Chapter 57

February 22, 1980

The dust was starting to settle as far as silver was concerned. Silver had hit its peak at $49.45 an ounce on January 18, then started dropping precipitously. After thirty days, the price had dropped to $30 an ounce and was still falling although it wasn’t plummeting. People who had waited to sell their silver were upset they hadn’t sold it earlier. People who had bought silver at the high were cursing the drop.

Today, Tim, Benny, Sandra, and Cathy were meeting to assess where the business stood financially and to get a readout from Robert about the state of their investments. The latter was more one of a desire to know the details. They knew they were wealthy. The only question was: how wealthy. However, getting that question answered was going to have to wait until Robert arrived at their office.

Cathy opened the books for Two Men Working. Since the business restructuring, the balance sheet had taken a new rosy glow. Tim and Benny were now drawing a salary, on which they paid personal income tax. The company was paying taxes on profits, but that was at a much lower rate. As a result, they had more money overall.

“Tim, your contribution this year is still at zero.”

“I’m planning on buying a home to flip.”

“Last year, your home restorations cleared over $35,000. That’s pure profit which isn’t bad.”

“I’m happy with it. I know I’m not going to be able to match it this year.”

“Benny, so far this year your graphics package has brought in $31,780. Last year, you cleared $217,673.”

“I expect sales to be a little flatter this year than last year. We might hit $150,000 ... if we’re lucky. The word is spreading along with good reviews, so more people will be picking it up. However, there aren’t going to be any major platform improvements this year. The technology is still shaking itself out.”

“Taxes ate up some of what you two made, but it wasn’t too bad. Your war chest currently has $200,000 in it, and that’s after the $26,000 that Benny took as a loan. By the way, when are you going to put a house on it?

“That does it for Two Guys Working. Now we’ve got to talk about your personal finances. Who should I start with?”

“Tim.”

“Okay. Tim you are currently receiving a salary of $20,000 a year from Two Guys Working. Furthermore, you have another $150.00 a month in rent coming in from the University. You’ve offset the rent income with payments on the loan which you took out, to cover the costs of furnishing the place and the restoration. You’ll show a loss on the property for last year, this year, and next year. After that, it’s a wait and see.”

“That’s what we’d planned,” Tim said.

“Benny, your situation is essentially identical.”

“Good.”

“However, Tim is paying Two Guys Working about $5,000 a year to pay off his loans.”

“I am? How did that happen?”

“You borrowed money to restore two houses, and you financed a car.”

“I guess I can see that being an issue.”

“It’s not really. You’re doing fine. You’re covering your bills and you’re even setting a little aside every month.”

“That’s good.”

“Benny, with your recent loan, you’re paying $7,250 a year to pay off your loans.”

Benny grimaced.

“You’re not in that bad of a shape at the moment. Your only other expenses are food, utilities, insurance, books, college tuition, and a prostitute.”

That she could say the bit about a prostitute with a straight face and without disgust, indicated just how much she had accepted that a prostitute was as close to getting a girlfriend or a wife as Benny was ever going to get. She knew most people would be horrified by the idea of a guy paying for sex monthly. The fact was, that Benny wasn’t interested in anything more than that, with regards to sex.

Benny said, “I’m going to be leasing out some of the land for farming. I’ll probably also get someone to take care of the property, you know cut the grass, watch over the improvements, and maybe even grow a small vegetable garden. I mean, I don’t mind driving out here every week to mow the grass during the summer, but we’re talking a little over an hour’s drive to get there. Taking care of a hundred acres is a lot more work than three acres.”

Tim said, “You’re going to have to put in some kind of building. You’re going to need a tractor like we have here. You should also have water, sewer, and electricity run in, also.”

“I was about to get to that. I’ve already got those figures worked out. Based on what Benny has said, he wants a house for himself, and a mother-in-law house for the grumpy people he will have working for him,” Cathy said with a smile on that bit about grumpy people. “If you hire your grumpy cook and gardener, you’re going to have to pay them benefits. That’s insurance, social security, and vacation days. Different rules apply when it is a business paying them, rather than an individual paying them.”

“If I’m paying insurance for them, should I hire Tham as a domestic worker?” Benny asked.

“You’ll need to talk to her about it. If you start officially paying her, she’s going to have to declare it as income. You don’t screw around with the IRS.”

“I’ll think about it,” Benny said.

Cathy said, “If you do all of that, you’re going to have to give yourself a raise. You’ll need to make at least $28,000 a year.”

“Why?”

“Your loan payments to Two Guys Working are going to be around $14,000 a year. You’re going to need to borrow at least another $32,000 to get everything you want on the place. Your personal taxes are going to go up.”

“Do you have any good news?”

“Yes, you’re paying the interest to yourself.”

“That’s good.”

Tim said, “The good news, Benny, is that by this time next year, you’ll be living your dream.”

“Put like that, I’m happy.”

Cathy said, “So there you are. Your business is doing well. Even if you don’t bring in another dime, you can pay yourselves for four more years. Your personal finances are fine.”

“Excellent,” Tim said.

Sandra said, “On that note, we’d like a raise.”

“How much?”

