Crossroads/Borrowed Lives—2026-07-22 (Patreon)

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Chapter 3.1.40: CLIMBING THE LADDER by Merritt Gray

One way to climb the ladder of success is to crawl through the crawlspace of an old apartment.

That feels like a metaphor, but I’ll let you work it out.

I’m in the crawlspace of an apartment building in the Bronx that NYC SysCo is bidding to bring into the twenty-first century. Liza was sent with me—her department director, Jason Harris, thought the experience of conducting a pre-bid site inspection would be good for her—and she had a thought.

“Maybe we should update it to the 20th Century first.”

It’s not quite that bad. But she’s not far off.

I’ll add that Liza is very excited these days. I guess I’m on the edge of gossiping, because it’s really her story, not mine. But I don’t think it’s anything I shouldn’t share.

Graduating and being hired by NYC SysCo took a huge burden off her. I heard her tell Chloe—by the way, she and Caleb have moved into Crossroads now—that getting where she is feels like making it to the beginning of something.

Liza is also very happy to be dating Caleb. She told me it feels nice to know someone is thinking about you, even when you’re not in the same place.

Lastly, she is very excited by being on the Pay It Forward Society team. There are a lot of reasons, but on the way here today, she shared one of them.

“If you think about it, $200 a month in a long-term growth fund doesn’t sound like much, but if we stay with the Society for five years, it adds up. I calculated that, using seven percent as a sort of average, each account could grow to around $240,000 by the time we’re in our seventies. We could buy a houseboat and retire on a lake.”

I assume the math is correct. And the idea of living on a lake doesn’t sound terrible.

I need to go back to looking for cracks in the concrete and checking utility runs.See you next time.

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Chapter 3.1.41: BOY SCOUT MODE by Mara Voss

After we went into escape mode the other day, Evan took the go-to-ground order very seriously. I did not oppose it.

I’m not saying where we are, not even here. I will say we are in Texas. I will say we are not breaking the law, and I’ll add that we’re operating on a cash-only basis for a while.

Evan channeled some serious Eagle Scout skills. On the property where we are camping, there’s what amounts to a junk pile left from several demolished buildings.

When I looked at it, I thought, “Pile of junk.” When Evan looked at it, he thought, “Campground.”

The tarp is new. The rest is repurposed. There was also the purchase of a tube of silicone caulk.

If you fill the bucket from the creek in the morning, by afternoon the water is more than warm enough for a refreshing shower. Five gallons gives you about 150 seconds of running water… plan accordingly!

We have two buckets to carry water in. It’s working out.

We’ve talked a lot about the truck and van blocking us in. While it could have been a direct threat on Shay, we feel there’s a better chance that it was happenstance. There are far more ways to explain it that don’t involve me being taken for ransom.

All the same, we also agree we made the right choice. Worst-case scenario, we gave some work crew something to talk about.

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