henry snapped.

Finally, Henry finished painting the walls. He figured he’d earned another donut and selected one covered in powdered sugar. Refortified, he returned to the hall licking powdered sugar from his fingers and began painting the trim.

Upstairs, Tammy was meeting a young couple who was considering getting married in the church. She took them to see the sanctuary, then asked if they’d like to meet the pastor. “He’s downstairs working on some remodeling,” she told them.

In fact, Henry had just finished with the hallway trim. He stepped back to admire his handiwork.
Unfortunately, he stepped right into the roller pan and his feet shot out from under him in the slippery paint. He fell hard on his rear, splitting his pants even more. The brush flew out of his hand, bounced off the wall, and hit him square in the face leaving him with a mouthful of paint.

It was the last straw. He spit out the paint and let loose with a string of profanity. He stopped mid-word when he looked to his left.

Standing at the bottom of the stairs were Tammy and the young engaged couple who appeared quite shocked at his monologue. O’Donnell opened his mouth but found he didn’t know what to say…which was uncommon for him.

Tammy had no such problem. “This is our janitor,” she said, gesturing at Henry. “I don’t see the pastor anywhere. Do you know where he is?”

Henry shrugged.

“Oh well, you’ll just have to meet him another time,” Tammy told the couple and guided them back toward the stairs. “Let me show you the bride’s room.”

Henry went to get cleaned up, then treated himself to a chocolate covered donut to wash the paint taste out of his mouth. He was just coming out licking chocolate frosting from his fingers when Del and Ralph emerged from the classroom.

“This man knows nothing about hanging drywall,” Del said.

“Me? I don’t know where you got your crazy ideas,” Ralph responded.

“Well, it’s done anyway. We were going to sneak out for a beer before we paint the classroom. Wanna join us, Pastor?”

Henry nodded. A beer sounded pretty good. They headed upstairs where Missy was finishing up with the furnishings.

“We’re going for a beer,” Del told her. “Do you want to come?”

“I don’t care for beer,” she responded. “But Tammy and I are going to have tea in a little bit. You go on and I’ll finish up here.”

The men headed out. Missy went downstairs to have a donut. She was surprised to find the box nearly empty. She also noticed that Henry had missed a few spots with his roller.. She grabbed it and smoothed over the paint job. Then she touched up some areas where he’d gone a little off course with his trim brush. Her father had been a contractor and she knew all about painting and drywall. She was a little disappointed her skills hadn’t been needed today.

The men returned after Missy and Tammy had left for tea. They stopped in the hallway and admired Henry’s work.

“Wow,” Ralph said. “You really did a good job.”

“Thank you,” Henry beamed.

Then they went to paint the classroom. Though first Ralph and Del had to argue for half an hour over whether to start with the walls or the trim.


(For Norma. Feel better soon.)