I’m on my way out the door this morning when I hear a pounding on the door. I open it to find Billy. He banged so loud because he thought I might still be upstairs sleeping. Billy knows this because he saw my car, and only my car, sitting in the drive way, Billy also knows I like to sleep late. He is here because he knows that the beautiful yellow fall leaves are staring to fall and they will soon require raking. I’m glad he showed up because I was thinking the same thing. Last week I was thinking I would pay Billy $10 to rake our lawn, and sure enough, he shows up to do just that. Because I was just leaving the house I told him to come back later this week to arrange an amount and to rake. He will be back this Thursday.
“Billy Rules” given to us by another employer of his
Billy looks to be about 60 something, in reality, he could very well be 40 something. He is about my height but probably weighs less than me. He is worn and weathered and it shows. With yellowed eyes, wrinkled skin, and graying hair, this man comes by our house a few times a month to do odd-end jobs for money.
The first time I met Billy was about 6 weeks ago. It was about 7:30 pm and the sun was just setting when I hear a knock on the door. For the first time, I open the door to find Billy. Immediately I am invited into Billy’s story. He had/has a relationship with our landlord and previous tenants. As I sit there for the next 45 minutes, as roommates come and go, I hear a little bit about Billy, and why he needs 12 dollars. I agree to a 10 dollars car wash. He says he will be back the next day at 8 am after he goes to Burger King for breakfast. I told Billy I will not be up at that hour. This was no problem, he was going to get soap, a bucket and towels from our neighbors and I was free to pay him and inspect the work whenever I woke. Sure enough, by 10 am the next day, my car was spotless and I owed Billy 10 dollars.
Since then Billy has washed our cars, mowed our lawn and fixed things that needed fixing. He is extremely handy, despite being mostly illiterate. We are not Billy’s only source of income. He has an entire network of people he works for. And while occasionally he will ask for a ride, he walks almost everywhere. Once again, this man is weathered, but hard working.
While I was originally taken back by Billy (I wasn’t really expecting a skinny black man to show up at my door and ask for money that night…), I have come to respect him. He has clearly made some wrong turns in his life, but has enough sense, or possibly just self-respect, to ask for work instead of handouts.
I think this has been a learning lesson to me and my roommates, as well. Even though we are all in college and struggling with money ourselves, we have found extra’s for him. Not all the time but occasionally Billy gets us after a good tip day when we can afford to throw him his coveted 12 dollars. It is also a reminder to appreciate what we do have. We may be over-worked and under-paid but we are still very lucky, and that’s important to see.
I don’t know Billy extremely well, but I have a feeling that I’ll be seeing a lot more of him.
andra jayne 