Who: Daniel & Marco When: 8:26 a.m. Where: the greenhouse
As it turned out, a roll in the synthetic hay, a good night's sleep, and a hot cup of black coffee could do wonders for Daniel's attitude even in the most trying of circumstances. He had been downright pleasant to his coworkers in city hall, even those They had marked as his "betters" for the purposes of this experiment, and had not so much as flinched at receiving his first assignment to work with Marco. He was still uncertain how to best engage this particular neighbor, but at least they both appeared to be equally invested in earning points in the game; Marco was trying, and that counted for something. What's more, they had been assigned to the greenhouse, a welcome change from the sanitation routes of the days prior. Daniel was actually smiling as they unlocked and entered the greenhouse, a wheelbarrow full of watering cans and small gardening tools in tow.
"Think anybody will mind if we sneak a few veggies out?" he asked. He looked over one shoulder to his coworker. "We work hard enough, right? Nobody'd miss a couple of tomatoes or some potatoes or something."
In truth Daniel could not be sure who would notice. He had seen the "news brief" concerning raised produce prices, but could not begin to guess who, if anyone, inventoried such a thing. With finances getting ever tighter and no raises in sight, a little petty theft seemed like the most reasonable option. He took a watering can and a small trowel from the wheelbarrow. Rows of raised planter boxes stretched from one side of the building to the other, broken up by dirt-strewn walkways just wide enough for the barrow to pass. He stopped in front of one box dotted with the tall green tops of carrots.
"Or carrots," Daniel added. "What's Mrs. Vasquez like? You could take somethin' back to her."