1- The Glass Room 2- The Spirit Stone -3-bear Hugs-4- Believe (6 page)

Another rolled up fist. He reached over and took a big swallow of his coffee.

“Well, I’ll repeat, what exactly do you want from me?”

“There is a double-wide trailer we could rent where all of us could live. It is in a trailer park just thirty miles from where our house was. I was hoping you would come and live with us and pay the rent and utilities.”

“And food and clothes, and everything else your family through their money away on? Is that it?” This was just too much for Jimmy to comprehend. He got up and went outside. He needed fresh air and he needed to walk. All his life he and his wife paid cash for things they wanted. They never owned a credit card; didn’t want one. If they wanted something they couldn’t pay for, they saved until they could pay cash. What is wrong with these people today? Didn’t I teach my sons anything about handling their money?

After a while of walking he entered the house again and went straight into the living room. “The way I see it, because your wife doesn’t want to move down south then I have to move up north. Is that right?”

“Well, Dad, it is either that or I move here and lose my wife and kids.”

“How is that going to help you to move here without your family. You are obligated to keep a roof over your children’s heads, food on their table, and clothes on their backs where ever you live. You are also responsible to support your wife. Even if you move you will have to pay her alimony. Don’t you see that you moving here and living in my house won’t help you?”

“I have to get out of here! Spend the night! Let me think about this! We will talk tomorrow!” He left and headed straight to Anna.

As soon as he entered her house and saw him with his head lowered, she knew something was wrong.

“My darling, what has happened to make you so sad?”

He put his arms around her and held her close while he cried. Tears flowed so hard that he couldn’t stop. Anna was so worried. What could have made him so sad? He left here so happy. He wanted to tell his children our plans to marry. So what if they didn’t approve. He doesn’t need their approval. She led him to the sofa so he could relax. He was shivering. Something bad has happened; but what?

“Anna, do we have any beer left for when we watch the football games on television? I could sure use one now.”

“Yes, we do have several. I’ll get you one, but first, have you eaten?”

“I forgot all about food. No, I haven’t eaten.”

“Let me get you the beer you asked for, then I am going to fix you something to eat. I have meatballs and spaghetti cooked along with a salad. Would you want that? Or I could fix you something else.”

“No, don’t fix something else. That sounds good.”

Anna got his beer and handed it to him then went to the kitchen and heated his dinner. She did not want him drinking on an empty stomach. “It’s ready, Jimmy. Come eat, please. Bring your beer. I’ll even join you with one.”

He ate very slowly, like his mind was far away. When he finished his beer, she got him another one. “I hope this will help you. The food I mean.” As soon as he finished, she hurried and picked the plate up and held his hand and they went back to the sofa. She was hoping he was now ready to talk about what was hurting him so much. She didn’t want to ask him. She was waiting for him to tell her.

“Anna, my love, you are so dear to me. I never want to do anything to hurt you, but I have a problem. Actually it is not a problem I made, but one my oldest son, JD, made. Well he made a mess of his life and the only way he can straighten his life out is with my help. I don’t mind helping my children, but this is involving my life. He is taking over my life. It’s not right. It’s not fair to you or me.” Anna was paying close attention and was curious now that he mentioned her. “If I don’t help him then he and his family will be homeless; not here but up north. This has been going on for a little over a year now, but I just found out about it.

He flew here on borrowed money. He doesn’t even have a car anymore. Everything he had was repossessed. He and his family were living above their means for so long. They both were working making a lot of money, but spending more and charging more for things they could have done without. Now he expects me to put all the pieces of his broken life back together. I would have to move up to Minnesota and live with them and rent a home for them plus everything else.”

“Why don’t they move here? Not that jobs are any easier to find, but we could still be together. You can live here with me.”

“But they need all of my income, my Social Security and my retirement money to life on. I still have my investments, but I don’t want to touch that.”

“Jimmy, let them have your money. We will live here on my money. I make enough money for the two of us to live comfortable.”

