Rafferty & Son

Rafferty & Son is George Rafferty’s plumbing business, which enters the story as a possible workplace for Brendan and becomes the setting for his move from college into a trade. George’s offer turns the business from a family name into a concrete path forward: Brendan can learn plumbing, earn a living, and perhaps one day become the son in Rafferty & Son.

A Family Business and an Open Door

After repeated conversations about Brendan’s schoolwork, George suggests to Eve that Brendan could work for him, initially just for the summer, and try something else if he dislikes it. Eve considers a future she had not pictured for her son: work clothes, a large wrench, and a job in plumbing. It seems more imaginable to her than Brendan becoming a financial analyst or a certified public accountant, and she trusts George to be a patient teacher and good boss. She tells George he should speak to Brendan.

Brendan’s Apprenticeship

A week later, Brendan withdraws from ECC and begins working full-time as a plumber’s apprentice. He takes to the work quickly, enjoying its physical demands, the tools and terminology, and the satisfaction of finishing a day’s work. The job can be unpleasant, but Brendan says that part becomes easier with time. Its starting pay is better than minimum wage, with the prospect of higher earnings after he passes his exams and earns his journeyman’s license; a six-figure salary by age thirty is presented as possible, not assured.

Prospects and Significance

The business offers Brendan more than immediate employment. George raises the possibility that Brendan might eventually take it over, making the company name’s son a potential future reality. For Eve, that prospect is both a departure from the education-focused future she had imagined and a relief: she remains disappointed that Brendan has left college, but sees him become upbeat and purposeful again after a winter and much of a spring in which he had seemed sullen and beaten down. Rafferty & Son thus represents a practical route into skilled work and a renewed sense of direction, while the possibility of succession remains only a future prospect.