It had to be You

front of the sofa, I’ll show you how.”
    When the magazines, newspapers, and flowers had all been removed, everybody moved closer to look at the sheet showing the second floor. Harry said, “My brother and I will be back tomorrow to double-check our measurements, but as they read now, the dumbwaiter can go in right behind the door to that storeroom.“
    “How will we get past it?“ Miss Twibell asked. Harry looked at her a brief moment and said, without any hint of criticism of her degree of common sense, “We move the door to the other side of the storeroom. Then move the shelving to the right end of the wall. You’ll still have almost as much room in there, especially if we put hooks on the wall to hang brooms, mops, and buckets.”
    Miss Twibell had the grace to say, “What a fool question to ask. I should have thought of it.”
    Harry smiled and said, rolling out another big sheet of gridded paper, “This shows the ground floor. I’m putting it down exactly on top of the map of this floor and have marked where the shaft will go. You’ll lose your smallest bathroom, but there is another, larger one on that floor al- ready. Are you willing to do that?“
    “I don’t think anyone’s used that little bath- room for years. Yes, if it’s necessary, I wouldn’t mind.”
    Now Harry flourished the third sheet with a flare of victory. “See where it comes out in the basement?”
    Miss Twibell, Betty, Lily, and the Misses Smith and Jones leaned even closer.
    Betty crowed, “Right between the laundry room and the kitchen!“
    “Ain’t that lucky?“ Jim Harbinger said. “Neat as a pin. We was over the moon when we caught on.“
    “Could the opening be on both sides?“ Miss Twibell asked. She was finally sounding genuinely excited now that she understood what they were planning.
    “Yes,“ Harry said. “It isn’t a load-bearing wall. It looks like it was added after the house was built.”
    Miss Twibell sat back in her chair, no longer smiling. “Now give me the bad news. What will it cost to do this?”
    Jim opened his mouth to speak, but Harry, by far the smarter and more sensible of the brothers, poked him lightly in the ribs and wrote a figure down on a slip of paper and passed it to her. He always worked on the assumption that only the person or a married couple paying for the work needed to know the cost.
    Miss Twibell read the number and she had to fight to keep her chin from dropping. It was half what she feared it would cost.
    Before she could reply, Harry went on, “Now, if you want to electrify it, that will cost another ten dollars.“
    “What happens if the power goes out in a storm?“ Lily asked.
    “You’d still have the ropes and the drum they roll around to pull it up or lower it. If it’s a heavy load, it might take a lot of muscle to do that. Since it appears that most of the work here is done by ladies, I think you should run it with electricity. We’ll see if it’s needed when the work is done. You might be able to do it with just the ropes.“
    “When can you start?“ Miss Twibell asked.
    “Day after tomorrow if you will be ready,“ Harry said. “We need to measure again to make
    sure we did it right, and then go to Poughkeepsie to get the materials to do it. If you don’t mind us working here on Sunday.”
    Miss Twibell turned to Robert and said, “Thank you so much for thinking of this and knowing the right men to do it.“
    “It’s only because I’m lazy,“ Robert admitted.

    Chief Walker returned to the nursing home Friday afternoon. Jack Summer had been to his office at the jail earlier, asking about the sample products Walker had taken away.
    “They were all perfectly innocent. I felt a bit of an ass for asking to have them examined. So please don’t ever mention it when you’re free to write about this.”
    When Walker arrived on the second floor of the nursing home, the big room and hallway outside were chaotic. Bottles, mops, boxes of swabs, buckets, and things he couldn’t even identify were being carried out to the vacant room down the hallway. Miss Twibell, Betty, Lily, and Robert were too busy to even notice at first that he was there.
    As Miss Twibell came back empty-handed, Walker asked, “Does this have anything to with the Harbinger boys’ pickup truck being parked in your drive?“
    “Oh, Chief Walker, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were here. Yes, the young men are here to double-check the measurements they made this