“I do appreciate your generosity, but what would that say for me being a man letting a woman support me. I would be so ashamed that I couldn’t hold my head up. What am I going to do, Anna? How can I go off and leave you? It would only be until they find work, but now with unemployment so high and jobs so scarce, there is no way of knowing how long that will be. What am I going to do? I can’t live without you. I don’t want to live without you.”

Now Anna was crying. She felt scared; scared of losing him; scared of losing another man she loves. They tried to comfort each other. Jimmy was tenderly kissing her eyes as tears slid down her face. “I will be back, Anna. I promise you. I will not leave you forever; just for a little while.”

The next morning, Jimmy phoned JD and asked him when was he planning on them leaving.

“Now, as soon as you get home and packed! I have to get home to my family and see about renting that double-wide so we have a place to live, so hurry up!”

He was holding on to Anna; his arm around her waist. “I have to go, my love. Pray for a quick recovery of our economy, for jobs to materialize.

Remember, I will come back to you as soon as I can.” Their last kiss was so passionate, giving her hope to feel his love when he was not with her.

Chapter Seven
 

The anger started growing in him again. Life is not fair. I have worked all my life to have what I wanted. Now where did that get me? A house, land, what is that. All that is, is material things. What I want and what I need is my love, my Anna. I could walk away from all material things, but how am I suppose to walk away from my love for Anna. I miss her already and I haven’t even left. He started throwing his things in suitcases. A thought came to him. What if I give JD my car and my money and just live on my dividends from my stocks. I would have enough to support Anna. He thought a while. No, that won’t work. Not now with all my investments dropping in value. I can’t count on that. I could sell my house, but then I would have two sons without a home, besides homes are not selling now. I have my savings account, but my money is tied up in CD’s for five years so I can get higher interest rates and what I did leave in savings for emergencies I’m sure JD will go thru that fast enough. Still trying to think of a way out, he thought, I could get a job. Give him everything and go to work. No, for one thing I would be classified as overqualified. For the other thing, jobs are hard to find especially for a sixty-seven year old man. People my age are working at volunteer jobs or minimum wages jobs. Besides there are so many young men and women that need jobs to support their small children. I would be taking a job away from them if I could find one. There is no way out of this mess created just because he was living beyond his means. Now I have to suffer for his and his wife’s greed. He threw some more things into the suitcase. He was getting madder by the minute when he heard footsteps approaching his room.

“Aren’t you ready yet? I have to go!”

Jimmy stared to yell back at him, but thought better of it. If we have to live together then I have to at least be socialable. He decided to say nothing.

Everything he wanted to take with him was packed and in his car. “I’ll be back in a minute. He went in and phoned Anna. She picked up the phone hoping it was him. “Just wanted to hear your voice again. I’m leaving now. Always remember, I love you and will come back to you as soon as I can.”

She could hear the sound of his voice cracking as he said that. “My love goes with you. Have a safe trip.” Now he’s gone. She got down on her knees and prayed to God to please send him back to her soon.

The trip to Jimmy was monotonous, little cities, big cities, open fields, long strips of wide highways. They all blurred together into one mass of nothingingness. It was taking him away from where he wanted to be. JD did all the driving. When he got too sleepy to drive, he pulled into a truck stop and parked in between two, eighteen wheelers. The sound of their air conditioners running kept the highway noise to a minimum. They both pulled their seats to the reclining position where they were comfortable enough to sleep. JD woke to the sound of the trucks pulling out. They both went in the bathroom then splashed cold water on their faces to wake them up. As they pulled into a fast food restaurant for coffee and a couple of biscuits, Jimmy handed him the money to pay for it. To himself, he thought, this is the beginning of a first hand robbery. Sorry Emily. I know it is what you would want me to do, to help our sons, but if you were still alive it would turn into an argument between us.

