With his clothes folded neatly on a chair, Jack sat on the floor of his living room with a sheet covering his body. There was a blanket under him softening the hardness of the floor. Uncomfortable at being nearly naked despite the fact that he was still wearing his underwear, he said, "Okay. I'm ready."
Abby came out of the kitchen and held up her hands. In one hand she had a bottle of vegetable oil and in the other she had a box of cornstarch. Thinking that this had to be the only house in America without a bottle of baby oil or baby powder in it, she said, "You can have cornstarch or vegetable oil."
"Which one is cheaper?" Jack asked thinking that this was just going to cost him more money.
"We'll use the cornstarch," Abby said. She didn't imagine that he used it that frequently and wouldn't miss it.
"Okay. What am I supposed to do?" Jack asked.
This wasn't the best way to give a massage, but Abby knew they would have to make do with what they had. She said, "Lie down on your back. I'll massage the rest of your body before attacking the back. That will give your back a chance to relax a little and I won't have to hurt you to break loose those knots of tension."
"Ah," Jack said. He leaned back and pulled the sheet up to his chin thinking that this was pretty much a waste of time. He really needed to get to the auto parts store and get a new water pump.
Abby rubbed her hands together to warm them and then placed her finger tips on his forehead. With light even strokes, she ran her fingers across his forehead. She paused to rub the temples. While she worked, she said, "I've been thinking about that United We Stand, Divided We Fall comment."
"Oh," Jack said wondering if that was why she was there.
"Just relax and listen. You don't have to comment," Abby said. She ran her fingers along his eyebrows. She said, "Our society has fragmented into single person families. Some reports put the numbers at close to fifty percent of all adults live alone. That's a hair under a hundred million."
Jack would have looked up at her in surprise on hearing that number, but she was massaging around his eyes. He grunted to let her know that he was following what she was saying.
"I have no clue how well they are doing financially, but I doubt it is all that great," Abby said. She went to work on the muscles of his cheeks. She said, "Claire is having a hard time paying her bills on time. From what you've said, the woman you're helping out with her porch is barely getting by. Life is tough for a single person."
Lying there practically naked and covered by a sheet, Jack was wondering if all of this talk about being single was some sort of a lead in to a marriage proposal. He was going to say something, but she was doing things to the back of his neck that felt really great.
"It is all about money. It is getting tougher to earn enough money to support yourself. There's no such thing as company loyalty to a good worker. They layoff a person making a good wage and hire one back for less money. It seems to me that they reduce your benefits every chance they get. There's no such thing as a pension anymore. You have to take the money that you earn and put it into a 401K account so that you'll be able to retire one day. They're not going to give you any health benefits when you do retire so the first time you get sick you'll spend every dime you've saved up," Abby said.
Jack had a long way to go before he was ready to retire and hadn't given it that much thought. She was really working over some of the muscles of his shoulders and it kind of hurt. He let out a grunt. She said, "Sorry. You're really tight in this area."
"Yeah," Jack said. She wasn't telling him something that he didn't already know.
"Things aren't made to last. I've bought stuff that didn't work after a week. It seems to me that there is a lot of junk on the market. You take it back and they give you a replacement that breaks just as quickly. If you do that too many times, they put your name on a list that won't let you return merchandise anymore.
"Somehow or another, we need the stuff to get by. You can't trust a brand name anymore. You spend a little extra to buy the name brand stuff and it falls apart just as fast as the junk brand. I spend weeks researching stuff before I buy anything now and I'm still not sure that I'm getting a good product," Abby said.
"Most of the time, I'm going after commercial quality stuff so I know that it will last. Of course, that costs a fortune and I can't afford to do that now. I can't afford to do anything now. I tell you, this sucks big time," Abby said feeling like she was doing a lousy job of explaining her idea.
"I was talking to Claire about families. Her parents grew up surrounded by family with lots of brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles that all chipped in when they had a problem. She and her husband were an atomic family without that kind of support, but she was a stay at home mom. Her daughter married a guy and they had to raise the kids with both of them working. My parents divorced so I didn't even have two parents growing up," Abby said with a sigh.
She started working on his right shoulder. She said, "We just keep getting more and more isolated as time goes by. I'm not talking about loneliness or anything like that. An isolated person is an easy victim. You can't watch every direction at once. You're watching your money and things break. You spend time fixing them and you aren't out earning any money. You end up doing everything and you have no time left. You don't know how to do everything and you don't have the time to do some things, so you hire someone. Then you're out money and time."
"After a while, you feel like you're a caribou surrounded by wolves. No matter which way you turn, someone is biting your back. You're busy working and trying to save money. Someone comes along and raises the taxes while you're not watching. There goes that money you're trying to save. It just gets worse and worse. You've got no control over how much things cost," Abby said.
