1- The Glass Room 2- The Spirit Stone -3-bear Hugs-4- Believe (7 page)

“Why waste the money I spent to use this thing? I’m going to see if I can clean our neighbor’s homes.” He went to the next trailer and when a big burly man came to the door and looked him over, he had a quizzical look on his face.

“Hi, I am your new next door neighbor. My name is Jimmy, and you are?”

“Henry.” was his reply. “What are you up to?”

“Would it be alright if I use this power washer to clean your trailer?”

“What’s the matter with the way it looks? Ashamed to live by me?”

“No, that is not what I meant. I have the rest of this day to use this, so instead of letting it sit idle, I just thought I’d make use of it.”

“Have at it”, he said and closed the door in his face.

Jimmy cleaned it and went to the next trailer, then the next, introducing himself as he went along. It finally got too dark so he went back to his new home. They had it looking good and were ready to pick up Susan to see if she was ready to leave. As Jimmy thought, she wanted to spend another night and go to the same restaurant for another thick steak dinner that she felt her family needed. Jimmy would have been satisfied with a can of pork and beans; but off they went. The next day found him at the bank making a large withdrawal on his checking account. They finally got to their rental and unloaded everything. Of course, the rats were removed so Susan wouldn’t know about them. Dishes were put in the cabinets, curtains hung, covers thrown over the sofa and chairs that didn’t pass Susan’s inspection. It in no way compared to his home, but it wasn’t so bad. They each had their own room to decorate as they chose.

Jimmy decided to walk to the park and while sitting on one of the benches, he pulled his cell phone out and called Anna. It was the highlight of his day to hear her voice.

“Hi, my darling. Are you well? Do you have time to talk to me now?”

“I will always have time to talk to you.”

“I want to tell you all that I have been through these last few days since I left.” He went thru the whole trip and the move to the trailer park. He didn’t leave anything out. He felt like her knowing what was going on in his life kept her a part of his life.

The next morning JD approached him asking him for more money.

“What is it we need? We have a good food supply.”

“Well, this is the day Susan goes to the spa. She needs to go to her exercise classes and have her hair and nails fixed. She also uses this day to shop at the Mall. She will have to use your car of course since she is going back to our old neighborhood in Fayetville. “

“Oh, no! She will not use my money for something she can do herself.”

“Dad, she has always gone to exercise. She needs to exercise.”

“Yes, she does. But what she needs is to walk around this trailer park.”

She can fix her own hair and nails and do with the expensive clothes she already has. She can get her exercise cleaning this house and cooking instead of making you do everything. It’s no wonder why you are so in debt that you lost everything. Maybe that’s where your money went, but not mine!”

“She’ll never do that. She can cook a few things, but not much.”

“Then teach her.”

Susan heard all of this talk about her and came stomping into the living room.” I will not deny myself of anything just because he couldn’t keep his job!”

“Well you better find the money to do it, because you will not use my money! My money is for needs not wants!”

Jimmy walked outside, but still could hear her howling. In the long run she did not get any money because JD didn’t have any to give her. He started thinking, maybe I am being hard on her. I’ll make her an offer and see what she does with it. He went inside and facing her he said, “Okay Susan, I can see that you don’t want to walk around here. What if I bought you a treadmill or some kind of exercise equipment for you to exercise here?”

“Oh, you are both impossible! I’m going to take the car and get away from here for a while!”

Both children heard all that was going on. They were use to hearing her complain, only now they felt like complaining, too.

“Good morning, Jack. Good morning, Jennie. Your dad has breakfast ready. I was going to take you both to your old neighborhood to visit with your friends, but now the car is gone. When your mother comes back maybe we can go then. What do you think?”

“It wouldn’t do any good, Grandpa. Some of them moved to other states to live with relatives and the ones that are still living there don’t want anything to do with us now that we moved here. They think they are better than us now. I do miss our friends. We had good times together, going to the movies, or ice skating, or fun parties our parents gave us.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Can you both make friends here?”

