Bev and Liz ended up at the Benjamin house with Rich for the next two days looking up hospitals and medical facilities through the region that had been affected by the storm while Rich was busy on the phone making calls. It turned out that only three of the four hospitals that had contacted Rich had equipment that had been damaged. The fourth hospital was merely a matter of coincidence. However, that did not stop Rich from making additional sales with hospitals that had never done business with his company.
Rich sat back in his chair after the last call and said, "That was good. I've added six more hospitals as customers. The sales might not have been major league, but they were sales our company wouldn't have had. It has been a long time since I've done any cold calling like that."
"It looks to me like you do a pretty good job," Liz said. She had been impressed with how he had managed to start up conversations with complete strangers on the telephone.
"I managed to make a quarter of a million dollars in sales over the past two days. I usually don't even do that much in a month," Rich said. When he added in the million dollars in sales of the first day of the storm, he had done a tremendous job over the past three days.
Bev said, "You work on commission, right?"
"Yes. Five percent," Rich answered. He had made over sixty thousand dollars when everyone else was stuck at home.
"That's pretty good," Bev said.
Abby and Cheryl were at the local school with the boys. The boys were pulling their sleds up to the top of a small hill and riding down while the two women stood off to the side watching them. Cheryl said, "Rich made a lot of money over the past two days."
"That's good," Abby said. She looked at the young mother and asked, "What are you going to do with it?"
"We're going to get rid of a bunch of our bills. We've got a bunch of loans for furniture, electronics, and our car. I'm paying them off," Cheryl said. She didn't have the words to express how that prospect made her feel. It didn't matter that taxes and social security were going to get about forty percent of his commission. It was still a lot of debt that could be eliminated. She added, "I'm going to try to put away five thousand for savings."
The idea of having that much money set aside in a saving account made her head spin. She couldn't imagine it. Abby said, "That's good."
"I figure paying off a couple of the loans will give us more than a thousand dollars a month," Cheryl said. They still had the student loan to payoff. She felt that was going to hang over their head for the rest of their life.
"I guess that you'll be leaving the commune," Abby said.
Cheryl looked horrified at the idea and said, "No way. That's been the best thing that has ever happened to us."
"I didn't think Rich was all that wild about joining it," Abby said. She remembered how he had acted the first meeting. She figured that he would jump at the first chance to leave.
"He'd never admit it, but he enjoys working on stuff with Jack and Dave. I guess his father never did that kind of stuff with him when he was growing up. He tells me all the time about the things he's learned from the two of them," Cheryl said. He had even suggested kicking in a little of the money to help pay for some of the repairs.
Abby asked, "How do you feel about it?"
"Me? I love the commune. I love the boys, but it sure is nice to have a dozen babysitters on call at all hours of the day and night," Cheryl said. There were some evenings when she and Rich went home alone and did nothing except cuddle and talk for a couple of hours.
"They are a handful," Abby said in agreement.
Cheryl asked, "What are your plans?"
"I'm hoping that I can borrow your computer to make up some flyers advertising packing services," Abby said.
"Of course you can borrow it. Rich will help you make the flyers," Cheryl said.
Smiling at the other woman appreciatively, Abby said, "I figure I'll charge about ten dollars an hour. It will be three dollars an hour more than what I make at the Taco Emporium."
"What's going on at the Taco Emporium?" Cheryl asked.
Shaking her head in disgust, Abby said, "Things aren't so good there. December first the fat tax kicked in. Our prices also went up because of the increase in corn prices. That damned bio-fuel is eating up the entire corn crop. The average order went up by fifteen percent overnight. A year ago a taco was ninety-nine cents and now it is a dollar thirty. Every customer complained about the increase in price. We had people leave when they heard how much their order cost."
"I can understand why," Cheryl said. She had heard on the news that the inflation rate was about two percent, but that was because of the drop in housing prices. When house prices dropped thirty percent in a year, that meant the rest of the market kicked up by thirty-two percent.
"My boss hasn't said it to us, but I overheard him talking to someone on the phone that he thinks the store won't be in business six months from now," Abby said. She would be surprised if it lasted four months.
It was definitely a bad sign when management started bailing out of a company. Cheryl said, "That's bad. Are you going to keep the job while you are starting your packing business?"
"I was thinking about it, but I've decided that I'm going to send out the flyers and quit when I get the first job," Abby answered. The idea of doing that terrified her.
"Why?"
She had made almost as much packing up the stuff at Penny's house part-time as she did at her job working the whole week. In fact, that was the only reason she was able to pay rent and food that month. Abby answered, "I can't pack up houses during the day if I have to work at the Taco Emporium. I'll be making three dollars an hour more packing boxes and I might be able to work six or seven full days a week. When you take into account that I might be able to earn more every hour and work more hours a week, I really can't afford to stay at Taco Emporium."
