“I understand. But no one is gonna hurt you today. This should be fun.”
“Who’s gonna be there again? The two women from Duke’s the other night, I know, but who else?”
“Yeah, Elodie and Lexie. Lexie works for Food For All and they’re expanding into this new location. She’s apparently in charge of getting it all set up. Another woman who works with her, Ashlyn, will also be there from what I understand.”
“Cool. So the guys aren’t coming?” Carly asked a little too nonchalantly.
Kenna suppressed a grin. She had a feeling if Jag had just a little bit of patience, he’d totally wear Carly down. “No, they’re working. I think they helped move some of the bigger pieces of furniture yesterday.”
Carly nodded.
They talked about work gossip and their schedules the rest of the way to Barber’s Point. Kenna pulled into a parking spot a block from the Food For All building, and she and Carly climbed out of her trusty Chevy and headed down the sidewalk.
The windows of the building were covered with tan paper, indicating to the general public that they weren’t open yet, but Lexie had told Kenna to just come on in when she arrived.
Kenna pushed open the door and walked into a large, bright and welcoming space. She smiled. If she happened to be down on her luck and felt bad about having to ask for help with feeding herself or her family, she’d feel much better about it after walking in here. It wasn’t depressing. It was almost uplifting. The walls were bright white and the lighting was vivid as well, but without the harsh glare of fluorescent bulbs. And once the paper was off the front windows, she knew the sunlight would help even more.
“Hi!”
“Yay! Kenna and Carly are here!”
“Good to see you again!”
The immediate welcome from the three women made Kenna smile even wider. It reminded her of the old television show Cheers, where everyone always greeted Norm when he walked into the bar.
Kenna waved at everyone. “Hi! You guys remember Carly, right?”
“How could we forget the best waitress ever?” Elodie said with a grin.
“And this is Ashlyn. She works with me at Food For All,” Lexie said.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Kenna said politely.
“Same. I’ve heard a lot about you from Lexie,” Ashlyn said.
“You can put your purses down over there,” Lexie said, pointing to a table along one of the walls where their own bags were sitting. “Then we’ll get to work.”
“What are we doing today?” Kenna asked as she headed for the table.
“The taskmaster has quite the list,” Ashlyn quipped.
“Shut it,” Lexie said, throwing a balled-up piece of paper at her friend.
Everyone laughed.
Kenna had a feeling today was going to be a ton of fun. She needed this. Needed to connect with women outside of work.
Hearing the door open once more, Kenna turned to see a man entering the space. He was tall, fairly skinny, and had long, disheveled hair. His lips were moving as if he was talking to himself, but no words were audible. He stared at the floor as he stopped near the door. He carried a large bag, which was full of empty tin cans, and his clothes were tattered and worn.
Kenna waited for Lexie or Ashlyn to tell the man that they weren’t open yet, but instead, Lexie greeted the man by name as she approached.
“Hi, Theo. Did you sleep okay last night?”
He nodded but didn’t pick his head up or answer verbally.
“Good. You think you can be happy here instead of being downtown?”
At that, Theo looked up for the first time. He stared at Lexie as if she hung the moon. “I like my bed. And my place. It’s quiet. And there’s a park nearby. With trees.”
“You like trees, don’t you?” Lexie asked gently.
Theo looked back down at his feet and nodded once more.
“Good. We’re just getting started in here. You can stay if you want.”
“Stay,” Theo mumbled under his breath.
Ashlyn startled Kenna when she spoke quietly from right next to her. Kenna hadn’t even heard her approach. “Theo helped save her life. Lexie would do anything for him. He’s protective of her in his own way. When she knew she’d be working down here, she couldn’t bear to leave him downtown. She asked if he wanted to come over here and he agreed. She arranged for a one-room studio apartment for him, and he seems to be doing really well so far.”
Kenna didn’t know the details of Lexie’s story, and was extremely curious as to what happened and how this previously homeless man had saved her new friend’s life, but now wasn’t the time or place to ask about it.
Theo shuffled over to a small table in the corner and sat on a chair, making sure his bag was between his feet, as if he thought one of the women might try to take it from him. Kenna didn’t take offense. If she’d been homeless, she supposed she’d be paranoid about someone stealing her stuff too.
Lexie walked over to a cooler and pulled out a bottle of water. She brought it over to Theo and left it on the table without a word. Then she turned to the women and said, “Okay, so Elodie wants to set up the back room so we can get the boxed lunch program underway quickly. It’ll involve moving some of the shelves the guys brought in yesterday. We also need to sweep this place, clean the bathroom, unstack the tables and chairs, and generally make everything look as inviting and welcoming as possible.”
Ashlyn groaned and bent over with a hand on her back as if she were a hundred years old.
Everyone laughed.
“And while I love the brightness of the room, it’s a little…stark. I thought before we unpacked or cleaned, we could paint the walls. I wanted to do a colorful mural like the ones in Kakaako.”
“What’s that?” Carly asked.
“It’s a neighborhood between Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. It used to be an industrial ghost town with mostly auto body shops and old warehouses. But a bunch of local artists used the old buildings as their canvases and as a result, it revived the area. There are a bunch of breweries and other businesses there now, and there’s even a monthly food truck gathering.”
“How come I didn’t know about this?” Kenna asked no one in particular.
“Because you have no reason to really drive through there?” Elodie suggested.
“I do now,” Kenna said. “I’m gonna look it up and Carly and I will go through on our way back to Waikiki.”
“Awesome,” Ashlyn said with a smile.
“So…who’s gonna draw this mural, Lexie? Because I don’t have a lick of artistic ability, and I don’t think you do either,” Elodie said.
“Count me out,” Ashlyn chimed in.
“I don’t suppose either of you is an artist?” Lexie asked Kenna and Carly.
“Sorry, I’m not,” Kenna said.
“I can’t even draw a straight line,” Carly agreed.
“Well, shoot. There goes my grand idea,” Lexie said with a sigh.
“I can draw.”
All five women turned to look at Theo. He was still sitting at the table, looking down at the top of it, drawing imaginary circles with his finger in the light dust covering the surface.
Lexie walked over to him and crouched next to his chair. “You can draw, Theo?”