It continued to rain for the rest of the night and into the next day. It finally stopped sometime in the afternoon. Gilbert and Ludwig went out and went to the back of the house. They saw they couldn't start building right then so they went back to the cars.
"So we can't start today?" Antonio asked when Gilbert came back into the car.
"Nein." Gilbert told him, crossing his arms.
Antonio decided to leave him alone for the time being, knowing he wasn't in the best of moods.
It didn't rain that night or the next day. Gilbert was glad for that, and they started building that day after ten.
It took them several days to fix the floor they had broken, to put up the new walls and new rooms, and to fix up the rest of the house that needed to be fixed. Then they had to get the furniture back in and go get more for the new parts.
It took them a little longer to get everything in just to Gilbert's specifications. He went out to stores a few times to get furniture and paint and wallpaper and some carpets. They painted over a few of the walls downstairs and wallpapered a few rooms. The kitchen got new appliances, and they added a laundry room. They added plumbing and fixed the electricity. It took a while to do that, and a fire almost started. Luckily for Gilbert, Ludwig was there to stop him from causing it. They put beds in the rooms and TV in each room and a big one in a room downstairs. There was also a room with two beds that served as a medical room. Gilbert and Ludwig had their own rooms with a place to work in there.
A week later, Gilbert and Ludwig stood outside the house, looking up at it as Antonio was getting his room together.
"Vell, did you finally zhink of a name for zhis place?" Ludwig asked, looking over at Gilbert.
Gilbert was quiet for a moment before nodding. "Ja. Vhat about… Beilschmidt House?" He glanced over at Ludwig, seeing it that would be fine.
"Beilschmidt House." Ludwig nodded. "Ja. Zhat sounds good."
"Go make zhis place a recognized one, bruder." Gilbert told him, looking back at the house.
"I vill."
"Gut. Because if you come back und it's not, zhere's going to be trouble."
"I know, I know." Ludwig told him, almost chuckling a little. He was quiet for a moment. "I'll see you later." He left and a few minutes later, Gilbert heard his car start up and then he heard it start to drive away. Gilbert continued to look up at the house for a minute or so before he went inside again.
It looked brand new on the inside. He smiled, proud of all the work that had gone into the house. He closed his eyes for a while and could almost feel all the people that could be in there at one time. Everyone happy and free from the judgment of society. He could see friendships forming and people from around the world coming here. He could see the local news coming and later big time news, broadcasting worldwide. And he saw other places like this one popping up in different places in the world.
Antonio tapped his shoulder and Gilbert jumped, coming out of his day dreaming.
"Vhat?" he asked, opening his eyes and looking back at Antonio.
"My room's finished." he told him with a smile.
"Oh, it is?" Gilbert smiled. "Zhat's great."
Antonio nodded. "Sí, it is." He looked around a minute before asking, "Where did your hermano go?"
"He vent off to get zhis place… you know…"
Antonio nodded, knowing what he meant. "Ok. You know it may not take one day. It could take a while."
"I've vaited zhis long. I can vait a little longer."
"OK." Antonio nodded, but he knew it was actually killing Gilbert to have to wait longer. So… how do you plan on finding and getting the… uh, the others here?" People who have them and are using them aren't exactly going to just give them to you."
"Ve can put out flyers or somezhing for zhe first veek or two, letting people know about zhis place." Gilbert told him after a minute thinking. "But it's not too obvious vhat ve're doing. Ve'll hire some people to look for zhem und call us vhen zhey zhink zhey find somezhing. Ve'll go out if ve zhink it's big enough-"
"So if you think it's nothing or something small, you'll just leave them?" Antonio interrupted.
"Let me finish." Gilbert told him. "If ve don't zhink it's big enough to go out personally, ve'll have zhem go out to being zhem here. Or ve can't go und get zhem ourselves, ve'll do zhat."
Antonio nodded. "Ah, OK. Are you planning on paying them?"
Gilbert shook his head. "Not at first. Maybe later if ve're able to zhough."
"What if you never can?"
"Zhey have real jobs zhey can go back to. Zhis vould be more like volunteer vork to zhem."
"But it's not to you."
Gilbert shook his head again. "No, it's not. But I have money."
They waited a few more days before Ludwig came back with everything in order this time. Beilschmidt House was finally an official place of business. Gilbert and Ludwig got the flyers that Antonio and he had made while Ludwig was gone. Ludwig worked on making a website for them while Gilbert went out into town and pinned some up on poles and walls. He only had trouble with one person while hanging up the flyers.
