It was late when Jack returned home. He was about to pull into the driveway when he saw that Abby's car was already in it. He parked his truck at the curb since she usually left before him in the morning and parking behind her would leave her blocked in. They were going to have to do something about the parking situation. He didn't like leaving his truck parked by the road.
He walked around to the back of the house to start the fire so that they could cook dinner. Claire was seated in one of the patio chairs talking with Abby. The elderly woman was laughing about something, but he hadn't heard the comment that had brought a smile to the old woman's face.
His back tightened up when he noticed that they hadn't started the fire yet. He was about to complain about having to do everything himself when Abby called out, "Hello, Jack. We're eating over at Claire's tonight."
Jack frowned wondering why they would be eating there. According to Abby she didn't have any food. He pasted a smile on his face and said, "That would nice."
"We're having some fried spam, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I hope that's all right with you," Claire said. She had contributed the potatoes, but the spam and green beans had been provided by Abby.
"Sounds good to me," Jack said hoping the spam was the can that he had in the pantry.
"You look happy today," Abby said.
"I got a job putting up drywall at a new building they are putting up. The job will last two weeks," Jack said. It didn't pay that well, but the hours compensated for it. As far as he was concerned, eighty hours of work was eighty hours of work. His take home would run around twelve hundred and that would help his economic situation significantly.
"That's great," Abby said about to add some other good news, but after a glance at Claire she changed her mind.
"Hopefully we'll have electricity soon," Jack said. He thought about the job and realized that he could have managed to get by without taking Abby in as a housemate. If he was lucky, he might be able to get a job with the carpet laying crew that would come in on the project later.
Claire said, "We should head over to the house. The potatoes are boiling and I'd hate to overcook them. Dinner should be ready in ten minutes."
"Let me wash up and I'll be over," Jack said finding it nice to eat on arriving home for a change.
While the women went over to Claire's house to take care of dinner, he headed into his house to wash his hands and face. Once there, he decided to take a quick shower. There was no window in the bathroom and now that he had a housemate he realized that he had to close the door rather than depend upon the ambient light. After lighting a candle, he stripped and stepped under the cold water. The cold water was a shock to his system, but after working all day it felt good to feel clean. He didn't spend a minute longer under the water than was necessary to get rid of the day's dirt and grime.
Dressed in clean clothes, he stopped in the kitchen and opened the cupboard. As he had hoped, the can of spam was gone. He looked around the cupboard in the hope of finding something else to contribute to the meal, but there wasn't much in it. Talking to himself, he said, "Well, at least I contributed to the dinner. I wish it had been a little better than spam."
Jack went over to Claire's house and knocked on the front door. Much to his surprise, it was Abby who opened the door and invited him in, "Come in. We're putting the food on the table."
"Okay," Jack said following her into the dining room. He noticed that the glasses were filled with ice tea. There was a nice bowl of mashed potatoes on the table along with a smaller bowl filled with green beans. He could smell the spam.
The three of them sat down at the table. Jack made sure that he was the last to take a seat. It was a throwback to his upbringing by a father who believed that a man should be a gentleman. Claire looked at the food on the table and then at the two young guests. Embarrassed, she said, "I'd like to take a moment to pray."
"Sounds good to me," Jack said bowing his head. He looked over and saw that Abby had her head bowed.
"Lord, we thank you for the food and the company. Amen," Claire said.
"Amen," Jack said. His deeper voice drowned out the quiet Amen spoken by Abby.
"Let's eat," Claire said grabbing the plate with spam. She tossed two slices on her plate before passing it around to Abby. Abby took two pieces and passed the plate to Jack. Jack took a two pieces and put the plate back on the table with a single slice of spam on it. Lifting an eyebrow, Claire said, "Take that. You've got work to do tomorrow."
"Yes, ma'am," Jack said taking the last piece of spam. Claire started with the mash potatoes and piled a good amount on her plate. She handed it off to Abby who took a good helping of the potatoes. Jack took a reasonable serving and put the bowl with some mashed potatoes left in it on the table. Claire didn't comment, but picked up the green beans. She took about a third of them before passing them to Abby. Looking up at Jack, Abby took half of what remained before passing it to him. He emptied the bowl.