“Sure, but these kids are different. Maybe when we get to know them better it will be alright.”

They all ate and both the children cleaned the kitchen then went and cleaned their own rooms. They even did the wash. Jimmy could see that they were use to doing the work that their mother refused to do. He had to admire them for that. Now that their dad didn’t work, he did all of the cooking while Susan sat on the sofa reading fashion magazines and watching soap operas.

She finally came back with the car when it was time to eat dinner.

“Do you want me to buy the exercise equipment for you, Susan?”

“No, I’ll just sit here and get fat! Don’t put yourself out to do anything extra for me!” Jimmy thought, oh, how I miss Gail.

It was time for his phone call to Anna. He went and sat on the bench at the park and pulled out his cell phone. “Hi,my love. I am missing you so much you can’t imagine; especially when I take my walk around this trailer park. I miss walking with you. I wish you were here to walk with me. No, that’s not what I mean. I wish I was there in Picayune to walk with you like we use to do. Those were such good times we shared together. I am so thankful you came into my life. I hate it here. You can’t imagine how awful it is with JD’s wife constantly bitching. It makes me realize how lucky I am that you are part of my life. I love you more than I can tell you. This nightmare has got to end soon. I want so much to come home to be with you. Don’t ever forget me?” He could hear her saying she would never forget him, and that her love for him is endless. “I saw on the news that it is cold at home. Dress warm. Let me tell you about my day.” Jimmy told her everything about what went on about his son’s family. He always felt better after talking to her. “It snowed today. The road graders cleared the snow off the road in this trailer park.” He looked at his watch. “Okay, I’ll hang up for now. I see it is time for your walk. Keep safe for me. I love you. Bye my love.”

It was earlier the next evening after his walk that he went to sit in the park and rest when he saw some of the men walking up to him. They introduced themselves. There was the man that lived in the trailer next to him. Henry was his name. Then he was introduced to Vincent and to Bob and Sam. They were all his son’s age. They started talking about losing their jobs because of cutbacks and closures. Sam owned a restaurant and with people not eating out as often and just staying home and eating home cooked meals instead, he was loosing money. He finally had to close his business; laying people off. As much as they tried to find work they couldn’t, but were not to give up. They lost their homes and couldn’t find jobs. But Vincent said because his home was under-water as they call it, which means they owed more on their home than it was worth and because they had a second mortgage, when the mortgage company foreclosed on him, he still owed for the second mortgage. It didn’t matter the difference of what it was valued at, to what was owed, he still owed the amount of the second mortgage. That’s when he decided to make a student loan of ten thousand dollars and learn another trade. He was a carpenter, but with shortages of homes being built he was going deeper and deeper in debt. He was thinking of claiming bankruptcy to pay, not just what he still owed on his second loan on his house that was foreclosed and his credit cards, but also his student loan. Then, he went on talking; he found out that you can’t claim bankruptcy on a student loan. Infact, if it is not paid when you start drawing Social Security, the government deducts payments out of your check for the principal amount plus all of the back interest. “There’s no winning for loosing,” he said. He had three teenagers and his wife to support and they were doing fine until the economy kept dropping. His schooling wasn’t helping, only put him deeper in debt. He said, he should never have made that student loan.

Sam said because his credit rating was so low that no one would rent to him. After all, your credit rating speaks for itself. It tells of your character. So the owner of any rental will not rent to anyone with a bad credit. He said he had to get his mother to put his rental in her name. “Do you know that anything you charge, your interest rate is based on your credit rating? That’s why some people pay less interest.”

“There are a lot of women living here for the same reason we are. Single mothers that was having it hard raising their kids even while they were working is now struggling. Their husbands just took off. They can’t find them to force them to pay child support.”

“You know Jane in spot 44 just got a job taking care of an elderly woman. She has to live there with her leaving her three kids to fend for themselves. Once a week, the old lady’s daughter sits with her so Jane can get groceries for her kids then she has to hurry back. Looks like everyone here is struggling.”