"Are you serious?" Gilbert heard someone ask behind him. He turned around to face a man taller than him who seemed to go to the gym a lot.
He shrugged. "Depends on what you're talking about."
He pointed. "That damn thing you're putting up."
"You mean the paper? Do you have something against that?" Gilbert asked.
"You tryin' to be smart with me, boy?" The man growled, clenching his fists.
Gilbert only looked calmly back at him. He was about to say something back, but though about what Ludwig would say if he came back looking like he'd gotten in a fight.
"Yes, I am serious about vhat I'm putting up. I'm very serious about zhis. I'm to help zhem. Und even if no vone out here helps me, I'll just do it myself."
The man looked at him for a moment before he grabbed the flyer that was just put up. He ripped it down and tore it apart several times before dropping the pieces on the ground.
"Good luck finding people with that." He laughed before walking off.
"Lucky I know shouldn't've hurt him." Gilbert grumbled, putting another paper up. "Bastard." He continued putting them up, grumbling to himself as he did.
A couple of hours later, he finally came back to the house and plopped down on his grandfather's chair in what had been the living room. It was bigger now and would serve as a kind of family room now instead. He sighed softly and could smell the small dinner Ludwig was making.
"You got all of them up?" Antonio asked, looking over at him from the couch.
Gilbert nodded. "All but vone. Some ass ripped it up."
"Where you the one who started the fighting?"
"Zhere vas no fighting zhis time." Gilbert defensively insisted. Antonio gave him a look that made it obvious he didn't believe him. "Really! Does it look like I've been in a fight today?"
"Well… no. I guess not. So what happened then?"
"He asked if I vas serious vizh putting zhe signs up, und I told him I vas. So he took the paper, tore it up, und zhew it on zhe ground!"
Antonio looked at him for a moment before sighed and shaking his head. "Some people I don't believe."
"At least ve got zhe word out."
"Yeah. What'll we do now, then?"
Gilbert thought for a moment before shrugging. "Vait, I guess. For a call or email or somezhing."
"How long will it take?"
"I'm hoping it von't take long, but I know it vill take a vhile."
"So we're forced to wait again now…"
Gilbert nodded and the two of them sat in silence until Ludwig let them now dinner was ready.
It took a few days, but finally the phone rang. Gilbert made Ludwig and Antonio to be quiet before answering the phone. The call had been from London. The caller had seen their small website online and was calling about their neighbor. The neighbor had a pet rabbit, but he was starting to get the feeling it wasn't just a rabbit. He told Gilbert he wasn't going to call at first, but recently he had heard something coming from the house. Gilbert told him that they would send someone right away after he got his phone number and the address of his neighbor's house.
"Vell, it looks like vone of us is going to London." Gilbert said as he hung up the phone. He then told them what he had been told on the phone.
"London? Zhe first place ve get a call from is zhere?" Ludwig asked.
"Yeah, vhy? Somzhing wrong vizh zhat?"
"No." Ludwig quickly said. "I just zhought zhe first call vould be from somevhere a little closer is all."
Gilbert shrugged. "Vell, until each country has their own little place like zhis, ve're doing a vorldvide zhing. So, who should go?"
After a short minute, Ludwig and Antonio looked to Gilbert. He saw them looking at him.
"Vhat? I'm zhinking, don't rush me." He half grumbled.
"No, it's not that, Gilbert." Antonio told him. "We just think that you should go." he looked to Ludwig to make sure they were both thinking the same thing. He got a nod and continued, looking back to Gilbert. "You're the one most motivated by this, and you're the one who started this. So if anyone should get to go save the first person coming here, it should be you."
Gilbert looked at him and nodded. "Alright. But technically, zhey'll be zhe second vone here."
Antonio looked at him, confused for a minute before he realized he was talking about him. "Oh, right."
"Ja. I'll go look for a flight und get my zhings ready. You two can handle being here and looking out for calls und ozher zhings vhile I'm gone, right?"
"Gilbert, don't vorry." Ludwig told him. "Focus on vhat you'regoing to do."
He nodded. "Alright. Zhanks." He went over to his laptop and went online, looking for the first flight to London from the nearest airport. He found one that left in two hours. He booked a flight for him and started packing…