Chapter 13

The next morning, our day started with our phones ringing. It was our bank. They wanted us to come in and talk to them. Karen said, “You have called both of us waking us. That’s not excusable. My husband will deal with the person who called him. I’m hanging up now.” She thumbed the off button and looked at me.

I said, “Mister Morris, if the bank was trying to impress us with their caring or its interest in our winnings, this has been a failure. My wife has already hung up on someone calling her. We were just getting out of bed to go to our classes. Once classes are over for the day after three this afternoon, we will come by and talk. Neither of us should hear from anyone the rest of the day. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Mister Gillis. I just wanted to express how happy we are for your good fortune and to show that we can assist you in handling that money.”

“That’s fine.” I replied. “We’ll come by this afternoon. Good bye.” I thumbed the off button.

Five minutes later, Karen’s phone rang. “Hello, this is Karen.”

It was another call from the bank and was the same woman who had called her before! Karen said, “Miz Thompson, why are you calling? We just addressed this situation a moment ago.” She flipped it to speaker.

“My manager, Mister Morris, insisted that I call you back.”

I said, “I just got off the phone with Mister Morris. Does the bank have more than one?”

“Who are you, Sir?”

“I am Brad Gillis, Karen’s husband. Answer my question.”

“Uh. He’s the only one to my knowledge.”

I said, “Tell him he has made a serious error in judgment. We will be in shortly after three but now only to close our accounts. His action in having you call my wife a second time is inexcusably bad judgment. Good bye.”

Karen thumbed the off button. She looked at me. “Brad, do you think that’s necessary?”

“I don’t know, Love. We’ll find out this afternoon. Call your parents while I call mine. Let’s tell them that we’re turning off our phones today.”

She grinned. “That may be necessary.” We called our parents and explained things to them. I called Suzie-Q after that telling her what we were doing and why like we had our parents. While talking, I ignored two more calls. My father suggested that we listen at the bank. If we would have to deal with Mister Morris, he suggested that we carry out our threat.

We went into the living room. Melissa and Paul were grinning. Paul said, “It’s not all a bed of roses being rich.”

I grinned back and gave him the finger.

Our classes were quiet and we ate lunch with Suzie-Q and Melissa and Paul. Karen and I each had one class after this before we would drive over to the bank in my car. We met at the car to go to the bank.

Karen asked me if we ought to dress for the meeting. “Why?” I asked. “We are the customers. They want us not the other way around. Besides we are dressed normally and we both dress a little nicer than average for our classes.”

She leaned over the console and gave my arm a hug. “Okay. Let’s go face the lions.”

We pulled into the bank’s parking lot and walked into the building. At the reception desk, I said, “We would like to talk to someone about investing for the future.”

She nodded absently still looking at the door. “Have a seat and someone will talk with you in a moment.” We sat down and waited. A minute or so later, a younger man exited an open office and came to us. “Good afternoon. I’m Jim Casper. Please come into my office and I’ll try to help you.”

We went into his office and he closed the door behind us. He offered us seats. We sat down and he said, “How can I help you?”

I said, “We want to start investing for the future. We married last June and have scholarships but, long term, we need to put away money and have a plan.”

He said, “I will do what I can. I would like you to talk with our investments department but they are busy waiting for someone. I should have asked before. May I have your names?”

Karen smiled. “My husband is Bradley Gillis and I am Karen Gillis.”

“Shit!” He exclaimed. “Excuse me. You’re the ones the investment department is waiting to see.”

I said, “Mister Casper, just talk to us. We wear neither halos nor horns.”

He said, “I will have to call Mister Morris. He has had Elaine, Miss Thompson, down here repeatedly since lunch to find you two. He hasn’t been happy. I thought Elaine was going to be fired.”

Karen said, “You know Miz Thompson?”

“Yes.” He smiled sheepishly. “We are dating. Mister Morris doesn’t know. The bank has no formal policy against employees from different departments dating but it is frowned upon.”

I said, “Her voice seemed nice in the short time we talked. Mister Morris has not impressed us. We are halfway convinced that finding another banking relationship will be best for us.”

Jim said, “I can understand. However, I still need to make that call.”

“Before you do, is there someone else in the bank with who we can discuss our situation?”

He hesitated a moment. “My boss, Steve Hanson, is a good guy. He handles smaller accounts that Morris won’t put in his department.”

I said, “Why don’t you call him first. Let’s see if he can meet with us.”

He nodded though not eagerly. He made the call. “Steve, Mister Hanson, I have a young couple in my office who want to talk about investing and should talk to you.”

We could hear through the phone and I heard a pleasant voice say, “Sure, Jim. I’ll come to your office. We’ll work with them together so you can receive customer credit.”

“Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”

A moment later, a friendly looking man stepped in. He was not a handsome man but had a nice smile and gentle eyes. I noticed he was wearing a wedding ring. He entered, bringing a side chair from another desk. He said, “Jim, how may I help?”

“Mister Hanson, please meet Karen and Brad. They are married college students who have some money and would like to put together an investment plan to help them with the rest of their education and their future.”