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. He 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 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 about it.
"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 it 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 six conversations or so 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 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."
Hearing her name, Frau Shults looked up. She asked, "Was?"
"Spater," Ella said. She spent half of her life translating for the elderly woman.
"I don't know what he said to Rich last night, but my husband came home a different man," Cheryl said watching him enter the house.
"I noticed," Ella said.
"The past year has been tough on him. Most of his pay is in the form of commissions and sales are way down," Cheryl said. The mortgage was getting larger and his pay was shrinking despite the fact that he was one of the top salesmen at his company. It didn't seem to matter how hard he worked, times just got harder and harder.
"Our incomes are fixed. I don't know what I'd do if they cut back social security," Bev said.
"Don't even suggest that. Some bastard in Washington is liable to overhear you," Liz said in disgust.
"The President promised change," Bev said.
"He didn't promise that it would be a change for the better," Wanda said.
Ella looked over at the house next door and said, "I'm sorry for Penny. She was a nice lady, but she was afraid of the world."
"She wasn't always afraid of the world. She was raped six years ago coming out of the mall and never got over it," Liz said.
"Someone raped her at her age?" Ella asked wide-eyed. She was afraid of getting mugged, but the idea that anyone would want to rape someone her age was hard to believe.
"It happens," Liz said.
Jack returned from the house and fixed a plate of food for himself. He sat down next to Frau Shultz. He winked at her and said, "Guten Abend, Frau Shultz."
"Guten Abend, Herr Jack," the elderly woman replied sitting up a little straighter at actually being noticed by someone. The young man was the only one of the group who tried to talk to her in German. The others all used her daughter-in-law as a translator.
Pointing to his food, he said, "Good."
"Sehr gut," Frau Shultz answered holding up her empty plate.
"Sehr gut," Jack repeated and smiled at her.
She looked over at the table and, pointing at the pitcher of iced tea, asked, "Wunschen Sie Tee?"
It took Jack a second to understand what she was asking him. The only word that he actually understood was tea so he decided that she was asking him if he wanted tea. He nodded his head trying to remember the word for thank you. He said, "Donkey."
Smiling at his mispronunciation, Ella corrected him, "Danke."
"Danke," Jack said to Frau Shultz. The old woman got up and went over to the pitcher of iced tea. She poured a glass and brought it back to Jack. When she handed it to him, he said, "Danke."
"Sie sind willkommen," Frau Shultz said returning to her seat.
Jack took a sip of the tea and said, "Sehr gut."
"Ja," Frau Shultz said happy to be included in a conversation for a change.
Jack attacked the lasagna with a vengeance. It had to be the best tasting food he had eaten in a long time. After eating a couple of bites, he looked up and said, "This is good."
"I'm glad you like it, Jack," Bev said with a little pride. It felt good to be cooking for an appreciative audience again. Cooking for one meant simple meals or a week's worth of leftovers. She had calculated the cost of the ingredients for the entire meal and had been surprised to discover that it was less than two dollars a person. Considering that their target was five dollars a day per person, she had felt particularly good about that meal.
Jack had a feeling that he was going to be eating very well for the next few weeks. He smiled and said, "I like it a lot."
"We might have enough left over for you to take to work with you for lunch," Bev said.
"That would be great," Jack said thinking that it definitely beat the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that he had taken to work with him that day. He took a bite out of the piece of garlic bread. There was a lot of garlic on it.
Wanda asked, "So how is Abby?"
"Claire is talking to her," Jack answered. He just gone inside and put the food on the kitchen table. The women were in Abby's bedroom so he had just knocked and called out that he had put a plate of food on the table for Abby.
He looked up and noticed that Dave and Rich were walking up his driveway lugging the freezer between them on a dolly. He dug into his food wolfing it down so that he would be able to help set up the freezer. His actions brought smiles to the faces of a number of the women in the garage. By the time he finished his food, Dave and Rich had pulled the freezer into the garage. Dave asked, "Where do you want it?"
Jack looked around at the garage. It currently held a dining room table complete with four chairs, two couches, and a coffee table. Near the door he had his lawnmower and garden tools. The back of the garage had a small workbench and his tools. He said, "I guess we can move the lawnmower and stuff to the back and put the freezer there at the front where it will be easy to access."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Rich said. With the help of Dave, he lowered the freezer to the floor of the garage.
Wanda said, "You could put the lawnmower and stuff in my garage. There's a little room in it. I think there's an edger, hedge trimmers, and other yard tools in there that you could use."
"Oh," Jack said. He hadn't thought about moving things out of his garage.
