Part 1:
The intense blue of the sky was the first thing David saw when he opened his eyes and peeked out of the tent. He couldn’t even see a cloud, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t some wispy ones floating around up there. He squinted his eyes partially closed and tried focusing to see if he could make out any, but to no avail. He needed those 2 little plastic lenses that were now in his pants pocket to be in front of his very nearsighted eyes in order for him to see anything. On Friday, those 2 thick little lenses were in a nice plastic frame that he had worn daily since he got the glasses new, back when he was 21. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t known that this might happen someday. He had broken his glasses once before back in high school and he had been forced to go for a whole week without glasses. But that was when he was still young enough that the state bought him a new pair. The days of that happening were long gone. He had aged out from foster care when he was 18 and then had been fortunate enough to find a job in a factory making parts for other companies that eventually went into cars, and washing machines and refrigerators and who knew what else. But gradually the factories that his company made things for moved their production to other, lower labor cost countries, and by the time David was 25 he was out of work. The unemployment benefits lasted for a while, but eventually they ran out and David became one of the chronically unemployed at age 27. It didn’t help David to realize that he wasn’t the only person that this had ever happened to. The knowledge didn’t put food in his grumbling belly, nor did it put a roof over his head. He was just fortunate enough that he still had a lightweight one person tent and a good, warm bedroll.
He had broken his glasses late Friday afternoon. They had snapped on one side of the bridge, which allowed the right lens to fall out. He had tried to find some glue that would glue the bridge back together and also glue the lens in but the only glue that the hardware store had that might work was a two part epoxy that would have cost him ten bucks that he just didn’t have. Saturday he had gone around to all the thrift stores in town to see if he could either find a pair of glasses that he could wear that he could see with, or better still a frame that he could fit his own lenses into. But he had also struck out there. One of the ladies who worked at one of the thrift stores had suggested that he could maybe contact the Lions Club because they collected glasses to send to third world countries. She had given him the name and address of one of the members she handed over the glasses to but they likely weren’t going to be available until Monday. Now it was Monday and he was going to have to find that Lions member to see if he could help him out.
The name of the man the lady at the thrift store gave him was that of a Mr. Petroff Barnaklass. Apparently he owned a restaurant not too far from the part of town that David generally hung out in, but David could not remember if he had ever tried his luck panhandling for food or money anywhere near that restaurant. David put his tightly rolled bedroll and his little pup tent into his rather large backpack and by holding one lens in front of his eye, with the other eye closed, he headed towards the area of town near the restaurant. He hoped the guy wouldn’t give him the bum’s rush as soon as he saw him, as that was happening more and more frequently. For a while David had done his best to look clean and presentable so that he could possibly get a job, but as time went on his clothing became a little more tattered and he could no longer get all the stains out. By now David was looking more and more like a bum, and unfortunately that was what he was these days.
It was quite a chore for David to make his way to the restaurant that Mr Barnaklass owned. David had never realized before how many broken sections there were in the concrete of the sidewalks around town. When he had been able to see the damaged parts he had avoided them, but now that David couldn’t see anything further than the end of his nose clearly it amazed him how often he tripped over an uneven piece of the concrete. Finally he reached the front of the restaurant, and gathering his courage he went through the door and walked up to the counter.
“I got no food to give you and I don’t serve bums in here unless you first show me you got the money to pay.” Petroff Barnaklass told David in a gruff voice.
‘I can understand you feeling that way Sir. But I am here because Sophie at General Thrift told me that you are in charge of the local chapter of the Lion’s Club and that you look after the glasses donations.” David said.
“I do, but why are you concerned about that?” Petroff asked.
“I have broken my glasses and I am so nearsighted I am half blind. I can’t even attempt to work until I get another pair. Sophie suggested that maybe since the Lions Club helps out people in Third World countries they might also be willing to help a fellow countryman.” David replied.
“I guess I could let you look at some of the glasses and you might be able to find a pair that would come fairly close to working for you.” Petroff responded.
“That would be wonderful Sir. When would it be convenient for you?” David asked.
“We are not terribly busy at the moment. I can take you upstairs and let you sort through some of the glasses now.” Petroff told David.
