Chapter 3: Jimmy buys a car and meets Kim.

I had been borrowing Winnie’s vehicle to take Caroline out on a Sunday afternoon. She would come to Ramona’s while I took Caroline some place for an hour or two, maybe to just go for a drive. A couple of times Winnie wasn’t with Ramona and I was told she was upstairs talking to Matt.

A couple days after the graduation, Father asked me what I wanted for a graduation present. This surprised the hell out of me and yes puzzled me as well. Was the old man going soft on me? I told him I had been driving Winnie’s vehicle and asked if I could buy one.

“Buy a junker up to $2500 bucks. Keep it in the garage if you are home with it. I don’t want it in the driveway where anyone can see it.” Dad handed me a twenty-five hundred dollar check two days later. I deposited it into my money market fund where I put the money for my special allowance. It had check-writing capabilities.

Caroline and I, with the baby in the back seat, were out looking for used cars. I hadn’t found what I wanted at the price places were asking at the car dealers I stopped at. We were out of the town by twenty-five miles on a Sunday afternoon. There were cornfields with corn up two feet and more on both sides of the road. If these fields were owned by the same owner it was a huge farm.

We came to the farm buildings. There was a car parked on the lawn. It had about a quarter inch of dust on it. There was a man with grey hair pounding a hand lettered sign into the ground by the bumper. “Car for sale”

I stopped and backed up. “Caroline, I’m going to check it out. It looks like it has been stored in a barn for awhile.”

“It’s awful dirty.”

“I know, but whoever owns it may want to get rid of it cheap.”

I walked up and spoke, “I see you want to sell that car.”

“Yeah, Mom is in a home and told me to sell it. I need room on the barn floor to store a couple of tons of chicken feed. The car got damaged sitting there last winter. A bag of grain slid off the pile and hit the passenger side door. The car still runs pretty good. I drove it out here a few minutes ago.”

“What year is it?”

“It’s a 1999 Toyota Camry. Look it over if you want to.” I started walking around it. Caroline got out and was holding the baby, looking at the car.

“This is Caroline and her baby named Karen. I’m Jim Cummings.

“You’re a couple, I take it.”

“Yes and no. For now we are just friends, but hope to get married a year from now. This car I’m driving isn’t ours. It belongs to the woman who cooks for us at home. My father gave me some money for my graduation so we are out looking.”

“Before you look too closely, the passenger door has a big dent in it and the window won’t go down. A hundred pound bag of grain slid off the pile next to the door and pushed it in. Other than that, the car is in pretty good shape. The millage isn’t bad, only thirteen thousand over a hundred thousand miles.

I continued walking and talking. “What are you asking for it?” I opened the driver’s door. It wasn’t exactly clean, but it wouldn’t take much to polish and to vacuum the interior.

“Well, I want to get rid of it. I was going to put a price of a thousand on it.”

“That’s not too bad. You must raise a lot of corn. Did you sell last year’s crop?”

“Most of it is contracted for, but I don’t have contracts for what I have left. I wish the price would go up a little.”

“When are the contracts for?”

“The last week of September.”

“Price per bushel should rise by then.”

“How would you know that?”

“I’ve been studying for the last two years to become a Commodity Trader. I was made a Junior Partner the first of this month. That’s why I’m not getting married now. I want to make sure I can make a living at it. Who knows some of this corn may help me. Look, I’m sure you watch the price of corn. Why I say it will go up is that they had a lot of floods early out in the corn belt this year, which will drive the price up. And then rains kept coming and farmers just couldn’t get onto their fields. If they do get a decent crop, it will be late in the season.”

“It sounds like you know your subject. Tell you what, you get in and start the car and look it all over as much as you want to. I’ll drop my price to eight hundred.

I wanted this car badly. “We don’t have much money with us. I do have a blank check to draw on The City Bank against my money market account. If I could leave the car here until I get tags for it, would that work?”

“It sounds like a plan. By the way, my name is Terrance Tyler. Come up to the house and meet my wife, Betty. I’ll get the papers out and I will take your check.”

There were several people in the house for they had come for Sunday dinner. All were either family or extended family. One of his sons went with him to his office. “That’s where the Registration is.” The son didn’t return with him. Betty Tyler sat us at the kitten table and put chocolate cake before us. Caroline and Karen had orange crush for a beverage and I had a coffee. Terry questioned me about myself and how I came to take up learning how to be a trader in Commodities.

Betty wanted to know all about Caroline and Caroline shared parts of her life and what kind of person I was. I caught a occasional word of what she was sharing. We did the paper work while we were talking. When we came out the kitchen door, the Camry sat in the yard all washed. Terry had his son bring the car from where we had left it and power washed it.

“Jim, if Caroline has her license, have her drive your car. I’ll leave my tags on and you can drive it home. It is insured so no problem. You can bring the tags back tomorrow.” Needless to say, we were very happy over this arrangement. The Camry shone; I guess it had been garaged most of its life in the barn because the paint hadn’t faded at all.”

