Long Islanders

32 - Working Days

After graduation, Jimmy worked a lot of jobs as he started his aircraft training. Over the summer he worked putting in swimming pools, serving as a gas station attendant while not working on pools.

One time, while they were carrying dirt away from the hole dug for the pool, Henry was carting the dirt away in a wheelbarrow. Jimmy said something to annoy him as Henry dumped the dirt and his friend turned to chase him with the wheelbarrow.

"You'll catch it, Jimmy!"

Jimmy jumped away down the incline back towards the hole as Henry started down after him. But the wheelbarrow went down the slope faster than he had expected, gathering speed as he went. And as he got to the bottom of the slight hill, the wheel got stuck in a rut and tipped forward.

Henry fell between the two handles and landed on the metal of the wheelbarrow's bucket. For a moment, he just balanced there as the wheelbarrow stood on its wheel, teetering in the air. Jimmy fell over howling as the wheelbarrow pitched forward, spilling Henry into the dirt.

Jimmy continued to pump gas at a gas station, to earn some extra money on top of what he made putting in pools. Although not many exciting things happened at his work, his friends, on the other hand, cooked up one of the stupidest schemes he had ever heard of over at their gas station.

Frank and another guy, Pete, worked at the same gas station, and one time they decided to knock over the station to steal the money. They came up with this elaborate plan that involved the two of them pretending to fend off the robbers but eventually fail, making it look like third party stole the cash.

Pete and Frank roughed each other up a bit, and one of Pete's punches landed square on Frank's jaw, knocking out one of his teeth.

They did end up getting the money. But they ended up spending the money on getting Frank a replacement tooth, so it didn't do them very much good in the long run.

After putting in swimming pools for a while, Jimmy then worked putting telephones in, hooking phones up in expensive country clubs and even putting in wiring for Trump Tower.

"Ouch!" Jimmy exclaimed as he worked, shaking his hand. Blood seeped out of the cut on his hand, caused by the tie wrap wrapped around the wiring. As he wiped the blood off on his work rag, he heard a voice and looked up.

A security guard stood over him. "You are being asked to leave."

"I'm still working," Jimmy said, keeping his tone respectful. "The wiring's not finished."

"You are being asked to leave," the guard repeated. "The family has returned and you may not be here while they are."

As Jimmy and the rest of his crew were escorted downstairs, he caught a glimpse of Donald Trump, his wife, and two of his children. But then they were rushed out of the building, to finish the job some other day.