He led David up the stairs to a decent sized room that appeared to be pretty much unused. There was a long table in the center of the room with a number of chairs placed around it and in front of the chair in the center was a lensometer which David could barely see well enough to identify until he drew close enough. Petroff explained that he personally checked all the glasses and he sorted out ones that were too strong, or pairs that had very different prescriptions between the eyes. These, Petroff explained, were discarded as they were generally of no use to anyone but the original wearer. He explained to David that the basic requirements were for minus glasses with lenses between -1D and -10D, with astigmatism of no greater than -1D and generally on the 90 or the 180 axis. With glasses having plus lenses the ones that were in the biggest demand were ones with lenses between +1D and +6D.with no, or very little astigmatic correction.
“It does seem to be a shame to discard so many of these donated glasses, but the eye doctors do not want to give people prescriptions that might harm their eyes, and it is well known that wearing stronger prescriptions than required can, in some cases, force a person’s eyes to adapt to the stronger lenses.” Petroff told David.
“What do you do with the ones you can’t use?” David asked.
“The lenses are removed, and the plastic ones go for plastic recycling. Then the glass ones go in the glass recycling. The wire frames go in for metal recycling and the plastic frames are mostly ground up and if the metal content is too high they are discarded. I do save some of the glasses that have prescriptions that are higher than -10D, and I have a big box over here that is full of them.” Petroff answered.
“I am pretty sure I am higher than -10D. So I guess that is the box I should look in first. I have my old lenses, and originally I thought maybe I could find a frame that the lenses would fit into. I know that my glasses were too weak for me though and it might be better for me if I can find a stronger pair.” David told him.
Petroff lifted a big cardboard box to the top of the table. Then he took an empty box and put it to the other side of the chair that he told David to sit in.
“It might be easier to take each pair from the full box, try them on, and then if they don’t work for you just put them in the empty box. That way you will know that you have gone through all of them without missing any.” Petroff said.
“Hey, this pair works surprisingly well.” David said with a pair of 70’s plastic framed, obviously ladies glasses now on his face.
‘I suppose you could start a new style trend if you had the nerve to go around in public wearing them. But I am sure that you can find another pair that will suit you better if you look for a while.” Petroff laughed.
“It may seem funny to you sir, but to me it is wonderful to be able to see anything that is past the end of my nose clearly.” David replied with mock indignity.
“I am sure that those glasses are much better than nothing, but I can’t stay and give you fashion advice. I have to get back down to the restaurant and keep the ladies in line. Will you be all right here by yourself?’ Petroff asked.
“I’ll be fine, but are you sure you can trust me not to run off with your valuables.” David answered.
‘You shouldn’t have even asked that, not even if you are joking. You might be on the streets but I have the impression that you are a good man who has fallen on some hard times.” Petroff said.
“You are sure right about that sir. I left school after I graduated because I didn’t have enough money to go on to university. Then I worked for Custom Stamping until they closed down. Since then I have pretty much been out of work for the past 2 years. I have had a few part time low paying jobs but rent is so high I ended up on the streets at the beginning of summer. I don’t know what I will do when the cold weather comes.” David answered.
“Have you ever worked in a restaurant?” Petroff asked.
‘I have. I was a dishwasher and a busboy for a while, and I was a short order cook at another place for a few months.” David answered.
“You look through that box and see what you can come up with for a pair of glasses you can wear until you can get yourself back on your feet. I will come back up as soon as I can. Don’t take off because I want to talk with you.” Petroff said.
David went through the box very carefully. He still had the ladies thick CR39 old bifocals on to wear so he could see as he checked out each pair he removed from the box. He took out one pair that had what he thought were very powerful lenses because they looked to be fairly thick. The frame was plastic, and the temples had those side shields fastened to them to protect the wearer’s eyes from any objects that might be flying around in the air. David was pretty sure they were prescription safety glasses. He took off the ladies 70’s bifocals he had been wearing and he put the safety glasses on his face. The temples fitted nicely around his ears and there was no pressure points that seemed to hurt. David looked around the room, thinking that the lenses would be far too strong for him to focus through. But he was pleasantly surprised. It took a little effort for him to force his eyes to focus well enough to see through them, but he could see much better than he was used to seeing with his old glasses. He knew they were a bit stronger than he needed, but he didn’t care as long as he could see well, and the more he looked around the easier it became for him to focus on things.