It took a moment for the plates with bread and margarine to make their way around the table. Jack looked at the number of slices of bread and took two. When the margarine reached him, he put a pat on each slice of bread and two pats on the mashed potato before putting back on the center of the table. Grabbing the salt and pepper shaker, he gave each a rather significant shake. Jack had not eaten mashed potatoes for a long time. Even the spam looked good to him for a change. He cut out a piece of the spam and then piled a little mashed potato on it using his fork. He took a bite and said, "Oh, that's good."
"I'm glad you enjoyed that," Claire said with a smile. There wasn't too much that you could do to make spam taste great. It was possible to keep it from tasting too bad.
"Very much," Jack said.
Abby ate her meal without making much of a comment. She was watching how Jack and Claire interacted. Jack was aware that this was probably the best meal that Claire had in a week. Claire understood that Jack had fixed her ice maker without charging her despite his need for money. She knew that he was appreciating the cooking. She smiled and said, "We should do this more often."
Jack looked up and said, "I wouldn't want you to go through all of that trouble for me."
"I'm an old woman. What else have I to do except cook?" Claire asked. One of the hardest things about growing old was accepting that you had outlived your usefulness as far as society was concerned.
Nodding his head, Jack said, "We'll provide the food if you're working away in the kitchen."
"I can live with that," Claire said feeling like it was a trade of service for food. She prided herself on her ability to prepare a good meal.
"Excellent," Jack said. He finished the meal on his plate. He really enjoyed the mashed potatoes. He sat back and patted his belly comfortably.
Claire examined his posture reading it as one of contentment. She said, "I saved a slice of spam for breakfast. I'll cook up some eggs, spam, and toast for breakfast. We'll even have some orange juice and coffee to go with them."
"That sounds heavenly," Jack said. It sure beat the cardboard pop tarts that he usually had in the morning.
Abby listened to the exchange wondering if either of them understood what was happening here. She leaned forward and took a sip of her iced tea. In her thinking about a commune the one thing that she hadn't really figured out was how one got started that wasn't based on some overwhelming ideal. There, just for a moment she had the feeling she was seeing the birth of something. She wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but she suspected that the seed for the commune had just started to germinate.
"I suggest that Abby and I clean up these dishes," Jack said rising from the table.
Claire shot up and said, "That's my job."
"I can wash dishes," Jack said.
"The only time I let a man in my kitchen is when he's fixing something that's broke," Claire said in a tone of voice that allowed no argument.
"Yes, ma'am," Jack said accepting the old fashioned attitude about men in the kitchen without complaint.
Smiling at him, Claire said, "Why don't the two of you get over to your house and straighten things up around there before it gets dark?"
"Yes, ma'am," Jack said knowing that further argument would be useless.
"I'll see you at seven for breakfast," Claire said.
"Yes, ma'am," Jack said. After an exchange of goodbyes, Jack headed over to his house feeling like he should have helped with the dishes.
Abby stayed behind to talk to Claire for a few minutes. She knew that while Claire wouldn't allow Jack in the kitchen, she wouldn't have a problem with her staying around for a few minutes. Once Jack was gone, Abby turned to Claire and asked, "Do you remember the afternoon when we first met?"
"I may be old, but I'm not senile," Claire said looking at Abby.
"We talked a little about my idea for a commune," Abby said.
"I remember that," Claire said.
Abby bit her lower lip thinking about it. Now that the moment had come, she suddenly felt unsure of what to say. She said, "I'd like you to be a member."
"I'm not exactly the commune type," Claire said with a little laugh. She thought about how her daughter would react to the news that she was joining a commune.
"Yes, you are," Abby said.
"What do you mean?" Claire said.
Abby took a deep breath and said, "I talked about it as an economic arrangement with everyone contributing in whatever way they can."
"I remember that," Claire said patiently. She picked up the plates to carry them to the kitchen.
Picking up the empty serving dishes, Abby said, "Did you ever think that the contribution didn't need to be money? I mean, you cooked supper for us and will make breakfast in the morning for us."
"You bought the eggs," Claire said heading into the kitchen. She felt that if they were providing her with food that the least she could do was cook it.
