Joseph arrived at Beth's to find most of the BEN people were already there. Everyone greeted him like a long lost brother and soon he was hearing everything about how the website and the company were doing now that he was no longer involved. He had to admit it gave his ego a bit of a boost to know he was missed. Still he didn't in the least regret having turned everything over to Beth and Brian.
Beth cornered him at one point, looking him over with an appraising eye.
"You've lost weight and you're tan," she commented.
"I've been working my ass off for Rebuild NOLA."
"You, doing physical labor?" She looked at him aghast then ducked away, laughing when he tried to swat her behind.
"Yes, my dear niece, I am actually doing something other than sitting on my butt. And I'm loving it."
"So, who is he?" she asked, giving him her best innocent stare.
"There is no 'he'. Remember when you told me to find something I cared about? To find a wrong and try to help right it? I have and in my own small way, that's what I'm doing." He went on to tell her exactly what it was. By the time he finished he found he had an audience.
Most of them remembered Jennifer's feature story on the homeless from earlier in the year and so knew what questions to ask about how they could help. Joseph answered as best he could, making suggestions based primarily on what he'd learned from talking to the men who worked for Rebuild NOLA.
"Mr. Gilbert's done a great job building it into a worthwhile organization from what I've heard," Brian commented a few minutes later when most of the others had drifted away again.
"Indeed he has," Joseph agreed.
"I'm not surprised, considering his background."
Joseph arched an eyebrow in question. "You know his background? All I've been able to find out is that he was in the army and after he finished his tour of duty, he didn't re-up. Fairly soon after that he started Rebuild."
"Nine months after. Before that, he was homeless."
"Okay, how do you know that?" Joseph asked in surprise. "It certainly isn't in any of the information I've found on him—or in the information about Rebuild."
"Remember the story we did on people dumping animals and just about anything else they wanted to dispose of, in the Lower Ninth? I met him there. He'd been living in one of the abandoned houses, the same kind he's refurbishing now. He wasn't willing to be interviewed but we did talk some. Apparently when he left the army, he wasn't able to keep a job, when he was able to even find one, because, well as he put it he has anger control issues."
"PTSD?"
"He denied it when I asked. He said he's always been short tempered and for all I know, that's the truth. Anyway, since—and I quote loosely—'he had nothing better to do with his time', he began helping with the cleanup. I suspect it was just a short step from getting rid of the jungle of weeds and everything they covered to his deciding something had to be done about the houses themselves."
Joseph nodded. "He must be quite the salesman, though you couldn't prove it by me," he said with a slight laugh.
"Meaning getting the funding to start Rebuild?"
"Funding, permissions, everything it entails, because he did get it all and in a very short span of time, according to the files he lent me, which by the way are very dry reading."
"Those kinds of things usually are. And there you have it, what little I know about him."
"That's more than I did and I've been working with him for a few weeks now. Okay, not with him at this point. Hell, after the first couple of days, I've barely seen him," Joseph said ruefully.
"But you'd like to," Beth put in.
Joseph shrugged. "It could be interesting to find out more about what makes him tick. As I told him when I tried prying a bit, it's the reporter gene in me. He did not take kindly to that."
"Doesn't surprise me in the least," Brian said. "He only talked with me that one time. When I tried to buttonhole him again, he closed down like a steel trap."
"Guys," one of the men hollered at that point, "if you want anything to eat, you'd better get over here. The hungry hordes are descending like ravenous wolves."
Brian snorted. "You can tell he's a reporter just from the descriptions." Putting an arm around Beth's waist, he walked with her toward the table laden with food.
Joseph followed, but his mind was more on what he'd learned about Cal than on barbequed ribs and potato salad.
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