They were back on the long, busy highways. “I think we should go and see the double-wide first and fill out the lease and pay the people for the first month rent plus the security deposit. That would be best before we go and get Susan and the kids at her mother’s house.” So off they went and out of Jimmy wallet came more money. There must have been at least fifty double-wides and single ones lined in small spaces. Some were washed and clean with neat little yards, but most were the opposite. How can people live in dirt, he thought. There was a small park of sorts, with swings and slides and sand boxes for the children. But it was cluttered with candy wrappers and cookie packages. Several large barrel’s were placed around this park for the trash, but evidentially went unused. Are people so busy that they can’t pick up after themselves? Blacktop roads were the only way around this trailer park and used so frequently there were no avoiding the pot holes.

“Are you sure you want to bring your family here to live?”

“You want to spend more to rent a better place? I was trying to save you money.”

So Jimmy pulled out his wallet again and out came more money. Yea, you are really concerned about saving me money. How considerate of you, Jimmy thought.

“It needs a good cleaning inside and outside. Don’t you think we should clean it before bringing your family here?”

“No, they can help clean it, too. I am tired from all that driving. Let’s go get them. I know Susan’s mother has her hands full with taking care of the old lady.”

So here again they were back on the highway.

He had met Susan lots of times and the children also when they would come to visit. In no way was she anything like Gail. Infact, she was the opposite of all the goodness that Gail possessed.

When they pulled up to a neat brick bungalow, Susan was the first to come out fussing about him taking his time to come and get them.

“What took you so long? I’m tired of hearing my mother griping about us being here! You knew that, that’s why I thought you would hurry!”

“I did hurry. It’s a long drive you know.”

They were glad they cleared out the trunk of the car, putting their things into the rental. That gave them room for the things Susan and the children were bringing. Jimmy hadn’t seen his grandchildren for a few years. They didn’t visit much since Emily didn’t even know who they were. They were good kids, Jimmy remembered. They made good grades in school and had good upbringing, good manners, very polite, happy, friendly children. But he hadn’t seen them in years and now they are in their early teens with this life changing challenges ahead of them. The oldest, Jack, always looked after his sister, Jennie, who was two years younger than he.

They both came out of their maternal grandmother’s house with a sulking look on their faces. Jimmy felt sorry for them. “Hi Grandpa” is all they said and after loading the car, came and sat in the back seat with him. In thirty minutes, they arrived in Freyshire, Minnesota. They were slowly inching their way to their rental. Both Jack and Jennie were watching very closely, heads moving from side to side to see it all.

“This is where we have to live?” Jack exclaimed with a disgusted voice.

“Yes, Jack, it will be just until I can find another job, and your mother, too. It won’t be so bad if we clean it up.” Neither of the children looked happy about that.

Susan with her expensive white pant suit, spiked heels, long, fake painted finger nails, hair looked like she just walked out of a beauty parlor, went in first and sized everything up. “I never thought in all of my life that I would wind up living in a dump like this. We can’t live in this rat infested place. You and the kids are going to have to clean it up before I bring any of my things in here. We will just have to stay in a motel until it is cleaned.”

So off they drove to the nearest discount store where they bought smoke bombs, rat traps and poison, plus all kinds of cleaning things. Again Jimmy pulled out his wallet and all was paid. Then it was to find a nice motel because Susan would not stay in a cheap one. Two rooms they had to get with a door that opened to join the two rooms together. Jimmy slept with Jack leaving Jennie a bed for herself. His cash was running low so he paid by check. Highway robbery in progress, he thought.

Of course they had to find a nice, expensive restaurant, for as Susan put it, they all needed a good steak dinner. He used his debit card for that.

The next day, while Susan slept late so she could get her beauty rest as she put it, the rest of them piled in Jimmy’s car and headed to see if they killed anything. They had gone back to the double-wide before renting the motel. They were surprised to find two large rats in the traps. They all worked, even the kids, although they complained the whole time. But at least they worked. It was shaping up. Jimmy even rented a power washer and what had looked like a dingy yellow trailer, turned out to be a brilliant white one. He rented it for twenty-four hours and only had it for three hours. JD saw him walking to the next trailer with it when he howled out to him. “Where are you going?”