Will Work for Food

It's Day 8 of the 30 Day Writing Challenge and I am again going off list for today's post.
I'm more interested in writing every day than following the list.

Having waited until the end of the day for this post has been beneficial as my story took place late in the day.

It was around 4:30 this afternoon when we noticed a couple of young men approaching our front door. When I answered the door, I found out that they were looking for work, any work. They were carrying a couple of tools for pruning and trimming and said that they had been out since morning and hadn't found anyone that was willing to pay them to do any work. They were brothers -- the older one with young kids at home, the younger one looked like he should've been in school during the day.

I had a tree that had grown against my fence and actually separated on section of fence from the post. I have been meaning to rent a chainsaw and take care of it, but hadn't got around to it yet. I took them around back showed them the tree and we talked about a price. I expected them to come back tomorrow to do the job since there was only about an hour and a half of daylight left and they didn't have a chainsaw or anything to cut down a tree with them.

The older one said that he would really like to take care of it today and asked if I had an ax they could use. I told him the only thing I had was a hatchet and hand saw and that would be a lot of work for a hatchet.

He reminded me that they had been out all day and hadn't made any money. He said they had knocked on doors and talked to about 70 people and nobody had any work for them. He said that he loved his kids and if that meant cutting down a tree with a hatchet, he would do it. He told me that they were just God fearing people and he needed to take care of his family.

I handed him the saw and hatchet and they went back and went to work.
I went with them because I knew that handling that tree was more than two young men could manage. They were game and aggressive but they were also young and not very big guys. And I have the advantage of what Aaron calls "old man strength." (I guess that's a good thing!) The older guy was not feeling well and stopped to vomit several times as he worked -- but kept on working.

I left them for a little while so that I could go to an ATM and get them cash instead of paying them by check. It was getting dark by the time they finished and would be fully dark by the time they walked the couple of miles home. I had helped them with the work and paid them a little more than we had agreed on. They were very grateful for the work and thanked me several times as we were walking around to the front of the house. I prayed with them before they left, they both shook hands with me and thanked me again before heading down the street towards their home.

I was impressed with their work ethic and that they were willing to work hard for their money. I know that there are people in the area that are hiring, but when you need money today, it's pretty tough to wait out the hiring process, work for a couple of weeks and then wait another week before getting paid. They weren't asking for a hand out and they didn't shy away from hard work. I think I paid them well for the work they did and hope that they will find more work. They did say that he had something lined up for about half a day tomorrow.

People face problems differently. I have no idea of what brought these guys to their current situation. I know that they are not sitting around waiting for somebody else to fix it for them. I wish them well.

John <><