Maybe I'll hire a band.

the cellie rings, it's 7:57AM, that means one of two people, Lady G who is in LA, or the owner of the real estate office. LA's time is 4:57AM (I think), nobody ever gets into trouble at 5:00AM, so I'm pretty sure who causes my phone to ring.

"Tim, it's *the owner*, I need a favor"
"Okay"
"The ad looks great by the way"

We've already been over that the tribute page in Boston Homes is not an ad but it's just easier to refer to it as such.

"It's ...okay, I'm not very happy with it"
"It's plain and simple which is nice for what it is"

no comment from me, I agree, that the style was correct but ...I don't know, I don't like it. I don't like a lot of my work.

"*Agent J* has a banner she needs hung, she was going to do it herself but I don't think she should, can you hang it?"
"I guess"
"Tell me if you can't"
"No, I guess I can"
"Because, you might be doing something"

I laughed out loud because she usually forgets that I might be doing something and instead of me saying 'no shit', I just laughed. She continued...

"No, you might be doing something, ...I don't know. Is it alright?"
"I guess", I kept with the I guess because I was sort of told that a banner might be hung from the street lights, I would have a problem with hanging stuff from the street lights.

"So, you'll do it"
"Yeah, I'll do it"
"Thank you very much, *agent J* is leaving at nine for the service."
"You're welcome", I don't like saying your welcome because, to me it seems to make like the thank you was required, I usually says 'sure' but that seems to imply that the thank you is insincere, so I went with the 'you're welcome'

I grab as much stuff as I can think of to hang a banner, rope, nails, screws, hammer, cordless screwdriver. I was told I didn't need a ladder, my hope was that this was correct.

I get to *agent J*'s house, which has no house number, and I run into a city co-worker, he's hanging no parking signs from the belated St. Pat's Day parade, he asks what's going on, someone's walking past, so I try to delay the reply because I think strangers talking about the dead in front of someone who might know the deceased is rude, but the pause is going too long so I start. The guy walking by turns and says "It's a tragedy, isn't it?", yeah, it is, but my co-worker hasn't a clue, so I tell him that some guy fell to his death right across the street, the guy had two young kids and a wife.

The guy walking by ends up going into the house of *agent J*, I check the house numbers on either side, to confirm that this is the correct house, the house to the left is without numbers too, so I check the one after that, I do the adding by two and then by two again and I believe I have chosen the correct house. I look for the door bell that isn't there, so knocking my next choice. The knocking works, it's the guy walking by that answers the knock.

"I'm looking for *agent J*, I'm here to hang a banner", I explained,
'"You're the guy that was talking to the city guy"
"Yup, I work for the city, he a co-worker"

Turns out, this guy is the guy that found Barry after Barry fell. This guy worked with Barry. Joe is his name. I talked to *agent J* who is working on the words she wants to say at the service, she's worried that her looks may not presently be up to snuff, I tell her I won't look, I don't.

Joe gets the banner, he's a gregarious guy, he asks if I knew Barry, I did not, today I'm glad I didn't but I'm certain I would have benefited from the knowing, if I had.

Joe also gets rope and explains that there are screws and nails and stuff across the street, if we need them, also a screw gun. I find Joe to be aces. I don't need anything I brought.

We decide to screw the banner right to the house, we wanted to rope it from the windows but couldn't get it taught enough, we didn't want to put screw holes into the house but we couldn't avoid it. It's going to be painted soon anyway, the holes are easy to fix.

Joe's a chatter box, my box lacks chatter but Joe is still working out the loss of a friend, co-worker, neighbor, brother, mentor. The banner gets hung and then hung again because our spotter has other things on her mind, things more important that a mis-centered banner. The re-centering is easy enough. Job well done. The house the banner is hung one, is in a stage of construction, so one of the windows need to be re-boarded up, Joe points out where one of his screws has split the window frame, he apologizes to Barry. I let him know that the split will not be seen, that gets covered with trim I explained.

Joe shows me the hat Barry was wearing at the time, there's a hole in the hat, he explains his theory for the hole. I want to escape, I don't want to know anymore. I hadn't wanted to see the picture of him with his young wife for the tribute page, thank goodness the kids weren't in the photo. Joe is going to tell me more, this is certain, I don't want to hear more, I've heard enough. I've heard enough but Joe shares more, I decide to hear Joe out, true, for me I would rather leave, I would rather worry about buying donuts or something, but today I stay, stay to hear Joe because he needs to speak more than I need not to hear. He points out Barry's coat, Carhartt, I've a similar one, he wore that on fateful day.

Joe says other things, all the while I'm looking away, surveying the jobsite, I miss the jobsite. I look away because my whole theory of the window to the soul thing, Joe goes on sharing, he mentions his relationship with *agent J*, says this whole thing made him realize something. He explains he's the jealous kind, he would always ask who's that guy, he realizes now, some people need to be shared. Shared because you never now what the next minute brings.

We make it to the sidewalk, banner is nicely hung, the best it could be, Joe offers his hand, which at first I miss because I'm looking at things, things other than Joe, he says thanks a lot, I say the same, I explain that I thought I was going solo on the banner but I couldn't have done it by myself. Joe corrects me and says I could have which is true, I had the solo plan worked out before I got there. Joe's a realist, a straight talker. I took the chance and looked Joe in the eye, Joe's going to be okay, even better in the days to come, Barry taught him carpentry skills while alive and some about life after.