“Eight percent.”

“Okay,” Benny said.

“Thank you.”

Tim said, “I guess we should ask how you’re doing financially.”

Sandra answered, “We’re rolling in the dough. We’ve got the silver money, our salary here, our other salary here, and money from our rentals. Our cars are paid off, our restored houses are paid off, and we’ve got the next three years of tuition covered.”

Benny asked, “So why did you ask for a raise?”

“Inflation.”

“That makes sense. We should probably do that automatically.”

Sandra glanced out the window. “A van just pulled up. It must be Robert.”

“Good. I was beginning to get worried about him.”

“Let me put these books away.”

Sandra said, “I’m really nervous about this. We put nearly every spare dime into this.”

Looking up from the filing cabinet, Cathy said, “Well, at least the dimes that weren’t silver.”

Tim and Benny laughed. They had done the same thing. Everyone’s contributions had driven the number of stocks up to 858. Were they worried? Not really. It was more a question of how much were they worth.

Cathy closed the filing cabinet and locked it. They kept the records under lock and key, even though they worked in the other office and knew everyone who worked for the realty firm. It was a separate business and no one needed to know about it.

Benny went over and opened the door to the office. He was just in time. Robert was rolling up in his powered wheelchair.

“That’s some ramp you’ve got out there.”

The ramp he was talking about had a very gentle slope. It went back and forth, raising one foot for every twenty feet. It was wide so that two wheelchairs could go up side by side.

Tim shrugged and said, “We knew you’d be coming out here sometime, so we put it in.”

“I’ve never been up one that gentle.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act wouldn’t be passed for another decade. There were a lot of businesses that didn’t have access ramps. Those that did, tended to have ramps with a short run incorporating a rise of about one foot for five feet of ramp. Tim figured he’d exceed the future requirements.

Robert drove his wheelchair through the door and right up to the spot at the table they had left for him. He reached back and pulled out a thin briefcase. He set it on the table and opened it with a flourish. He was grinning broadly the whole time. He took out four envelopes, each with a different person’s name on it.

“Cathy, this one is yours.”

“Sandra, this one is yours.”

“Tim, this is yours.”

“Last, but not least, Benny, this is yours.”

“What are they?” Cathy asked.

“Open it.”

They all opened the envelope they had been handed. Four pairs of eyebrows shot up. They each pulled out a check.

“What is this for?”

“During the last few months you’ve been putting money into the account, but none of you put in enough to purchase a whole share of stock. I put the money into the account even though the partial shares kind of violated the rules. I pulled the partials out of the account when I switched the investment strategy when silver hit $47. Those checks are for the partials.”

Cathy said, “This is $134,453.52.”

“Yes, that’s three tenths of a share, less withholding for capital gains.”

“That is three tenths of one share? How much is a share?”

“$622,470.”

“That’s impossible.”

“No. It’s what you can do when you know what’s going to happen. It was all futures.”

Benny pulled out a second piece of paper from the envelope. It showed how many shares he owned and what the total value of his shares were, as of that morning. It was a boatload. While he didn’t have any difficulty dealing with large numbers, that didn’t make it any easier to comprehend that number as money.

“That’s a bunch of money.”

Tim sat back stunned by all of this. He also felt sick to his stomach. It was too much money and it changed everything. He was no longer Tim the average, he was now Mr. Timothy Blake. That was never his goal.

“You’re going to have to propose to her.”

“I know,” Tim said with a sigh. “I don’t think she’s ready to accept.”

Sandra said, “You’re going to have to tell her that you’ve been recycled.”

“Recycled?”

“You know ... doing life a second time.”

“I know. She’s not ready.”

“She’s frustrated enough. She’s been asking lots of questions of us and not getting any answers.”

“Has she made any guesses?”

“No.”

Tim sat there shaking his head. This was a disaster. He asked, “How long can we keep this from her?”

“Not very long. We’ll slip and say something when we don’t think she can hear us.”

“I guess I’d better go buy a ring.”

“You don’t sound all that excited,” Robert said. “Maybe you’re making a mistake.”

“No. It’s just she’s not ready to say ‘yes.’ I’m afraid that she’ll feel rushed into a making a decision, but if she doesn’t make one before she knows how much I’m worth, she’ll always wonder if she said ‘yes’ because of my money.”

Benny shook his head.

“Do you disagree?”

“I think you’re the one who is afraid that she will have said yes because of your money. It’s the ghost of Joyce haunting you.”

Seeing the expression on Tim’s face, Robert asked, “Who is Joyce?”

“She was his wife in his first pass through life. She was a druggie and a whore. She spent every dime Tim made on drugs. She sold her body to make money to buy drugs. She turned their daughter into a druggie and a whore, as well. It tore Tim apart. He’s had a very tough time learning to trust any woman.”

“That’s horrible,” Robert said.

Cathy asked, “Why did you marry her?”

Tim answered, “She was the best fuck in the world.”

Both Cathy and Sandra looked at him like he had to be kidding, so Tim said, “She was.”

“She would do anything in bed,” Benny said. When they looked at him, he said, “Anything, and she did it enthusiastically.”