Bev said, "You should come by my garage to see the tools and stuff that Ernie had in there."
"My George had a bunch of tools. I don't even know what has happened with them," Gail said.
Rich said, "We might want to make an inventory of what we've got to work with around here. I bet we have nine lawn mowers and a half a dozen weed whackers. The one I have isn't worth a darn. I don't see how you manage to mow so many lawns with that dinky little lawn mower you have."
"I push it and it cuts," Jack said pushing the lawnmower out of the garage to get it out of the way.
"There's a riding lawn mower in my garage. My late husband got it after he had problems with his knees. He just couldn't walk that much," Wanda said.
Jack looked at Wanda thinking that he had mowed her lawn twenty times over the past two summers without knowing she had a riding lawnmower in her garage. He said, "That sure would make it easier to mow everyone's lawn."
"You can say that again," Rich said. With some of the right tools, a lot of jobs would be a whole lot easier. He grabbed the rake, a shovel, and a pair of hedge clippers to carry out of the garage.
Liz said, "My husband had a roto tiller to help with my garden."
Checking to make sure that there was enough room for the freezer, Rich said, "We are definitely going to have to take an inventory."
"Right," Dave said. He thought about it for a second and then added, "We probably ought to come up with a list of repairs that people need around the house. Things like dripping faucets, squeaky doors, and stuck windows."
"That's a good idea," Jack said. He said, "At least we would be able to prioritize so that we can fix stuff when we can afford them."
"A little preventive maintenance goes a long way," Dave said.
Jack said, "If we move some of this other stuff out of the way, we'd have enough room for a refrigerator."
"That's a good idea," Rich said.
"I've got one in the garage," Ella said raising a hand.
"I bet that we've got enough stuff squirreled around in our houses to furnish another house," Bev said with a laugh.
Rich and Jack wrestled the freezer into place. Jack said, "We can run an extension cord to the freezer now, but we'll probably want to run a permanent line to it."
"I can do that tomorrow," Dave said looking around the garage. He spotted where the electricity ran into the garage and traced the wiring around the structure. There was an overhead fluorescent light, plugs along the work bench, and one plug along the wall. He flipped the light switch and the overhead light flickered on. He said, "No problem."
"Oh," Jack said surprised. He had been thinking that he would have to do the work.
Dave came over with the end of the electric cord and said, "Plug it in and see if it works."
"Great," Jack said. He plugged in the freezer and it started running.
Dave said, "I'll run the wiring tomorrow. We can bring the refrigerator over when I'm done. That way we aren't wrestling it around twice."
"Good idea," Jack said. He looked around and realized that the three of them were just standing around the freezer looking at it. Joking, he said, "Too bad that we don't have a spare stove."
"I've got a hot plate," Wanda said trying to be helpful.
"So do I," Bev said.
Jack realized that although they hadn't formally decided on starting the commune everyone was acting like it was a done deal. He looked around surprised at the cohesiveness that the group was exhibiting. Even Rich had started supporting the idea and was making good suggestions. Dave unplugged the freezer saying, "No need to waste electricity. You'll have to turn the power off to the garage in the morning so that I can work on it."
"Right," Jack said. He hadn't thought about that. Looking around, he noticed the pad of paper that Abby had used the previous night. He wrote a quick note on a sheet and put it in his pocket to remind himself to shut off the fuse in the morning.
Abby and Claire made their way to the garage. Jack noticed that Abby's eyes were still a little red, but she wasn't crying. Before he had a chance to say anything, she said, "Thanks for driving my car home."
"That's the least I could have done," Jack said shrugging his shoulders.
"I can at least get my stuff out of it now," Abby said. The tears started to return.
Bev said, "I have two cars. You can use one of them."
Abby asked, "You have two cars?"
"My late husband passed away two years ago. We each had a car. I was going to sell his car, but the market was pretty bad so I kept it. I drive one car one week and the other car the next week. I basically drive them to church and the market," Bev said shrugging her shoulders.
"At least it hasn't been sitting there for two years," Jack said. Nothing was harder on a car than just sitting around.
His comment was completely ignored since Abby had thrown herself at Bev taking her in a cry filled hug. Sobbing, she said, "Thank you."
Shuffling his feet, Jack looked out the garage door. Frau Shultz looked at him and laughed. She said, "Jack ist solch ein man. Er lauft, wenn eine junge Frauline schreit."
Ella laughed the comment and replied, "Ja, Er ist."
"What did she say?" Liz asked.
"She said that Jack such a man. He runs when a young woman cries," Ella said provoking a quick round of laughter.
Red faced, Jack shrugged his shoulders and said, "What can I say?"