Welcome to Curksville!" "Come on I have to show you around!"

"Not that I could protest even if I wanted to," I whispered.

Houses on the streets looked quite old many had chipped paint of missing roof tiles. Their lawns were overgrown with weeds and grass. The sidewalk was also quite stained with mud and was chipping on the curve. Of the few people I have seen many, had on old boots and plain clothing. Soon Aditi came to the shopping center.

"This is where I get all my tools from."

"Wait a minute, they sell you tools here?"

"Well... I and some of the other store owners have made a couple of agreements but long story short yes."

"Here let's go in this one first." She came to the entrance of a thrift shop, its window was so thick with mildew that I could not even see into the building. Aditi opened the door for me and I was hit with the smell of my grandma's old nursing home. Hanged up on the top shelf were vintage shops of all colors and shapes. In the middle was a book center and spread throughout were different shelves with the cash out center being in the back.

"I have to talk to the owner here, go ahead and look around."

She went toward the back of the store and I went toward the center. Digging through the books many were torn but there were a few that looked in good condition. One, in particular, caught my eye immensely. "Teaching an adult to read" I read out loud "Step by step guide." This would be perfect for Aditi it's the least I can do she has done so much for me. I began feeling my pockets when it hit me that "I left my bag of money in the tent!" with all of the recent events I forgot about it. "Ugh, I hope L.A is at least taking care of it."

"Ora! Come back here quick."

I followed the voice to find Aditi and a man in front of the counter. "Ora this is Arhaan, Arhann this is Ora". Arhann waved at me and I reciprocated his actions. He looked similar to Aditi both had the same hair type and skin color. Aditi began to speak to him in a strange tonged and Arhann began to reply in the same language. "He has something for the both of us." Arhann went to the back room and returned with a lawnmower. He looked at Aditi and began talking to her, he pulled the cord, and the engine revered. He was giving her a demonstration. Aditi started to translate "sometimes Arhaan gives me things that aren't selling, he has been saving this mower for us." Arhaan turned the mower off and rolled it over into Aditi's hand. Aditi bowed and muttered something and he muttered something back. Arhaan looked at me and pointed at the book center on the other side of the store.

"He wants to take what you were looking at." Aditi clarified.

"Are you sure, I have the money, well not on me bu-"

He started talking to Aditi again "He instants any friend of mine is a friend of his." Ahraan went back to the store and Aditi started making her way to the front. On the way put, I picked up the book. Aditi picked the lawnmower into the wagon.

"What are we going to do with it?"

"Well on a normal day I would take this back to the railroad, but, that is going to be put on paused."

She held my hand and placed me into the wagon. "Come on we need to start making our way back."

When we made our way through the front door I put the mower in the living room. "You know I think I might be onto something."

"Okay let's hear it."

"So what I noticed is that most of the townhomes had bad lawns so I was thinking we could make some extra side cash."

"Well that's not a bad idea but I thought we were going to try and find our back home tomorrow." "Well...about that I want to stay. Think about it with some spurning up this place could be our home." "A place where I and you can live forever." I kicked at the floor. "What about L.A" Aditi mumbled. "We can't just leave her." "We won't! When we finish we can go back and get her!"

"I don't know Ora."

"Aditi the railroad is isn't a home, I mean I have never seen where you live but I know it's nothing like this."

"But what about the people I am leaving behind-"

"But what about the people you can meet-hey what about me for crying out loud!"

She got silent. "Come on Aditi just give it a chance." She sighed "I am going to the garden we can talk about this later." "See back at the railroad you couldn't say that sentence could." She rolled her eyes and left.

We ate dinner in silence that night. An Aditi even had the extra passion to sleep on the top of the stairs that night. In the morning she went back to the garden to get vegetables. "Hey before you go, I am sorry for trying to get you to say yes yesterday. You deserve time to think." She paused and looked over at me "can I help you in the meantime?'' her voice sounding dry. "Of course, you can." I hugged her afterward.

"Well let's get going" she placed the mower in the wagon and took it to the front porch. On the way toward the entrance of town, I started to come up with a game plan. "So I was thinking we should charge hmm $15 per lawn, that way after two lawns we could buy at least one sheet of wood at the hardware store." Aditi did not respond she only stared into the distance.

"Hey, did you hear me?"

"I- um I did"

"So what do you think?"

"To be honest I don't understand, I don't know much about money," Aditi mumbled she quicken the pace making a slight gap between us. I jogged to catch up to her. "How long were you in school for?"

"Not long enough to know how much each coin is worth, I understand dollar bills though."

We took a turn at a corner to find a house that looked promising. Just like the surrounding area, there was chipping coming from the wall. The grass was matted with weeds and started to form bushes in the middle. "When we walked up the steps to the door pieces of wood started to chip off. I gave the door a hefty bang.

"State your purpose!" a man yelled back.

"W-we are cutting grass in the neighborhood 15 dollars apiece."

"I don't got any money!"

Not wanting to give up I tried negotiating "what about $10?"

"No."

"$5"

"No."

"Free!" I yelled at the door, we are going to need money somehow if we are going to fix up the cabin I can not give up now. The door nob started to wiggle as the large dark man immerged through the door. He had a straw hat on and his biceps glimmered in the morning sun. "Free you to say!"

"Wait I didn't mean it like free free" I looked for Aditi for assistance.

"We meant free as in... bartering!"

"Bartering?" he rubbed his chin in suspicion.

Aditi continued "yes we cut your grass and then you can give us something of equal value." He pondered on the idea he looked over at our lawnmower then at us and to his grass. "Fine but this better not be a scam. Call me out when you're done." He shut the door in our faces send a rush of wind to our faces.

"That's the best you could do?'' I looked in Aditi's direction "hey at least we are getting something out of this! "she shouted back.

She took out the lawnmower "I will do the front and you can do the back." She revered up the engine and began to get to work. It took about two hours for the both of us to get the lawn finished. The sun beat down on our backs and our sweat raced to the bottom of our clothes. Leaving us soaked from the head down. What made it more time-consuming was that we only had one lawnmower meaning the other could not help and just had to watch till it was their turn.

"Wow, you girls did great! Not gonna lie I thought I was about to get a completely free lawn cut but you all deserve a fair bargain." the man opened up his garage it was filled with chairs, tables, and other pieces of furniture. "Here help your self my old furniture shop ran its course decades ago."

Aditi made her way to the entrance first, I followed behind her digging through all of the furniture as well. I found a small stool that would be able to fit into the wagon and Aditi found a carpenter saw. "This should be good." I nodded off to the old man. We said our goodbyes and made our way to the cabin. "With this saw it is going to be much easier to get rid of the old wood from the door frames."

"What about you, why did you get the stool."

"Well it's small enough to fit in the wagon and it can help with reaching high places."

"I guess you have a good point."

When we got back the sun was already starting to set and you could hear the crickets chirping down the stream. I helped put the supplies away and Aditi went to get dinner. The stars shimmered under the moonlight as we slept peacefully on the stairs.