"That's what I'm talking about. We each contribute in the way we can," Abby said following Claire into the kitchen. She said, "I'll run errands and do the shopping. Jack fixes things. You can cook. We all chip in a little money for food. If we all do our part, we're all better off."
"It is just a neighborly kind of thing to do," Claire said wondering how Abby had twisted the situation into the precursor of a commune.
Abby shook her head and said, "Not any more. Most people don't even know their neighbors."
"It didn't use to be that way," Claire said.
Nodding her head in agreement, Abby said, "I know. There was a time when neighborhoods were communities, but today they are collections of individual households. I'm talking about more than just neighbors helping each other with the odd problem here and there. I'm talking about a unified effort to help each other live a better life."
"I'm just an old lady," Claire said looking over at Abby.
"And we need you," Abby said looking Claire in the eye.
Abby's comment struck a chord with Claire. She paused for a moment to think about what it would mean to be needed again. No one had said that to her since her husband had passed away. The idea was seductive, but she rejected it. She asked, "Why do you need me?"
Abby frowned while she thought about it. She said, "Look at how Jack and I are living. We don't have electricity. We are cooking our meals over a backyard grill. Jack doesn't have a telephone so that even if work is available they can't call him. We're running around trying to earn every dime we can. We make too much to get welfare and make too little to survive."
"It is always hard being young," Claire said remembering how hard it had been for her and her husband when they were starting out.
"It is hard to be old, too," Abby pointed out.
Looking over at the packages of noodle soup on the counter, Claire knew that she'd be happy if she never had to eat another one of those for the rest of her life. She gestured over to a chair while taking a seat. She sighed and said, "Six months ago I had three hundred thousand dollars in the retirement fund that my late husband set up for us. That money was supposed to last me the rest of my life. I got my statement earlier this week and it said that I only had eighty thousand dollars in it. Eighty thousand dollars is just enough for me to live here for the next five or six years."
"That hurts," Abby said with a grimace.
"My property taxes and home owner's insurance cost me over six thousand dollars a year. My electricity and heating bills come to three hundred a month. Just living here is costing me a thousand dollars a month by the time you throw in telephone and water. It is only going to get worse. I've got to pay for my car, gasoline, insurance, food and meds with my social security. It just isn't enough. I'm not that old and five years just isn't going to cut it," Claire said with tears starting to form in her eyes.
"I'm sorry," Abby said. She had realized that Claire had been skimping on her food bills, but hadn't realized that her situation had been so bad.
"I'll have to sell the house and live in a retirement home. They'll take everything I own and my social security. A real estate lady told me my house was now worth about ninety thousand dollars. I'm not sure what kind of place I'll be able to afford," Claire said. Her future that had once looked good now looked pretty bleak.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Abby said thinking that Claire would be lucky to get seventy five thousand for the house after the most recent round of foreclosures. Property values were dropping again now that unemployment was reaching fifteen percent.
"Six months ago, this house was worth almost twice that," Claire said finding it hard to believe that she had lost so much money without having done anything wrong. Her hand trembled and she said, "Every one that I know is in the same condition."
"We need each other," Abby said patting the elderly woman's hand.
"You might be right," Claire said. It didn't seem right to her that she should be turning to two young kids to help bail her out of this situation. She shook her head and said, "My own daughter can't afford to take me in."
"I'm sorry," Abby said knowing that the daughter would probably view her mother moving in as a hardship rather than as a benefit.
Claire said, "Let me think about it."
"Okay," Abby said. She looked over at the pile of dirty dishes and said, "Let's wash some dishes."
Pulling herself together, Claire said, "Good idea."
At the house, Jack walked around taking stock of the changes that had occurred since Abby had moved in with him. She had cleaned up the house and it looked pretty nice. Her boxes had disappeared. There were more things in the kitchen, but everything had been put away. She had arranged the living room so that it looked a little better than it had Saturday. All in all, he liked how the house looked.
With the approaching darkness, he grabbed the papers about communes and went out to sit on the porch to read them while the light held. There was nothing more depressing than sitting in a dark house. This had been the first evening in a long time when he was at loose ends with nothing to do. Usually he would have spent most of the evening cooking, cleaning, and washing. Claire had taken care of the cooking and Abby had taken care of the cleaning. He still had clean clothes so he didn't need to take a trip to the Laundromat yet.