"I remember Jack making that same argument," Cheryl said.
Abby said, "To tell the truth, it scares the hell out of me."
"I don't know if I could do it," Cheryl said. She was so lucky that Rich had managed to keep his job and she didn't have to work. She noticed that Chuck had a real good ride down the hill and shouted out, "Way to go Chuck!"
"Watch me!" Mike shouted wanting to get a little attention from his mother.
"I figure it this way. A lot of elderly are going to move in with their kids over the next month or two. I'll have two months to get ready to do that house watching business. That's where I think I'll have the best chance of success," Abby said watching Mike ride down the hill on his sled. She gave him a thumbs up.
"Good job, Mike," Cheryl shouted. She glanced over at Abby and asked, "Why do you think it is your best chance of success?"
"I was thinking of it this way. The banks are holding mortgages on a lot of these properties. They aren't going to be able to sell them for a while considering the way the market is acting. They won't want the houses to lose value because they are falling apart. They want to get as much money out of them as possible. I figure that if I charge twenty-five dollars per house per month, that it will cost them only three hundred dollars a year to maintain the value. One bad accident to the house and they could lose ten times that much," Abby said.
"That does make sense," Cheryl said. She wondered if it made too much sense for a bank. Considering the stupidity that the financial markets were demonstrating, a little common sense might be asking too much of them.
"So if I can get a contract for forty houses, that's a thousand dollars a month. That's what I was making at Taco Emporium working thirty-two hours a week," Abby said. She had spent a couple of hours working over the numbers over the past two days.
"You shouldn't have much difficulty getting forty houses," Cheryl said. There were more houses than that within a twelve block radius. She said, "There are six houses for sale on our street alone."
"That's what I was thinking. I also figured that the people moving in with their relatives wouldn't want their houses to lose value either. I don't know what the numbers are, but I figure that I might be able to get a lot more than forty houses total," Abby said. She was hoping that she could get fifty houses.
Cheryl said, "That would be a lot of work."
Abby shrugged her shoulders and said, "I figure that I could do a walkthrough of a house in less than ten minutes. All I would be doing is checking the windows, make sure that the heat is still working, and see if there were any obvious signs of damage. I could do about five houses an hour if they are close together. Forty houses would be an eight hour day. I could go through the houses once every three days or so."
"What about when a storm comes?" Cheryl asked. She figured that people would want their houses checked as quickly as possible after a storm.
"I don't know," Abby answered. She didn't have all of the answers yet.
"You'll figure something out," Cheryl said watching the boys slide down the hill. She shouted, "You're doing real good, boys."
"They are having fun, aren't they?" Abby said.
"Yeah. They are so lucky to be young and unaware of how bad things are. I worry about what kind of world they'll be inheriting. Will they have opportunities when they get older?" Cheryl asked.
"I don't know," Abby said.
Cheryl said, "They don't think there is anything special about life around the commune. I'll admit that they are happy to have a dozen grannies all of a sudden. They enjoy playing sports with Jack. To them, this is just how life is."
"It sure is different than how I grew up," Abby said thinking that maybe the boys were having a better start to life than she had. She was basically a latchkey kid and that was a pretty lonely childhood. It got worse when her parents divorced.
"Same here," Cheryl said. "I had a lot more toys than they do."
"I guess I did too," Abby said. She hadn't appreciated it at the time. Of course, a new doll wasn't a replacement for a hug. She said, "They get a lot more attention, though."
"You know that they'll run up to the house and tell all of the little old ladies about their adventures on the huge hill at the big kid's school. Claire will clap her hands and praise them for being so brave for facing such a dangerous challenge. Liz and Bev will hug them. The boys will eat up the attention," Cheryl said.
Abby sighed and said, "I would have killed for that kind of attention when I was their age."
"They'll be talking about this afternoon until they get to bed," Cheryl said.
"I know. I could see Jack out there with them," Abby said. He would have been out there helping the boys drag the sleds up to the top of the hill. He probably would have taken a couple of rides down the hill as well.
Cheryl said, "It has been kind of strange not having Jack around."
"He'll probably make it home tonight," Abby said.
"I felt kind of sorry for Dave. He's a little too old to be out shoveling snow like that. Jack would have made sure that he didn't over do it," Cheryl said.
"My aching back wishes Jack had been here. I never really thought about how much physical work shoveling snow was," Abby said.
Jack picked up the log and carried it over to the stack. One of the older trees on campus had fallen during the storm and they were cutting it up. He straightened up and twisted from side to side to loosen his back. One of the students came over with three cups of hot chocolate. Jack turned to the two men cutting the tree and shouted, "Hey. Stop the chainsaw."
