Being new in a city is such a pain in the neck, Lauren thought to herself.

She had no idea where to go for all the services that were so familiar in her past city. But, she was now in a new place, and she’d have to find some new faces to replace the ones that she’d left behind – new doctors, new plumbers, new contractors, new everything.


Compounding the problem was the fact that she had to work at her new job during the day, and was spending all her spare time unpacking boxes at night. Life was busy, but certainly not in the way that she wanted it

Lauren sat down on a stool and looked around at all the boxes in the kitchen of her new house. The boxes were stacking up to the ceiling in some places. Tan boxes and brown boxes populating her kitchen. And, all of them…

Wait, she thought that she saw something on the top box near the ceiling. Was that what she thought it was? She got up and walked closer, hoping against hope that her eye had deceived her, but they had not. The box was wet! At first, Lauren wondered what had been packed inside the box that might have broken open. There was nothing that she could think of, but she did think of something else and looked above the box.

Shimmering in the light, she saw one glistening, round and perfect drop of water in mid-air fall, splash, right onto the top of the cardboard box. It was followed by another drop of perfection and another. A ceiling leak! The realization filled Lauren with dread. From experience she knew that a small drip could hint at much larger problems.

She wondered aloud, “Who should I call?” She didn’t know who, but she figured that her neighbor may have a good plumber’s number handy.

After introducing herself to her new neighbor, and inquiring to the contact info of a good plumber, the neighbor said that he didn’t keep a list of plumbers. “Don’t have to,” he said, “I just called Oiko Systems Conrtractors at 571-451-3792.”

“Who’s Oiko Systems Contractors?,” Lauren asked.

“Sit down in front of the computer and you’ll find out,” the neighbor said, pulling up a chair for her.

He navigated them to a site that Lauren had never heard about.

“Wow,” she said, impressed.

“And, it’s not just plumbing” the neighbor said. “They do all types of services for the home. For instance, electrical, bathroom remodeling, fences, iron work, stainless steel and painting.

“People look out for people,” repeated Lauren.