He picked out an article that was a tongue-in-cheek commentary about communes. It pointed out all of the benefits for lazy people who hooked up with one hard working slob. The article was actually pretty good and made a very convincing argument against the whole commune concept. He was reading and drinking warm soda when Abby returned from Claire's house carrying a tall glass. Looking up from the article that he was reading, he greeted her, "I take it everything is cleaned up over at Claire's house."
"Yes," Abby said. She took out a couple of ice cubes from the tall glass and dropped them into his warm soda.
"Thanks," he said, "She's a little old fashioned about her kitchen."
"She's not as old fashioned as you might think," Abby said noticing that he was reading the articles about communes. She had taken a few minutes to glance over them while straightening up the house.
"Okay," Jack said not wanting to argue the point.
"You're reading some articles about communes?"
Nodding his head, Jack answered, "Yes. I'm still not sure what I think of the idea."
"I was kind of surprised when I found them. I didn't realize that you had taken my idea so seriously," Abby said.
"Well, I didn't have much else to do at the library so I figured why not. This one makes a pretty convincing argument against the whole idea," Jack said holding up the one he was reading.
Abby hadn't read the articles so she couldn't make a comment. She said, "I think this whole evening argues pretty well for one."
Surprised by her statement, Jack asked, "What do you mean?"
"Yesterday, you fixed Claire's refrigerator for her. Today, Claire cooked dinner for us with food that we provided. She got to eat a real meal and we didn't have to go through the hassle of cooking over a grill," Abby said.
"That's just what neighbors do for each other," Jack said.
Abby looked over at Jack and asked, "When was the last time that Claire invited you over for dinner?"
The question surprised Jack. Claire had never invited him over for a meal before. Frowning, he said, "This was the first time."
"You're eating breakfast over there tomorrow morning," Abby said.
"Well, I'm sure that after her social security check comes that things will go back to normal," Jack said.
Shaking her head, Abby said, "Jack, things aren't going back to the way they used to be for a long time. We are headed for a depression. Money is tight and the situation isn't going to improve."
"You might be right," Jack said exhaling loudly. Unemployment was edging upwards, the stock market was down, and the cost of living was skyrocketing. Government programs to bail out banks weren't kicking in fast enough. The deficit was at astronomical levels.
"I am right," Abby said. She looked around and said, "I wouldn't be surprised if Claire doesn't have a boarder before too long."
"She's that tight with money?" Jack asked knowing that he should have known better. After all, he knew that she was eating noodle soup with bologna.
"She's lost nearly everything in the stock market crash and her social security won't even cover the property taxes," Abby said.
Shaking his head, Jack said, "That's not right."
"Winter is coming," Abby said looking over at the setting sun. It was getting darker earlier every day. Before long, the temperature would drop.
"I've got to get the electricity on before it starts getting colder," Jack said.
"The heating bills are going to be high this year," Abby said.
"You're right," Jack said. He hoped that he would be able to afford to heat the house over the whole winter. He could feel the tension rising in his back.
Abby said, "I had a massage job this afternoon. The guy gave me a pretty good tip."
"That's nice," Jack said.
"I spent about thirty dollars on groceries," Abby said. "If we're careful, it should last the three of us the rest of the week."
"What could you have bought for thirty dollars that would last us a week?" Jack asked.
"I bought a jar of spaghetti sauce, noodles, eggs, bread, milk, cereal, peanut butter, and jelly," Abby answered. It had filled one plastic bag.
"It must have been a pretty big jar of spaghetti sauce," Jack joked. It would have to last the three of them three meals.
Nodding her head, Abby said, "It was."
"Oh," Jack said realizing his joke had fallen flat.
Abby said, "Jack, I get paid Friday and I'm going to cash my check on the way home. I want you to get the electricity turned on. Saturday morning I'm going to go to the warehouse store to load up on food. Claire is going to be cooking our meals for us from now on."
"You've already paid your rent," Jack said knowing that by Friday he would have just enough money to pay the mortgage.