Jack was starting to feel pretty depressed. Actually, he was feeling even more depressed than normal. Everything she was saying described his life and he had no idea what he could do to fix things. He said, "It is impossible to budget money when the prices of things change all of the time."
Abby said, "I know that two can't live as cheap as one, but I'm pretty convinced that two together can live cheaper than two apart. Think about you and Claire. You both live in houses that have more bedrooms than you have people. You're both paying property taxes. If you were living in the same house, you'd only be paying those taxes on one house. You're both trying to heat and cool your houses. If you were living in the same house, you'd only be paying the costs to heat one house. If you were to move in with Claire and shared the costs, you would both have more money."
"You could take turns cooking, washing the dishes, and running errands. You'd end up with having to do half of the stuff you currently do. Only one lawn would need to get mowed for you both to have a nice yard. You'd only have to buy half the stuff that you currently buy living by yourself," Abby said.
Jack said, "I don't want to rent a room from Claire."
"I don't want to rent a room from anyone either and I don't want a roommate. That's still two separate economic entities living together. Renting doesn't result in ownership for the renter and the owner gets all of the benefits. It is an unfair arrangement and politically unfair. The owner can always say that this is my house and you live by my rules. That may solve some of the problems, but it doesn't solve the real problem. You're alone and having to watch out for yourself," Abby said.
"What are you saying?" Jack asked after thinking about what she had said for a few minutes.
Abby answered, "I'm saying that you need a real economic and social partnership to get by in today's world. Everyone involved has to own a share of the pie. Everyone has to do their bit to make things work. Everyone has to support each other to keep the wolves at bay."
"Sounds like a utopia," Jack said with a derisive snort.
Abby had been afraid that Jack would discount her idea like that. Everyone she talked to had pointed out all of the problems and dismissed the idea without giving it much thought. Angry, she asked, "And is your life all that perfect right now?"
"No," Jack admitted.
"That's right. Your life sucks just as much as mine does. You're running around trying to pick up the pieces all by yourself. The worse times get, the more you'll lose. By the time that things get better, you're going to have nothing. You'll lose this house; you won't have a truck. You'll have to start all over again," Abby said.
Shaking his head, Jack said, "I'm not going to let it get that bad. I'm looking for a better job and I'll be making more money soon."
"Dream on, buddy," Abby said scornfully.
Jack was starting to get angry. He said, "Look I don't need you dumping on me. I've already got enough problems in my life."
Abby asked, "What are you doing about them? You had a good job. What happened? The job deserted you; you didn't desert the job. You were working six days a week and now you're working three. Do you think your next job is going to be any better? You'll sell cars at a dealership or refrigerators at the mall. Sales go down and you'll be out of a job again. It won't be your fault, but you'll be the one suffering."
"I'm doing the best that I can," Jack said defensively.
"And you're doing it alone," Abby said. She moved down to drape the sheet around his leg so that she could work on his leg. When he didn't reply, she said, "That's the real problem. You're doing everything alone. You don't have anyone helping you."
Jack was about to retort that he didn't want anyone to help him, but it wasn't true. He was lying on the floor of his darkened house because he couldn't pay the electricity bill. He was eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because he couldn't keep his food cool. He was walking because his truck didn't work. He had a thousand things to do and not enough time to do half of them.
His truck was sitting in the driveway because the water pump was bad. After mowing lawns all morning, he just barely had the money now to buy the parts. He still had to walk to the parts store to get the part and then walk back. He'd spend the rest of the day fixing the truck and wouldn't get anything else done. Even a ride to and from the parts store would save him an hour.
Jack said, "Maybe you're right."
"I am right," Abby said.
"So what are you suggesting?" Jack asked. He jerked his leg in response to the sudden application of cornstarch on it. If felt surprisingly cool against his skin.
Abby answered, "I was thinking of something like a commune."
Jack laughed and said, "That's stupid."
"No it isn't," Abby replied angrily. She said, "You didn't even listen to my idea."
"A commune? I'm not some kind of hippy from the sixties," Jack said.
"Those fucking bleeding ponytails took a good idea and screwed it up. Did you know that the idea of a commune goes back eight hundred years? No. Everyone thinks it was invented in the sixties. Guess what? They've been successful in the past and they can be successful in the present. You just have to figure out how to make the idea work today," Abby said.
"You're kidding," Jack said looking over at Abby.
"Ever hear of an Amana oven? Amana started out as a commune more than a hundred years ago," Abby said. She couldn't remember the exact dates, but did remember that it was just after the civil war.
"They were swingers?" Jack asked surprised.
"No. They were a religious group," Abby answered shaking her head in disgust.
"I'm not starting a new religion," Jack said.
"I'm not talking about a religion," Abby said.
Frustrated, Jack asked, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about a group of people getting together to share their resources for the betterment of everyone. I'm talking about sharing the costs of food, shelter, transportation, entertainment, equipment, and everything," Abby said.
