Biff found himself standing on the sidewalk outside of Karyn's house, his modified vehicle parked alongside the street. Now that he was here, he wasn't sure what to do. Just knock on the door and say "hey, you don't know me, but I need to ask you some questions"? He was starting to feel anxious, which wasn't something he was used to feeling, and he almost turned to get back in his car when the front door opened.
"Hey, it's my boy scout!" Bethany Black greeted an increasingly confused Biff. "I don't have any more yardwork for you to do," she said as she crossed the driveway to meet Biff, unaware that it had been her own daughter in Biff's body who had helped her the day before, "but I'd love some help inside. Do you want to come in?"
Confused but nevertheless grateful for this turn of events, Biff followed the woman into her home.
"Dominic doesn't get back from his shift of the fishing trawler until the weekend, but yesterday I knocked some of his things over and it's just a lot to re-organize by myself," Bethany explained as she lead the boy up the stairs. "Lures and tackle and things I don't even have names for. Do you know anything about fishing?"
Biff shook his head.
"It's okay, I'll tell you where everything goes. But a second set of hands is helpful, especially when so much of it is small and sharp. Just be careful and don't prick yourself."
Biff nodded, and followed Bethany into a side-room full of fishing equipment along the walls and on the shelves and, as Bethany had prepared him for, scattered across the floor.
She cleared a spot on the carpet big enough for the two of them to sit down on, pulled over a large, empty tacklebox, and invited Biff to sit next to her.
The instructions were straightforward, and the actions generally mindless. And soon the thought of asking Bethany anything in particular left Biff's head, as his newly-nimble hands used their skills learned from crochet to pluck and sort bits of wire, plastic, and lead. He didn't need to ask any questions anymore. His answer was here. This was where he belonged. Sitting next to this woman, as she began to hum a simple tune, and doing cooperative work alongside her.
The image came back to him from the previous day in the quilt shop, of women gathered in an old cabin to craft together a massive quilt. This wasn't the same work. Biff wasn't creating anything. But he was helping to make order. And he was working with someone else to do it.
Biff felt a glow deep in his chest that rose up into his throat and escaped through his mouth in the form of a tune. The same one that Bethany was humming. A song he'd never heard before, but which his body suddenly knew.
Bethany looked up at Biff and smiled warmly, and the glow came back and rose up again. Now Biff was harmonizing. Creating soft music, while completing soft work. And he felt fulfilled.