David continued looking through the box, even though he was pretty sure he wouldn’t find another pair that were as perfect for him to wear as these ones were. As he got closer to the bottom he came across a pair of metal framed glasses that looked to have those polycarbonate lenses that no one used anymore. The edges were polished and when David put them on he was surprised that they seemed to have the exact same prescription as the safety glasses had. This was a bonus, and David knew he was going to take both pairs when he left. He dug out some more glasses and he came across another wire framed pair. These ones had what he was pretty sure was a reduced thickness lens, because when he tried them on they also seemed to have almost the same prescription as the other 2 pairs. He liked the frame better also, and he could hardly wait to get to a mirror so he could check out his appearance.
There were only a few pairs of glasses left in the box and since David was going to transfer everything over to the now almost full box he figured he might just as well check every pair out. As he took one of the last pairs in the box out of its case he looked at the lenses and the thickness of them and he thought that while he would wear them if he really had to that they had to be way too strong for him to ever be able to see out of them. He was correct. They were even stronger than the safety glasses. However, after wearing the safety glasses for a while, when he put the really thick ones on he was surprised that he could almost make his eyes focus through them. He put them to one side, along with the other 2 pairs he wasn’t wearing and he looked around for a washroom. Petroff had not returned yet, and David didn’t really want to be caught snooping around, but he needed to go quite badly, so he headed for the hallway. There was a bathroom, with a tub, and a shower along with a sink and a toilet. Everything was dirty and dusty, but there was water in the toilet, so David used it and flushed it. He heard noise on the stairs and he headed back out into what he was now fairly certain had been the living area of an apartment. There was no kitchen, but if the owner of the restaurant had originally lived here he had a kitchen downstairs in the restaurant so there was no need to have one upstairs as well.
Petroff had returned and was standing at the head of the stairs.
“I see you were fortunate enough to find a pair you could wear.” He said.
“Actually I found 3 pairs that I could see quite well with, and another pair that were a bit too strong for me right at the moment, but I figured I might grow into them.” David replied.
“You said you had been a short order cook at one time did you not?” Petroff asked.
“I filled in for a girl who was pregnant at Danny’s Diner for about 6 months. But she needed her job back and I ended up with no work again.” David replied.
“Did you look around up here?” Petroff asked.
“Not really. I just used the can.” David said.
With that Petroff showed David the rest of the upper floor. There were 2 bedrooms, as well as the bathroom that David had already seen. Everything was dusty and unused and there was no furniture other than the long table and the few wooden chairs in the living room. Petroff explained that he and his wife and 2 girls had lived in this apartment after he had purchased the restaurant, but had moved to a house as soon as he had saved enough money to buy one. As David had surmised, there was no kitchen because it was good enough for the owner of the restaurant to have his family eat downstairs. Also, there was no outside entrance, as the stairs came up from the restaurant.
“I can’t rent this place without putting in an outside set of stairs and a kitchen David. It is fine for the restaurant owner to live here, but it would cost me too much to bring it up to code as a rental.” Petroff told him.
“I can see that would be the case. But why don’t you give me a job and I could live here and work for you.” David said half-jokingly.
“Would you consider that?’ Petroff asked with a note of surprise in his voice.
“Petroff, winter is coming before you know it. Right now I am sleeping in a pup tent using a bedroll on hard ground. I can’t shower. I only have a couple of changes of underwear. I have no place to keep anything and even if I were to buy something it would be stolen as soon as I tried to leave it somewhere. I have pretty much hit rock bottom and I hate how my life is going to waste. I would do anything to have a place I could feel safe in and call my own.” David responded.
“First of all, everyone who knows me calls me Pete. Petroff is too hard, and too strange a name for people to handle, so please call me Pete. I was almost afraid to ask you if you would like to do that, but if you are willing that it could really help me out. My youngest daughter, who is one of my cooks, is having a baby and needs some time off. And I can always use a dishwasher. If you can fill in to do some of the cooking and help with the cleanup I am sure I will be able to keep you busy working. “Pete said.
“Talking about cleaning up, would you have some cleaning supplies downstairs so I can get a start on making this apartment presentable?” David asked.
“Sure, come on down and I will show you where everything is kept. And I am pretty sure we have an old double bed at the house you can use for a while. I will give you a $50.00 advance on your wages and you can get some decent clothing to wear as well.” Pete told David.
David thought he had just found out that he had been given a free ticket on the lottery and had discovered he had just won the jackpot. A roof over his head, food in his belly and clean clothing were more than he had even dreamed of. And to have 3 pairs of glasses he could wear was the real icing on the cake. He hadn’t even asked Pete how much he was going to pay him, and right now that didn’t matter a bit to David. Even if there was no money involved the food and lodging would be well worth it.
