Chapter 10

Jack dropped the envelope with his mortgage payment in the mailbox with a sigh of relief. Driving away from the post office, he stopped by the self-service gas station that advertised the lowest price that he’d seen in three days. Getting out of the truck, he reached into his pocket to take stock of his cash. He pulled out a wrinkled twenty dollar bill. Staring at the price of gasoline, he hoped that it would buy enough gasoline to last the week because that was the last of his cash.

He headed inside the store to pay for his gasoline up front. There was a long line of people buying lottery tickets. Jack shook his head thinking that the harder times got, the more foolish people acted. The chances of hitting the lottery were worse than getting struck by lightning. The man directly in front of him rattled off a constant stream of numbers and ultimately spent fifty dollars buying lottery tickets.

Jack thought about how the bank had basically stolen fifty-five dollars from him. That man’s money was just as gone as Jack’s but at least he had some paper to show for it. Jack didn’t even have that. Even worse, he had to leave fifty-five dollars in the account so when they stole another twenty-five from him he wouldn’t bounce his mortgage check and have to pay another thirty dollar fee. He wondered what the next catastrophe would bring.

The clerk finally finished with man and looked at Jack. Having spent most of the day doing nothing except selling lottery tickets, he asked, “What numbers?”

“I’m buying gas,” Jack said holding up his twenty dollar bill. He added, “Twenty on pump five.”

“Sure thing boss,” the clerk said taking the twenty and punching the controls to activate the gas pump. He said, “The lottery is up to three hundred million.”

“It could be ten dollars or a billion as far as I’m concerned,” Jack said in disgust. He didn’t have a dollar to throw away.

Jack returned to the gas pump. Sticking the nozzle in the gas tank, he pulled the handle. He watched the digital readout of his purchase flash past. Like the previous year, the price of gasoline had climbed up to four dollars a gallon over the summer. It was only now dropping down. Twenty dollars only bought five and a half gallons of gasoline. He said, “There’s still a gallon of gas at home for the lawn mower. I’ll use that if I run out before the end of the week.”

He shook the handle a few times after the pump cut off at twenty dollars just in the hope that it would shake out a few more drops. He hung up the nozzle and closed the truck’s cap. Looking over at the mini-market where he had paid for his gas, he wished that he could just grab a cold soda, but that cost money. Getting into the cab of the truck, he said, “Maybe they’ll have some ice cream tonight. That would be a real treat.”

He took off for home. He hadn’t driven more than two miles when he spotted Abby’s car stopped on the right lane blocking traffic with her emergency lights blinking. Wondering why she was parked there, he pulled up in front of her and parked his truck. Walking back to her car, he could see that she was crying behind the wheel. He knocked on the window to get her attention. She jumped and looked up at him. A momentary expression of fear on her face changed to relief. She opened the door and said, “My car isn’t working.”

“What’s the matter?” Jack asked with a frown.

“The engine runs, but the car doesn’t move forward,” Abby said.

“Let me try it,” Jack said.

Abby got out and stood in front of the car. Jack got in and started the car. He put it into drive and released the brake. The car moved forward a little bit, but the engine was racing way too much for the forward progress achieved. He put the transmission into reverse and the car backed up with a bit more responsiveness. Shaking his head, he knew that the transmission was shot. He put it into second gear. The car moved a little better, but it was still sluggish. It was just good enough to make the five miles to the house.

He turned off the engine and got out of the car. Walking over to where Abby waited for him, he said, “Here are my car keys. Why don’t you drive the truck to the house and I’ll drive your car? It is going to take some nursing to get it there.”

“How bad is it?” Abby asked. It wasn’t that she loved her little beat up old car, but it was all that she had anymore.

“It is bad,” Jack said not wanting to sugar coat it.

“Can it be fixed?” Abby asked.

“It will cost somewhere between nine hundred and eleven hundred dollars,” Jack said. It was too much money to put in that little car.

“You can’t fix it?” Abby asked feeling sick to her stomach. She desperately hoped that he could fix the car for her.

Shaking his head, Jack said, “The transmission is the most complicated part of a car. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

“Damn,” Abby said. Just when it seemed like she was starting to make some progress forward something had to come along and knock her back. Jack occasionally joked that the world waited for you to get up just enough to expose your soft underbelly so that the next kick would hurt even more. She was beginning to believe that he was right.

“Let’s just get it to the house and then we can talk about it,” Jack said handing over to her the keys to his truck.

“I’ll follow you,” Abby said.

“Good,” Jack said.

It was a long slow drive to the house. He couldn’t get the car over ten miles per hour so it took thirty minutes to get it home. At least there hadn’t been any hills on the way there. He parked the car in front of the house and got out. His back was tight. He rolled his shoulders trying to get the tension out of them, but it was a wasted effort. Abby had just parked the truck and ran into the house.