"Ouch," Jack said. She worked over a knot in his calf that nearly had him in tears.
"You've got a lot of tension in your body. It is amazing you could move," Abby said feeling the hardened mass of muscle in his leg.
Jack said, "Just take it easy."
"You'll feel a thousand times better when I'm done," Abby said. She wondered if his leg was going to get a cramp in it. Sometimes that happened when there was too much tension in the muscles. One muscle would relax taking the pressure off another muscle and it would suddenly cramp.
"We'll see," Jack said doubtfully.
Getting back to her real reason for being there, Abby said, "You said that you had to take a trip to the auto parts store. How are you going to get there?"
"I'll walk," Jack answered.
Abby said, "In the commune that I'm talking about, someone would give you a ride. Who is going to help you fix the car?"
"No one. It is a job that only requires one person," Jack said.
Abby said, "Who will be fixing dinner while you're fixing the car?"
"No one," Jack answered thinking that he was going to giving that answer a lot. He added, "I'll fix it when I'm done."
"In the commune that I'm talking about, someone would be fixing dinner so that it would be ready for you when you're done with the car," Abby said.
"That wouldn't be so bad," Jack said grudgingly. He jumped suddenly and shouted, "Charlie horse!"
Abby grabbed his calf and pressed on the muscle. She said, "You have a good body, but it is almost twisted out of shape from all of the tension in it."
"That hurts," Jack said sitting up. He had been having a lot of muscle cramps the past few weeks. It seemed like every night he woke up with a leg cramp or a back spasm.
"Relax," Abby said working over the muscle. She felt it loosen and said, "There. Isn't that better?"
Jack lay back down and said, "I'm going to be sore when you're done with me."
"You'll feel a whole lot better," Abby said. She couldn't believe that he had that much tension in his body. Her massage instructor would have yelled at her for causing so much pain; but his body was in very sad shape. She hadn't even been working near the muscle that had cramped up on him. When he had settled down, she asked, "Who is going to help you with that porch?"
"No one," Jack said. He could feel one of his toes cramping. She wasn't even working anywhere near his toes but he was ready to blame her for the pain.
Seeing his toes curl, Abby moved down and worked on another set of muscles before they cramped up on him. His toes started to uncurl. Shaking her head, she said, "You're really in sad shape."
"It is not that bad," Jack said defensively. He wasn't about to admit that he woke up every morning stiff and sore. It took him a long time to get moving first thing in the morning. He chalked it up to getting older and dreaded what life was going to be like forty years from now.
"You're carrying the weight of the whole world on your shoulders and there is no one around to help you," Abby said.
"You're not doing so great yourself," Jack said feeling like she was belittling him.
"I know that. My life is just as bad as yours," Abby said. She ran her hands up his leg and felt another muscle that was getting tight. She dug her thumbs in to bust up the tension that was developing.
"So stop telling me what I'm doing wrong," Jack said.
"I'm not telling you what you're doing wrong; I'm trying to tell you how to make your life easier," Abby said switching over to the other leg.
Jack asked, "What makes your advice worth listening to?"
"Absolutely nothing. If you haven't figured it out, I'm trying to fix up my life too. In two weeks I'm going to be living out of my car. Unlike you, I won't have a backyard grill to cook my dinner over," Abby said.
Jack didn't have much to say about that. With all of her comments about what he was doing wrong, he'd forgotten that her life was in pretty bad shape too. He just grunted.
Taking his grunt as a sign to continue, Abby thought about what she was trying to propose. The problem was that she hadn't worked out all of the details in her mind yet. She said, "I was hoping that we could help each other."
"You don't know me," Jack said meaning that he didn't know her.
"I know," Abby said with a sigh. She found a muscle that was hard as a rock and attacked it with her thumbs. She said, "I've talked with everyone I know and none of them were interested in the idea. I didn't know where else to turn."
"I can imagine," Jack said. He figured that everyone else thought she was a nutcase as well.
Abby grunted and said, "If your legs are this bad, I can't imagine what your back is going to be like."
"I didn't ask you to do this," Jack said. One of his leg muscles went into spasms. He wondered what the big deal was about massages if they felt like this.
"You were walking around like you were a hundred years old. It is not natural for someone your age to move like that," Abby said feeling like her efforts to help him were not being appreciated. She worked the muscle that had gone into spasms with her thumbs. She said, "I've only had one other customer who went into spasms like this."
"It hurts," Jack said.
Abby said, "I'll tell you one thing."
"What?"
Abby said, "That kind of tension will kill you years before your time. You've got to learn how to relax."
"I'll relax when I have the time," Jack said with a frown.
"When will you have time?" Abby asked feeling the muscle relax.
"Soon," Jack answered.