“My son was in real estate. He also lost everything. That’s why I am here. I’m from the south. It will take some adjusting to this weather.”

“How’s the job market down south?” Sam asked.

“About the same here.” he replied.

Everything he was hearing from these men, he was hearing on the news. Finding a job here sounds discouraging. Then when Sunday came with the Minnesota Viking playing the New Orleans Saints, a game Jimmy was looking forward to watching, he was missing Anna watching the games with him. No one was watching TV when he changed the channel to the game. Susan came running in the living room fussing.

“What are you doing? I was going to watch a movie.”

This time, JD came in telling her the football game was staying on. “Jack and me and Dad all want to watch it so you are outnumbered! The football game is staying on!”

“Where are the car keys? I’m out of here!”

Jimmy was thinking, just who does she think is paying for the gas she is burning.

Chapter Eight
 

The change in the two children came slowly, but was obvious that their new friends were trouble from the start and was not good for them to be with. They stopped helping around the house. “Why are both of you leaving your rooms a mess? You never did that before; and what about the dishes? When were you all planning on cleaning them?”

Out of Jack’s mouth came words, Jimmy thought he would never hear from him. “Why don’t you get your old lady to help you? I’m tired of being the scape goat away here. I have friends waiting for me.” And on that note he left.

JD howled after him, “Where did you ever get calling your mother an old lady? What is getting into you?” It was too late. Jack was out of hearing distance.

“Jennie, come help me. I can’t handle all this work and cook dinner, too.” It was true. But she left, too.

Jimmy wanted to help his son so he was washing the dishes while his son was cooking. But to cook, he could not help. He was lucky he could boil water.

He felt sorry for him. Early every morning, JD would take the car and travel to Freyshire or Fayetville hunting for any kind of work he thought he could handle. But each day he came home discouraged.

Jimmy took his daily walk around the trailer park and while he sat on the bench, Henry approached him.

“Have you been missing anything around your place? I left my good steel toed work boots that I bought last year outside to dry. They were wet with snow. When I went to get them in this evening, they were gone. I could recognize those boots in a second and if I see them on anyone they will be sorry.”

“I never noticed anything of mine missing. Maybe I should be careful of what I leave laying around. Let’s pass the word around for everyone to know. I know those steel-toe boots are expensive.”

Sam, Vincent, and Bob saw them in the park, they decided to join them. They were warned about the boots being taken from his place. Henry said, “You know a lot of these kids are unsupervised since their parents are out hunting for work. A lot of them are old enough that they could be doing something to bring in some money. There are a lot of women that are doing all they can to pay their rent and put food on the table. Take Gail in spot 39, she takes in sewing from anyone here or around here. She knows people can’t be buying new clothes anymore and does a lot of repair work. She doesn’t make much money because she knows not any of us have much money, but it helps her to support her twin sons. If you bring anything to her to sew, don’t expect to find a clean house. Her time is spent sewing. Even her two boys crawl around with soiled diapers half the time. But she is good at repairing any clothes, even sews some new dresses for the ladies so they look presentable when out job hunting.”

Bob added to the conversation. “Patsy in lot 22 runs errands for anyone as long as they put gas in her car and pay her as much as they can. Her husband ran out on her years ago. The law can’t find him to make him pay for child support; probably skipped the country.”

“Well what about June? She baby-sits any kids so their parents can hunt for work. Can’t imagine any man leaving a pretty little industrious lady like her. Her husband must have been crazy. At least he didn’t leave her with any kids.”

“Life is hard on all of us and we all try to help each other.”

“Yea, well someone helped themselves to my good work boots.” Henry added.

When Jimmy called Anna he noticed that she sounded down. “Anna, my love, what’s wrong? You sound so sad.”

“It’s been six months already and you are still up there with your son. I need you here with me. I miss you so. There isn’t any kind of job your son can get to be self-supporting?”