There was the regular crowd in his garage. He looked at the house and then at the garage trying to figure out what he should do. He knew that Abby was pretty upset, but he wasn’t sure that he was the best person for her to talk with. He walked over to the garage.

“I saw that you were driving Abby’s car. Is something that matter with it?” Claire asked when he arrived at the garage.

“Her transmission went out,” Jack said. By the expressions on everyone’s faces, he knew that they understood just how bad that was.

“Just how bad is it?” Gail asked.

“Her car is history,” Jack answered bluntly.

“She must be crushed,” Cheryl said.

Jack noticed that Rich wasn’t there. He didn’t say anything about it. He nodded his head and said, “She’s pretty upset. I figure she’s in the house crying her eyes out.”

“Why aren’t you in there comforting her?” Cheryl asked rather pointedly.

“We don’t have that kind of relationship,” Jack answered uncomfortably. He looked around and said, “I think she needs someone better than me talking to her at the moment.”

Patting him on the arm, Claire said, “Let me go talk to her.”

“Thanks,” Jack said noticing that a few of the women were looking at him with frowns.

With her arms crossed over her chest, Cheryl asked, “What do you mean you don’t have that kind of relationship?”

“She rents a room from me. To tell the truth, I barely know her. She’s lived here two weeks and those have been crazy weeks,” Jack answered.

“Oh. I thought she was a live-in girlfriend,” Cheryl said.

“No. We’ve had maybe six conversations since she’s moved in,” Jack said shifting from one foot to the other. He looked around the garage and added, “We’re just trying to help each other through these tough economic times. She was losing her apartment and I was about to lose the house. With her rent, I kept the house and she has a place to live. We don’t even have electricity yet.”

“Yes, you do,” Bev said.

“I do?” Jack asked surprised.

Bev said, “She gave me the electricity bill and the money to pay it last night. I went to the electric company and paid it this morning. It should be on now.”

“Oh. I didn’t know,” Jack said wondering how he had missed that little detail. Abby must have talked to her while he was over at Sally’s house to check out the freezer.

Liz asked, “How long have you been without electricity?”

“Two months,” Jack answered embarrassed by the admission. To him, nothing pointed out his failure as much as living in the dark in the modern world. Electricity symbolized a bare minimum standard of living. Without it, you were nothing.

“That’s rough,” Cheryl said. She didn’t know how Rich would react to that, but she was sure that he would have been a bear to live with. It was already unpleasant enough now and they were just barely making it.

Jack said, “It was her idea to start a commune. Even in the two weeks she’s been here, I can tell that the idea works. I’m not saying that things have been all that great, but they could have been a whole lot worse.”

“I thought it was Claire’s idea,” Bev said. She had been one of the original people who felt that the two young couples should have been excluded from the commune.

“No. It was Abby. She started talking about how we could live better by banding together, rather than living apart. I’ve got to tell you that it took a bunch of convincing to get me to go along with it,” Jack said.

“Why?” Laura asked.

“I don’t know. I guess it just always seemed to me that a man should be able to support himself and his family. I’ve changed my mind on that matter. Sometimes the world is just a little stronger than any single individual,” Jack said.

“That’s one of the lessons that life teaches us all,” Ella said.

Bev said, “Why don’t you get something to eat? We have lasagna, salad, and garlic bread tonight.”

“Lasagna?” Jack asked wide-eyed. He looked over at the dish feeling his mouth water. He went over and fixed a plate of food. The cheese on the lasagna had melted and formed long strings when he dished it onto his plate. The tomato sauce wasn’t too wet or dry, but just the right texture for the lasagna noodles to stay together. There was even a little meat in it.

Bev laughed at the expression on his face and said, “I was pretty sure that you’d like that.”

“Oh, this looks delicious,” Jack said. He piled some salad on his plate. It was covered with a vinegar and oil dressing with some spices in it.

“There’s enough there for seconds,” Wanda said.

Looking around, Jack asked, “What about Dave and Rich? Have they eaten yet?”

“They’ve eaten. They are over at my place getting the freezer ready to move over here,” Sally said.

“They’re moving the freezer here?” Jack asked.

“It was Claire’s suggestion. Your garage is basically the least filled with junk. It makes a good central spot to store the food,” Bev said. She wasn’t going to mention that he’d be the least likely to be afraid of people coming in his backyard.

“I guess,” Jack said. He looked down at the food on his plate and said, “Maybe I should take this in the house for Abby.”

“That would be a good idea,” Cheryl said with obvious approval in her voice.

Jack picked up plate and headed towards the house. When he had left, Ella said, “I like him. Frau Shultz likes him, too.”