"You don't understand. I'm not renting a room from you just to save a little money. I want to live better than this. If by kicking in a little extra we can have a better life, then I'm going to do it. We'll save a lot of money by buying in bulk. Claire is going to be able to eat three good meals a day and she's willing to do all of the cooking for us. I'm willing to do the shopping and run errands to save us more money. You can take care of these two houses," Abby said.
Jack rubbed his jaw thinking that she was really pushing this idea hard all of a sudden. He said, "I don't know."
"Tomorrow, I'm going to do laundry over at Claire's house. She's got a washer and a dryer," Abby said.
"I was going to go to the Laundromat," Jack said. The machines there ate money like it was popcorn.
"If you put out your dirty clothes in the morning, I'll wash them with mine," Abby said.
"I don't know," Jack said feeling like it was kind of personal doing someone else's laundry. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He looked down at the article in his hand and realized that it had gotten too dark to read. He took a sip of his soda appreciating the fact that it had ice in it. He sighed and said, "I guess we'll see how things work out."
"Let's head over to the library," Abby said.
"That's a good idea," Jack said.
Abby said, "We'll take my car since it uses less gas than yours."
"Let's walk," Jack said not really comfortable in her tiny little car.
"That's even better," Abby said thinking that the fewer miles she put on her car the better.
The two of them walked over to the library without talking. Jack was thinking about how taking in a boarder had turned into a little more than he had bargained for. It seemed to him that she was suddenly telling him how to spend his money. The problem was that she made sense.
At the library, Jack decided that it was about time to catch up on world events. Rather than going over to the computers he went over to the newspapers. He picked up the paper and looked at the headline. He read it aloud, "Unemployment Hits 14%." The article left him feeling sick to his stomach. The news was worse than the headline had suggested. A lot of companies had further reduced the labor force by forcing older employees to retire. Not only was unemployment higher, but more people had been added to the social security rolls.
He read down to another little news column that announced that the tax cut was going to expire soon. He discovered that his taxes were going to increase. His mortgage had taken him out of having to pay too much in taxes since he was able to deduct the interest. There was a chart on page 6 that detailed what the changes would mean based on income. He turned to page 6 and studied the chart. He would have to pay an extra three hundred dollars on the first $6,000 that he earned. The President's new tax plan would give him back a hundred dollars so that he'd be out only two hundred dollars a year. That was just about twenty dollars a month. He muttered, "The bastard said I'd be paying less in taxes."
Jack turned to the financial pages. Frowning, he read that the stock market had dropped another five percent. Although he didn't own a single share of stock in any company, he knew that when the stock market went south so did his income. He said, "The news just gets better and better."
There were several other articles that described new regulations applied to businesses. He read the articles, but couldn't figure out how they applied to him. Supposedly, he was going to get new health benefits from his employers. Of course, that didn't mean much since he basically worked whatever job was available now. His old employer had lost so much business that he couldn't afford to keep a regular crew.
Jack turned to the sports section of the paper hoping to find something to cheer him. Shaking his head he saw that his favorite team had lost again. They were out of the playoffs for the World Series. It had been years since he had been to a ball game. His father had taken him to a couple of games when he was younger, but then the prices had gone up. Now a baseball game cost a hundred dollars just to get in. That didn't include the cost of a beer and a hot dog which would run another twenty dollars. It just didn't seem right to him that America's game was now too expensive for him to attend.
Jack turned to the pages with the college games. The local university had a pretty good team. He wondered if he could afford to go to one of their games. Thinking that he was worried about every dollar, he sighed and said, "Not this year."
Abby interrupted his thoughts when she said, "It is almost closing time. Let's walk home."
Folding the paper, he tossed it back on the rack. Getting up he said, "I never should have read the paper. Now I'm depressed."
Abby laughed at the comment. She said, "Don't worry. What you don't know can't depress you."
"It will just kill you," Jack said not knowing that he had missed the article concerning the new banking regulations that were about to take effect. The increase in checks being returned for insufficient funds was causing havoc in the banking industry. People were depositing checks in good faith and writing checks against them only to discover that their deposits were canceled due to insufficient funds. Their checks then bounced and the effect propagated to affect others who were depositing checks in good faith. Draconian measures were being implemented to stop the problem from further weakening the economy.