Abby had worked her way down to his feet. While she massaged the sole of his foot, she asked, "When? After you finish fixing your truck? After you fix the patio? After you mow another dozen lawns? After you get home from work, finish cooking dinner, washing dishes, and cleaning the house? When will you have the time to relax?"
"After I'm dead," Jack answered flatly.
Massaging someone on the floor was very hard on the back and legs. She wished that she had brought her massage table, but she hadn't. Finishing his leg, she draped the sheet over it and moved to work on his arm. She said, "You'll be dead soon at this rate."
"Well, I can't do everything myself," Jack said.
Abby worked over his shoulder and said, "That's my point."
"So what are you suggesting that I do?" Jack asked after a minute.
"I'm suggesting that you start a commune," Abby answered feeling like the conversation was going in circles.
"Back to that," Jack said rolling his eyes.
Abby didn't respond right away. She was busy trying to figure out a straight-forward way to put it so that he would get the idea. She massaged his arms finding that the tension had been reduced somewhat.
"The idea isn't all that complicated. You work and make money. I work and make money. We pool our money together and pay the bills for one household rather than two. When you need some help, I help you. When I need some help, you help me. Maybe we might even be able to save some money while we are at it," Abby said.
"Sounds like a marriage," Jack said.
"The legal basis of marriage is economic," Abby said.
Jack didn't reply right away. He wasn't sure that he liked all of the implications of what she was saying. Finally, he said, "It is like a marriage without any of the benefits."
"It is a partnership with all of the benefits of being partners," Abby said.
"So we'd be living together without any of the benefits," Jack said.
"What do you mean?" Abby asked.
"I'm assuming that there won't be any sex," Jack said bluntly.
"That's right," Abby said thinking she should have known that would come up in the conversation. She finished her reply about the same time she finished massaging his arm. She said, "Roll over onto your stomach."
Jack rolled over and stretched out thinking that she would now tackle his back. Much to his surprise, she immediately went to work on his arm again starting with the muscles of his shoulder. He said, "I don't think I can live with a woman under those conditions."
Abby asked, "Could you rent a room to a woman without requiring her to have sex with you?"
"Yes," Jack answered knowing that as soon as the words were out of his mouth that she was going to give him grief about that answer.
Abby was surprised by his answer. She asked, "What is the difference?"
"The difference is that if I'm sharing everything with someone else, it'll be a much more intimate relationship than if I'm just renting out some space to someone. If they piss me off, then I can just toss them out. If I'm sharing everything with someone, I've got no choice except to put up with them," Jack answered feeling pleased that he had been able to come up with that answer. He hoped that she would buy it.
"I guess I can understand that," Abby said. Now that he had said it, she realized what Claire had been saying when she had advised her to think about it some more. There was more to it than just money. She said, "I guess it was just a bad idea."
"Yes," Jack said.
She worked on the shoulder muscles for a bit more before moving down his arm. Even though she had already worked over that arm earlier, the tension had returned. She said, "Normally a client is a limp noodle by now, but you're still tense."
Jack relaxed thinking about what she had suggested. In two weeks he had his insurance due along with a mortgage payment. If things continued as they had, he knew that he wouldn't have enough money coming in his next paycheck to cover them both. He didn't know what he was going to do, but hoped something would happen in time to help.
Abby finished with his arm and moved down to his leg. She dumped a little cornstarch on the back of his leg and started massaging it. She said, "You said that you could rent a room to a woman without expecting sex."
"That's right," Jack said.
"How much would you charge for a room?" she asked.
Jack hadn't thought about it. His mortgage payment was nine hundred dollars. His electricity, when he had it, ran about a hundred and fifty dollars a month. He figured that getting one room of three rooms would be worth paying a third of the bills. He answered, "Three hundred and fifty dollars."
"That's not too bad," Abby said. She was paying close to nine hundred for a one bedroom apartment. Of course, she was two months behind on her rent.
"I guess," Jack said. He hadn't really thought about renting his room or how much he should charge. It seemed to him that three hundred and fifty dollars was a lot of money.
"Would you rent a room to me?" Abby asked.
"I don't have electricity," Jack said.
"I know," Abby said.
"I probably won't be getting electricity for another month even with you paying rent," Jack said. There were too many other bills that had to be paid first.
Abby made fifteen dollars an hour at the nursing home. After taxes that was about four hundred dollars a week. Her next paycheck would be just over eight hundred dollars. It sounded like a lot until one took into account her auto insurance, gasoline, car repairs, food, her credit card debt, her rent, the phone bill, and the hundreds of other little expenses that had crept into her life. The car had cost her five hundred dollars to repair two months ago and she had never recovered from it. She said, "Electricity is a luxury at this point."
"That's my thinking," Jack said.
"I'll take the room," Abby said. She covered the leg she was working on with the sheet and moved over to the other leg.
"I never said that I would rent it to you," Jack said.
Abby asked, "What choice do you have?"