It was getting to be late afternoon and we headed for home. I pulled into my driveway and Caroline pulled in beside me. Winnie came out, saying she was going into town and saying she would take Caroline and Karen home. I suspected that Matt had invited her out for dinner somewhere and I had made her late. Caroline didn’t get out and Winnie bailed in with her and left.

I started to get the license tags off the car when my father pulled in. The first thing he saw was the damaged passenger door. He started cussing me for buying a piece of shit (his words).

I kept on doing what I was doing. I finally said. “There is enough left of what you gave me to get it fixed, licensed and put a year of insurance on it. It isn’t going to cost more than what you handed me ... And Dad, I’m being honest here, I want to thank you very much for giving me the money to purchase this. From all indications this is a good buy and I appreciate your thoughtfulness.”

By this time Dad had walked around the car and opened the door to see the interior. He looked at the millage. “What year is this?”

“1999. The average millage figures out to about 5500 miles a year.”

“Yeah, I should believe that. I suppose she was a little old lady from Pasadena, too?

“She is a little old lady. I had coffee with one of her sons who sold it to me. I met his wife, his brothers, and several of the woman’s grandkids.”

He turned away and headed for the house. Over his shoulder, he said. “I hope you are right. The car looks fine except for the door. Maybe you did all right.” I wondered what he would have said if the car hadn’t been washed.

I was beginning to feel like an adult now that I was of age and Caroline could face the world as an adult with an education. I didn’t want to take the time off from trading very often, showing Matt and Ramona I was dedicated to the job I had worked so hard to become a partner. Caroline was friends of all the escorts and they supported her and the baby, often taking care of Karen while Caroline studied her lessons. In two weeks, Caroline would be getting her diploma.

Caroline and I had continued to exercise when the trading was light in the early afternoon and we took the two hour break at this time. Other things occurred at this time as well. Karen was now almost four years old and we couldn’t really have sex in the small apartment with her there so she would be taken to Ramona’s apartment by one or more of the escorts. Somehow, I always was available to visit Caroline when this occurred.

Caroline never mentioned as often that she was just waiting to be told she could return to her home to live. She had gotten onto during conversations with her father that he had a companion who sometimes stayed over sometimes. Caroline accepted this mostly because she was happy with the status quo with her and I being so close with the love and affection I had for Karen.

I went to the DMV the next day and registered my car, having had it insured by the same agency that had Winnie’s insurance that was next door I was given a paper plate to affix to show the vehicle was registered. I knew I wanted the damaged door repaired and I stopped into an Auto Body repair shop the next day to have it estimated.

The car was looked at by Tim and he came up with, “Unless you want to spend a lot of money, I can push the dent out and you will hardly notice it. There might be a ripple up near the top and down near where the door frame is on the bottom. The window support inside should go back to where it should be and will work just fine.

“Otherwise if we have to take the door apart and get inside to remove the ripple and hammer out the place near the door bottom. This would mean grinding off the paint and then repainting everything. That’s going too run up the cost more than a car this old should warrant.”

“What is the difference?”

“I’d say about three hundred dollars. Tell you what, why don’t you let me try what I can without tearing the door apart? If I’m not successful, and you not satisfied, you can go with the other.”

“When can you do it.”

“I’ve got a few minutes. I can do it right now.”

“Really?”

“Really. I take it this is your first car. I hate to see you spend a whole lot of money you don’t need to. I’ll be right back. I can work on it right where it sits.”

He went into the shop and returned with a suction cup about ten inches across. He also had a hammer with a flat face which he put some tape on. “That’s so I don’t mar the paint when I tap on the top of the panel. Now I’m going to put this suction cup right on the center of the panel. You hang onto the handle and pull straight out.”

I did as directed and he began tapping lightly where the crease was at the top and then told me to pull hard. I did and suddenly the panel popped into its original shape. I was amazed. There were a few little dipples in the metal where he had tapped it with the hammer, but not very noticeable. Then he leaned down and tapped the crease at the bottom of the door. “Okay, there you are.”

“Tim, how much do I owe you?”

“Forget it. If you ever need any bodywork done, remember where this shop is.” I opened my wallet and gave Tim twenty-five bucks for a pack of good beer. He was happy and I was ecstatic.

Dad spotted that the door of the Camry had been fixed, not believing the repair had done so soon. “Having that fixed must have cost you more than what the remains of the 2500 dollars I gave you?”

“Just a pack of good beer Dad, there are a lot good people in this world.” Dad stopped and stared at me and then shaking his head, saying nothing, went into the house.

Caroline was so happy with the Camry. It shone and I left it in the lot behind Ramona’s for her to take Karen for a short rides. She kept it clean and polished and would sometimes go down to the Tyler farm to visit.