In the sudden silence, the two men turned to Jack to see what he wanted. They smiled on seeing the cups of hot chocolate. Accepting a cup from the student, Jack said, "You are a sight for sore eyes."
"I figured that you guys could use a little break," the student answered. He looked over at the stack of wood and said, "My dad and I always cut two cords of firewood from the woods behind the house every year. That's hard work."
"It isn't that bad," Kevin said. He was a groundskeeper for the school and typically trimmed the branches of the trees during the fall.
"It sure doesn't help when the snow is halfway to your waist," the student said. Jack had trampled a pretty good path from the tree to where he was stacking the wood.
"You can say that again," Kevin said taking a cup of hot chocolate. He took a sip and said, "That is great."
"It sure is nice of you to bring this out to us," Jack said.
"Don't mention it," the student said. He looked over at the chainsaw and asked, "Do you need some help?"
"No. We're doing fine," Kevin said. The university administration would go ballistic if they were to let a student loose with a chainsaw.
"I kind of miss working on the farm. I never thought I would say that," the student said.
Jack said, "You sound a little homesick. Christmas break is coming soon and you'll be able to go back for a visit."
The young man looked over at Jack and said, "I guess I am a little homesick. We have five hundred acres. On a day like today, the whole field would be covered in snow. You'd see the deer coming out hoping to get at the wheat that was under the snow. Every year we planted wheat."
"You grew wheat?" Jack asked. He didn't know anything about farming. His whole image of farming was from a sixties comedy show about a New York lawyer riding a tractor surround by a bunch of hicks.
The student answered, "Dad planted corn this past year. He said it was time to start growing gasoline rather than food. To tell the truth, that's what made it possible for me to come here. You can't grow enough corn."
Kevin said, "It sure did drive up the cost of food."
"I guess that's true. Of course, the farmers don't get much of that money," the young man said shaking his head. It had been real touch and go about him being able to come to college.
The other man, Don, who had been cutting up the tree said, "I'd raise wheat. With everyone going over to corn, the price of wheat is going to be astronomical next year. Your dad will make a killing."
The young man smiled and said, "I better head indoors. I'm not exactly dressed for this cold weather."
"Hope you do well in your studies," Don said raising his cup of hot chocolate.
Jack watched the kid walk off towards one of the dorms. He said, "Nice kid. We should probably write a letter thanking Phi Beta Kappa for sending out the hot drinks."
"Roy already wrote a letter. He sent a copy to the school paper so that they'll print it," Kevin said.
Don said, "The Greek societies sometimes get in a little trouble, but by and large they're good kids. The big problem is alcohol at parties. We've got a lot of binge drinkers."
"I guess," Jack said. He hadn't been around the school long enough to know things like that. He was impressed by how thoughtful and considerate a lot of the students were.
"Finals start in about two weeks. These kids are going to be stressed to their limits," Don said. He took a sip of his drink and gestured to the main buildings.
Shaking his head, Kevin said, "I hope that we don't lose one to suicide this year."
"It is going to be a bad one this year. We could end up losing two or three of them to suicide. A lot of these kids know that their parents can't afford to send them here. Most of them believe that if they fail one course that it will be the end of their college career. That kind of thinking just doubles the pressure on them," Don said.
"At least my kid doesn't have to worry about that," Kevin said. Free tuition was a great job benefit.
"My daughter will be coming here in two years," Don said.
Jack said, "I don't have kids. I'm not married so it will be a long time before I have to worry about that."
"We see you eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day with that lovely little lady," Kevin said nudging him with an elbow.
"If you keep that up, you'll be married before you know it," Don said with a grin.
Abby and Cheryl were walking back to the community house behind the boys. The two women were pulling the sleds since the boys had worn themselves out playing on the hill. Abby looked down the street and saw that the snowplow was headed their way. It was moving fast and throwing a huge wall of snow. The street hadn't been plowed since the start of the snow storm and there was a lot of snow on the street. She froze and said, "Oh my God!"
"Is he crazy?" Cheryl asked thinking that if they got hit with that wall of snow, it would kill them.
"He's not slowing down," Abby said frozen to the spot. She watched a little sign with the address of the house disappear under the snow. It felt like her heart was beating a thousand times a minute.
"Get Mike," Cheryl shouted rushing forward to grab Chuck.
Cheryl's move seemed to break the paralysis that had gripped Abby. She rushed forward and grabbed Mike. Holding him in her arms, she raced away from the street. Mike was surprised by being grabbed from behind and started to struggle. Holding onto him the best she could, Abby moved as fast as she could. Cheryl was right beside her.
The two women managed to get far enough away from the street to avoid the wall of snow. Cheryl put Chuck down on the ground. She turned to the road and shouted, "Asshole!"