David took the $50.00 to the same thrift store where the lady who had suggested that he should go see Pete worked. He shopped very carefully and found 3 wearable t-shirts and a pair of jeans that fit him that still had a lot of life in them along with a nice blue dress shirt for under $20.00. The same lady was working the till. She recognized him and commented on the fact that h had found a pair of glasses so David thanked her very much for sending him to see Pete. Then he headed for one of the big box stores so he could buy some new underwear and socks, which set him back another $15.00. He had looked at the shoes at the thrift store, but he decided that his old runners would last a week or two longer and maybe he could see about buying a new pair after he got his first paycheck. He then spent another $10.00 on some soap and toothpaste and a toothbrush. He was going to hang on to that last $5.00 until he really needed it.
Back at the restaurant Pete introduced David to his wife Lana, and his two daughters Katrina and Olivia, who were called Trina and Libby. Libby was a pretty girl, much more attractive than Trina, who had a bit of a harsh, unfriendly look about her. Libby was a little shorter than Trina, and a little heavier than her height indicated she should be but some of the excess weight could have been due to the fact that she was pregnant. Libby also had a smile on her face all the time, but Trina didn’t seem to have anything to smile about. David was shown where the cleaning supplies were and he took the bucket and the mop upstairs with him. Then he came back down for the vacuum cleaner and the attachments.
David first ran the vacuum through the apartment. Then he washed the windows and the trim around them. The walls didn’t look to be in terrible shape so he left them alone and he mopped the bathroom linoleum. There was really nothing to dust except the window ledges, so he finished off by doing that. After he was done he cleaned the sink, the tub and the toilet, and then he took a shower before he put on his clean clothing. Once he was presentable he took all the cleaning materials back downstairs and asked Pete what he could do to help out. Pete immediately put him to work bussing tables and after Libby showed him how to work the dishwasher he ran through a load of dishes. The place was hopping from around 5 through 7, and after that the crowd dwindled a bit, but was still pretty steady until they closed at 9. Then everything had to be wiped down and all the food put away in the refrigerators. Finally at 10 they were finished.
“You did well David. I think you will be a real asset.” Lana told him.
“I am sorry David. I did not have a chance to go home to get the bed I promised that you could have. If you come with me we can do it now.” Pete said.
“Pete, you are tired. Don’t worry about me. I have my sleeping bag and my foam mat. I can sleep on that for one more night.” David replied.
“If you are good with that I will get Lana to help me load it in the back of the truck first thing in the morning and I will bring it with me when I come in to open up.” Pete told him.
“I am an early riser Pete, What can I do so that you don’t have to get here so early?” David asked.
“We open at 7, so when I get here at 6:30 I run the peeler and boil a half sack of potatoes. When the potatoes are just about cooked but are still too hard to mash I cool them off and then I chop them up for home fries. I put on at least 2 pots of coffee, and then about 10 to I heat up the grill. But I will try to be here by then. Thanks David.” Pete said.
When the Barnaklass family left David went upstairs and rolled out his bedroll on top of his foam mat. It didn’t take long before he was sound asleep and the next thing he knew light was streaming in the bedroom window. It had to be around 5:30, and a glance at his watch told him his guess was correct. He had the luxury of having a quick shower and he put on clean underwear and socks before he pulled his new to him jeans on. By 6:15 he was downstairs. He started the potato peeler and noticed that it took just about half a sack. Then he started a pot of water boiling and he washed and put the peeled potatoes in the boiling water. That took him about 15 minutes and by 6:30 David had a pot of coffee on with another 2 pots ready to go. By 6:45 there were a couple of people waiting to come in. Pete hadn’t told David what to do if people were waiting outside, but he thought he might as well let them in and get their day started.
They did seem a little surprised that David had opened the door early for them, but they came in and sat down. David took them the coffee pot and the creamers and filled their cups.
“Where is Pete?” One of the customers asked.
“He will be here by 7. I just started working for him and I now live upstairs so I got everything going for him so he doesn’t have to get here so early. My name is David and would you gentleman like anything to eat this morning?” David asked.
He took their order and headed for the kitchen to begin cooking the bacon and eggs. He threw the home fries on the grill and was just about ready to break their eggs when Pete walked in the door. When he saw that David had actually done the work he had asked him to do and was even serving customers a big grin appeared on his face. David liked that.
To Be Continued
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