Chapter 14: Windfall

It was the last Friday in February. Drew had endured a miserable day at work. Everything was worse in the bad wet weather. When he walked into the kitchen door looking like a drowned rat and staggering with fatigue, Leah divested him of most of his clothing and led him straight into their shower. She paused just long enough to undress herself and then soaped him and ran her hands over his body soothingly, so he could relax and enjoy the toasty warm water streaming down.

After dinner, she brought him to the kitchen where the Bailey family desktop computer still soldiered on 10 years after first being put into service.

“What are you showing me, Leah?”

“This is the website for our bank, the checking account. I just need to get this up and displayed.”

“But I stay away from all that stuff. I’m sure you are doing a great job paying the bills and shit.”

“I know, and I appreciate your confidence in me. But I have to confess, Drew, I’ve been keeping a secret from you. That’s why you’re here right now. So, these are the transactions, newest to oldest, with the amounts in the middle and the running balance on the right.”

“Yeah, so? ... Wait, that can’t ... A mistake? Seven hundred and ninety-four thou...”

“It’s real, Drew. It’s ours. It’s life insurance. Oh, no, TED! HELP!”

Andrew was fainting, pitching sideways from his chair with Leah desperately clinging to his arm.

“Help me get him on the floor. That’s it. He’s fainted, that’s all. Good. Thanks. Bring the bottle of cold water from the fridge, please.”

He returned with the 2-liter Coca-Cola bottle they were reusing for cold tap water and a plastic tumbler.

“You’re sure he’s OK?”

“Yeah. He gets weird when I talk about the bills. Don’t worry. See, he’s coming around. I’ll call you if we need you, Ted. Thanks for helping me.”

When he was back in full possession of his faculties, Leah explained what had happened.

“I was getting bills from this company I didn’t recognize. I learned they were an insurance company, and they started sending bills to our house because they stopped getting automatic deductions from Mom and Dad’s paychecks. Each of them had term policies for $200,000; that means they were paying monthly for $400,000 in coverage.

“So, then I found out that these policies were ‘double indemnity’ which is jargon for accidental death means double payout. So, $800,000 minus some fees and shit. Hey, don’t wobble, it’s good. More good news, there’s no income tax on life insurance. So instead of 30+ percent tax, we keep it all.”

“This changes everything! We can pay off the house, no more loan, uh, mortgage.”

“That’s what Mom and Dad had in mind, I guess. Except, they didn’t expect to both die in the same accident. The thing is, Drew, we are covered for the next several years. I’ve been worrying about you; there’s so much responsibility on your shoulders. And they work you so hard. You come home bone tired, night after night. I don’t have the right word for it, but it’s like your aches and pains are being expressed in my body too.”