the right paint, and he said this is the same stuff you’ve been using for the past twenty years. Is that right?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Would you rather have it a different color?”
“Uh, no…”
“Well, then, I guess I’ll get back to it.”
Myrna continued to stare wordlessly at the partially painted wall as if she didn’t quite know what to make of it. Luke started up the ladder again, only to have Todd tap him on the leg.
“Why are you painting?” he asked.
“To cover up all these words.”
“Why?”
“Because we want it to look exactly like it did before.”
Todd pointed to a particularly vile epithet in bright red spray paint. “What’s that word?”
“It’s not a nice one, so we’d better not say it,” Luke said, swiping at it with the roller.
“Who painted it on there?”
“Well, that’s hard to say, but I suspect it was some dumb teenage boy.”
“Why’d he do that?”
“I think he was probably just mad at everybody, so he drew bad words on the side of the building.”
“Oh.”
“That’s no excuse, though. You should never mess up somebody else’s property for any reason. Now, the person who did this is the one who should be painting over it, because when you do something wrong, you should make it right again. But it looks like we’re going to have to do it for him. How about it, Todd? Do you like to paint?”
“Yeah!”
“No!” Myrna said.
“Grandma! Why can’t I paint?”
“Because you’ll get paint all over your clothes.”
“I’ll be careful!”
“Todd—no. Not this time.”
“Let’s see if this’ll work,” Luke said. He stepped down off the ladder and grabbed a plastic trash bag he’d brought. He poked a hole in the bottom of it, and a couple on the sides, then turned it upside down and slipped it over Todd’s head. It covered him all the way to his shoes. Then he shoved Todd’s T-shirt sleeves into the openings so just his bare arms were hanging out.
“Turn around and show your grandma,” Luke said.
Todd turned around with a big grin, holding his arms out from his sides. “I won’t get any paint on me now.”
Myrna looked at Todd, then raised an eyebrow at Luke. “I suppose that’ll be fine. But don’t you dare let him up on that ladder.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Luke said.
As Myrna disappeared into the building, Luke smiled down at Todd. “Now the first thing you have to learn is how to get the right amount of paint on your brush.”
Todd watched intently as Luke dipped the brush, then swiped off the excess on the side of the pan. Then he handed the brush to Todd, who slapped it on the wall. For the next hour, Luke rolled while Todd dipped. They talked about everything from Todd’s first grade teacher to his best friend to their neighbor’s dogs, who Todd said liked to fetch balls. When he got his dog someday, he said, he’d teach him to do that.
By the time they were finished, there was paint in the grass, on Todd’s nose, and on the makeshift plastic paint shirt he wore. There was even some paint on the building.
They stepped back to admire their work. “What do you think?” Luke said. “Looking good?”
Todd nodded. “Looking good!”
Luke smiled. It took so little to make kids happy. But that was what they remembered—the little things. Going fishing. Playing catch. Watching a movie together. Kids needed that kind of stuff. As Todd smiled up at the painted building, Luke felt a twinge of longing. This is it. What life’s all about. Living the small moments with the people who matter.
He hadn’t counted on this. He still had so many bad feelings about this place rumbling around inside him, but a few of them had been pushed aside, replaced by memories he wanted to hold on to even after he said good-bye to this town for the last time.
Luke grabbed the roller, paint brush, and paint pan and took them to the spigot on the side of the building to clean them up. As he was showing Todd how to wash out his brush, Myrna came back outside.
“I owe you for the paint,” she said.
“No, ma’am. You don’t owe me anything. In fact, I’d say it’s the least I can do.”
She held out a bottle of Gatorade. “On the house.”
Luke took it from her. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
As Luke took a long swallow of the Gatorade, Myrna handed Todd a boxed drink. He took a sip, then went back to washing paint off his brush.