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Life was good! Matt and I were picking up options and only kept the reserve that was needed with the broker. When Caroline’s Diploma came, all the escorts, Matt, Ramona, Winnie, Rachael the housekeeper took Caroline out for a celebration dinner. There was some money left from purchasing the Camry. I wanted to show Caroline how much I cared for her, so I presented her with a friendship ring, which she immediately put on her ring finger.

“Okay?”

“Of course, Sweetheart.” I was eighteen and Caroline was twenty-one. We considered ourselves engaged. Neither one of us considered we were free from our fathers. Karen was in preschool, but Mr. Fanning said Caroline couldn’t come home until her baby was starting first grade. He was still paying for a place for her to live and giving her an allowance to do so.

I was in nearly the same situation. I was living at home and still receiving an allowance. Difficulties could arise between Dad and me at any time. He might growl at me and to keep my respect in my self, I would growl in return. Maybe I was ashamed I was living on his bounty. I could see the end though. I planned on being free of my parent when I reached nineteen.

The three of us partners could see that we would be able to draw salaries soon from our profits which were climbing steadily. I was producing at nearly the same level as Matt was. We would decide what to do at the end of the quarter in September.

Caroline and I visited Terry and Betty Tyler at the farm a few times where we had bought the Camry. Terry and I talked corn and the market every time we visited. I was aware that he still had corn that hadn’t been contracted for still in his silos. The corn price was up because corn was so late being planted this season.

I spotted some news on September 24 that I believed would be common knowledge within a day or two. Matt and I discussed this. It was a Canadian commodity forecast that would be posted tomorrow. It was an obscure small company that advertized they had “The Scoop.” I found it usually did have credible news.

I talked this over with Matt. He said, “Call your friend and pass it on. I wouldn’t advise him just say this ‘The Scoop’ was most often credible.”

“Matt, I think I’ll print this out and just hand Terry the forecast. If the US is buying corn, from Canada, that will probably be at a better price than what is on the market here. It just might lower what is for sale here and our farmers will lose out because there is that much more corn available.”

“Do, it. We’ve never done this before, but I think you are right in your assumptions.” Ten minutes later I was on my way. I went to the house. Terry wasn’t there, but Betty called him on the phone to come in. I was drinking coffee and was having a piece of the inevitable chocolate cake.

“Terry, I thought you might want to read this. I’m not telling you what you should do, but I thought you might be interested.”

“This is interesting. I’m about ready to empty the last silos, anyway. I’ll see what I can get.” Terry went into his office and we could hear him on his phone.

He soon came out. “Okay, my silos are going to be empty. I sold everything I had. He didn’t mention why. If the price goes up a few more pennies, that’s fine. I’m selling quite a bit above cost already. If this news is credible, the price may drop below what it cost to grow it. I’m sure it will go up again when this season has been harvested, but won’t ever be this high again this year with the Canadian corn coming into the mix.

Terry asked me, “Are you and your partner into selling short?”

“No, we decided it was too risky.”

“Betty and I have the same idea. How come you don’t have Caroline and the little girl with you?”

“Truth, I didn’t think of them after I read that forecast.”

“Well, bring them out to dinner this Sunday. We’ll know by then if this was a forecast with credible facts.”

“I will. I’m headed back to work. I hope it comes out in a good way.”

“Don’t worry about it. This is just part of raising corn.”

Two days later, I received a message. “Jim, your tip was right on. There must have been other farmers who had seen that forecast for the Market was crazy. It even went up between the time I had the sales drawn up and when they were confirmed. Before the market closed that day, which I’m sure you are aware of, the price has been dropping. I made some money and I damned sure saved a lot when the corn price tumbled. I want to thank you and I think you have learned the trading business very well.”

I printed this out and someday I might show it to my father. Someday when he told me I was a freeloader and that I was worthless.

On September, 30, I received a check in the mail for $15,000 with the note that read this was the amount the market had climbed when he put his corn in his silos to the buyers and when it was confirmed. “That was up 2 cents a bushel which is great. Enjoy!

I showed it to Matt. He asked, “What are you going to do with it?”

“We are going to use it to trade with. This will be close to the amount each of us started with. You can run it by Ramona if you care to.” I was told to hang onto it by both Ramona and Matt.

On October, 4, Ramona came up where we were working. “Listen up, Matt and Jim. I’ve been going over the books for the first Quarter of this year. We are going to be pulling in over $200,000 for the year if the first quarter is any indication. I suggest we each take a salary of $20,000 a year, and maybe a good-sized bonus next June when the year ends.” I was now gainfully employed.

It was a week before Christmas. Caroline was feeling homesick although she hadn’t been home for almost four years. Not only that, Karen was four years old and Santa Clause was very, very, important.

“Hey Caroline, does your father keep any keys hidden out side his house so you can enter?”