Joe found me trying to pull a heavy traveling case out of the common-room doorway with one hand wrapped in a dishcloth. The handle had cut my palm before I thought to cover it. He took the other end without greeting me, and together we set the case against the far wall. “Whose?” he asked. I said I did not know. We left its fastenings alone. There were three more bags to move before Dorn could enter without stepping over the crew's claim to the floor.
We carried them to the wall beside the unused cupboard, leaving the cupboard door free. I wanted them outside, wet pavement or not. Joe asked whether making their owners angry would improve the evening. I put the last bag down harder than necessary but kept it under cover. The common room had once held tenants reading newspapers after supper. With its borrowed chairs and scratched floor it looked too ordinary to be worth a fight. That was the first useful thought I had brought into it.
We arranged short rows with a lane through the middle and space beside both doors. The rear door opened toward the back passage and stairs; I pushed it through its full swing before setting a chair nearby. Joe shook a loose rung and took that chair out altogether. A woman brought two kitchen stools, then carried one back because her little boy needed somewhere to eat. We accepted what she could spare. By six, the room held more mismatched seats than I had expected and fewer than I hoped would be needed.
Curtis came in with another man while Joe was carrying a bench. They set their hats on the front chairs. Curtis stretched his legs across the middle lane and asked where Eddie ought to sit. I put down the chair in my hands. “Where there's room.” He patted the empty seat beside him. “There'll be room here.” The other man moved a third chair forward until the rows behind it could barely pass. I could feel Joe waiting for me to decide what sort of gathering we were making.
I lifted the empty chair and carried it into the second row. Curtis stood, catching its back before I lowered it. The two of us held it between us, wood creaking under our hands. “Don't make a show,” he said. I told him people needed the passage. He looked toward Joe, who had set the bench down and stayed beside it. Nobody moved to help either of us. Finally Curtis let go. I placed the chair, then moved the other unoccupied front seat into the tenants' rows.
He took his hat off the remaining chair and struck it against his leg. “You'll wish you had somebody behind you.” After they left, Joe said he knew men who would come if I wanted them. I almost asked how many. I pictured familiar shoulders filling the room and Dorn turning away before she reached the threshold. “No fighting help,” I said. Joe looked at my wrapped hand. “Then don't go looking for it yourself.” He took the chair Curtis had used and checked its legs before setting it back.
I went upstairs for Ruth's trunk. She had packed it for moving into the proposed rooms, not for leaving the house. We agreed to keep it below until the terms were signed, out of the traffic but ready to carry. She held the door while Joe and I brought it down the first flight. At the bottom she directed us to a dry place beside the stair. I asked whether she wanted it covered. She said no. Anybody attending could see that her things had not been sent away.
Families arrived while the daylight thinned. I stood at the entrance and let each person choose a seat instead of placing them where I thought they would be useful. Hale came with a cushion tucked beneath his arm. The machinist stayed near the rear door. Ruth sat beside the woman whose children had eaten from the stools. Dorn arrived carrying a flat leather bag. She looked through the room before entering, then chose a chair near the front without asking me where to sit.
Joe took a place along the wall, leaving the doorway to me. There were people standing now, but the middle lane remained clear. I moved a dropped scarf before somebody slipped on it and heard voices outside cease. Eddie stepped over the threshold with Sutter beside him. Behind them stood Curtis and the other man. Eddie looked first at the occupied chairs, then at Dorn's bag, then at Ruth's trunk. I kept my hands open at my sides. There was no empty room left for him to claim.