Post by Saito Kito on May 2, 2014 12:06:18 GMT -5
(A short last minute Zeni training before the grading period comes to a close)
The wad of cash that Kit possessed was slowly getting larger. Everywhere he went the man found himself getting a fair amount of zeni for his efforts. He actually had never asked for payment, especially not from Jen. That hadn't stopped her, and countless others after him from dropping the money in his pocket.
The first example of this occurred when he entered the outskirts of central for the first time. He had once again stopped in for a quick drink of water only to be ambushed by an older woman in need of assistance. She actually had needed quite a lot. Kit asked just as he always did if she had anything that needed done in exchange for a water fill up and a bathroom for him to freshen up in. She agreed and provided a rather long list of chores. These chores ranged from a variety of tasks, the first of which was fixing her front door, which hung off of its hingese and would creak loudly when opened. Just an hour later after he replaced the screws and used WD-40 on the rust he found himself drinking the cool water he had so desperately wanted. She offered to let him use the bathroom as well, but Kit was not a freeloader. She had a rather large list of jobs that needed done.
"Its okay really. My husband used to do all of those chores."
Her words were sobering to hear. This elder was in the middle of no where, and the longer he listened to her speak the more he learned from her. She wanted to be called Lori, short for Lorretta. Although she was old she certainly wasn't feeble. She could walk, and garden, but much of the handy work fell to the wayside after her husbands passing. Sick with a disease Kit had never even heard of, he was interested to hear her stories about days of old. It reminded him of his eldest aunt. She had been everywhere, seen everything. She was there during the great war and the great peace. She had seen every plague, drought, and mishappening that the world had to offer.
It was only a short break before he was back at it. A kid had thrown a baseball through her window and caused a baseball sized hole to appear. This job was simple enough. Sweeping up the broken glass and taking out the window panel proved easy, and the installation of the new window took no more than an hour. He had earned a shower.
Having obtained all that he needed it didn't seem necessary to stay, yet it didn't seem kind to leave. The woman wasn't expecting him to stay, but her story had touched kit. It reminded him that not everyone came from the same background, and in many cases death was a tragic inevitability. He hadn't died from an invasion or from bad people, but rather from natural causes that no one could avoid. He decided one or two more chores wouldn't hurt, and got to work.
He spent the afternoon on the roof, quickly reshingling a portion of the roof that leaked. By the time sunset was nearing he had already finished that job and found himself digging out the heavier dirt in her garden, the ho striking the hard earth repeatedly. This task was easy for Kit but would have been a full days job of Lori. He took pride knowing that he had helped her with so many difficult tasks. She invited him to stay the night and he did so, sleeping in a room she explained had belonged to her son before he became a big business man. She couldn't recall the companies name, but was certain it was a big deal because every time he came to visit he looked so dapper and clean.
She was so proud of her son.
She must have brought him up four or five times before Kit finally retired to his new room and fell asleep.
He awoke early the next morning in order to get a little brisk excersize in but found that Lori was already awake. This meant he could pick up the chores again without fear of waking her. The next task was a table in her living room that had been in its original box for years. No one had set it up for her and she simply didn't have the strength for some of the heavier portions of the table. Kit however, did. He had the beautiful new table set up within the hour and moved on to cleaning out the light fixtures, unscrewing the glass from the ceiling and handing them to Lori who would wash them out in the sink. She was too short, and too scared to use the ladder to accomplish this task. The longer Kit stayed the more he was bothered with her son. Apparently he came by one a month or so with a nice supply of groceries, but his mother needed more assistance than that. Kit wouldn't have left if Lori hadn't insisted it the next evening.
"I haven't any money to pay you"
"None needed Ma'am. Your hospitality has been more than I could have ever asked."
She insisted however that he needed to stop wasting his time on an old woman and go about his way. He too had shared his dream of competing in the WWMA tournament and restoring his families good name. She had told him fighting was silly, but as long as it was for fun she couldn't argue. Somehow this brought up her son as well, she clearly cared for him a lot. She agreed to let him stay another night and allow him to finish up the chore list.
The garage door creeked, one of her cubbords was stuck shut, and one of her pipes in the bathroom was leaking. All these jobs were simple enough that Kit was able to figure it out, but difficult enough that Lori would have had a difficult time finishing it. By the end of the third day however she insisted that he move on. Not that she hadn't enjoyed the company, but rather she felt terrible keeping a young spirit from tackling his dream. Kit could wait, what was one more year away from the tournament?
That night however as he was packing his bag to leave, the door opened in the front of the house. He could hear Lori scream.
Trouble! Bursting out of the bedroom door and into the living room his aura was already flaring (Odd as he hadn't the foggiest idea what aura was or how to control it). He was ready to destroy whatever was bringing her harm and yet it was a scream of delight. Her son was home.
"Benji how I missed you!"
True to her description Ben stood at five foot eight, a crisp clean suit, and slicked back hair. On a badge over his left lapel he could read the word "UNITY". Kit hadn't heard of anyplace called unity, but he recognized the word as something positive. He hoped that was what the company was all about. Ben, whom had pulled his mother behind him in a vein shaky attempt to protect her soon let down his guard as Lori explained the misunderstanding. Once tensions calmed the three sat down for a dessert prior to Kit's leaving.
"Saito, thank you so much for watching over my mother the last few days. Take this."
Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a thin rectangular card stock, Ben handed it to Kit. The card read.
Benjamin Reid
Product Manager
UNITY
His office number and E-mail were also on the card, and by the time kit had finished examining the card ben had already pulled out a sizable wad of cash. An even larger sum than he had been given for the bounty. Of course the back and forth of "Oh I can't take this" began and eventually he had no choice. He would leave the home with a wad of cash even greater than what he started with. This wasn't over however. Going a little deeper into town, Kit found a repairman who was just closing down.
In short he paid the man most of the money he had received to ensure that he continued to look after Lori even after Kit was gone. The man's price was just slightly less than what Kit had obtained, so he still actually walked away with a little extra spending cash. But more importantly he walked away having learned even more about human kindness.
And of course an open invitation to see Ben in Central at their corporate office any time...whatever that was worth.
(For this one I tried to use as little dialogue as possible in order to encourage thought.)
(For this one I tried to use as little dialogue as possible in order to encourage thought.)