"He could have killed us," Abby said finding it hard to catch her breath. She put Mike down on the ground.
Cheryl turned to the boys and asked, "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Chuck answered looking around as if he had lost something.
"Sure," Mike said unaware that he had even been in danger.
Realizing what was missing, Chuck asked, "Where's my sled?"
Looking back at where they had been, Cheryl answered, "It is under the snow."
"Let's see if we can find your sleds," Abby said thinking that it would give her a chance to come to grips with the experience. She wondered if she was going to be able to walk.
The boys ran over to where they thought the sleds might have been buried. Cheryl turned to Abby and said, "Thank God you were here. I don't think I could have saved both of them if I had been alone."
Abby looked at Cheryl's pale face. She said, "You would have managed."
"I don't think so. A person alone doesn't stand much of a chance in today's world," Cheryl said thinking that she had nearly lost one or both of them. She turned to watch the boys merrily digging through the snow. This was just another grand adventure for them.
"I've got to agree with you on that," Abby said. She managed to get her legs moving and headed over to where the boys were hunting. She figured they were looking about six feet away from where the sleds were.
It took them a half an hour to locate the sleds and get them dug out. The snow plow had dumped a massive amount of snow where they had been standing. While they had been working, the snowplow had come back down the road clearing the other side. It wasn't moving any slower this time. Cheryl gave the driver a piece of her mind when he drove past, but the man didn't even look in their direction.
As they trudged back to the house feeling chilled to the bone and tired, Cheryl said, "They used to keep the roads free of snow. Now they only remove it when the storm ends."
"I guess they can't afford it," Abby said. She knew that she would be out there in an hour or two shoveling snow. The snow plow had buried a good percentage of the walkways she had cleared out earlier that morning.
They reached the house and the boys immediately started telling about their adventures sledding. Cheryl and Abby got out of their coats and chased the boys down to remove their coats. Abby smiled when Claire clapped her hands and said, "Aren't you two the bravest boys around? Imagine sledding down that huge hill. I would have been too scared."
As soon as the coats were off, Bev and Liz gave the two boys hugs. Abby said, "You were right, Cheryl."
Cheryl winked back at her and said, "Some things in life are predictable."
Abby went over to the television where Dave was watching the news. She asked, "What's new in the news?"
Dave shook his head slowly and said, "Over a hundred people died in this storm."
"What?" Abby asked thinking she hadn't heard him correctly.
Dave said, "Four or five people had heart attacks clearing out the snow. It happens every time it snows. This time, they died since the ambulances couldn't get to them in time because of quality of the roads."
"That's horrible," Abby said.
"It gets worse," Dave said.
"How?" Abby asked.
"After losing their homes, a lot of people are living in their cars. So far, police have found over a hundred of them frozen to death. A whole family, a husband, a wife, and two kids, were found frozen to death in their car that was parked in the middle of the parking lot of a grocery store," Dave said unable to believe what he had heard on the television.
"That's horrible," Abby said looking over at the television. It was showing police gathered around a large SUV that was parked in a parking lot of a shopping mall.
"They estimate that there are over a thousand families living in their cars in this county," Dave said.
"I never noticed that," Abby said.
Dave said, "You wouldn't notice them. Who notices a car parked in a parking lot? Nobody does."
"That's just too many people living that way," Abby said.
They had been covering the story for over an hour now and Dave had listened to every minute of it. He said, "They think that the death toll could go up when they finally get the roads clear and get a better assessment of the situation."
"Nobody checked on them?" Abby asked.
"Even the police cars couldn't get out on the roads," Dave said. They had all listened to the announcement that they were to shelter in place rather than go out into the storm. He hadn't thought much about the announcement at the time. He hadn't realized just what that meant. He said, "They made the decision in the middle of the first day of the storm to let the snow build up on the roads knowing that police, fire, and ambulance services would be impacted. It was a money saving measure."
Dropping down into one of the chairs, Abby said, "I don't even know what to say."
Dave said, "We just have to be thankful that we are all together here looking out for each other."
"The death count nearly rose by another four earlier this afternoon," Abby said.
Dave asked, "What happened?"
Abby said, "We nearly got buried by a snow plow. The bastard was driving forty miles an hour and didn't even slow down when he approached us. If we hadn't moved out of the way, we'd have been killed."
Dave said, "The speed limit here is thirty."
"He wasn't doing thirty miles an hour," Abby said.
Dave said, "I believe you. You've got to move pretty fast to clear out the kind of snow drifts that are out there. You were lucky to get out of the way."
"I don't even know what to think about it," Abby said.
Dave frowned and said, "I do. We've become a third world country. Welcome to the New America."