Chapter 20: Sunday Morning

Sunday, February 12, 2023, 9:05 a.m.

Amy crawled on the bed, on top of the blanket covering Melanie and Jacob. She was upset and tearful.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

“I checked the clock, it’s after 9:00, don’t be mad at me!” Then she was weeping. “Mama!” she wailed.

Melanie raised up and took hold of her daughter. None of them, not even Jacob, noticed that the movement exposed her breasts.

Asking again, “Baby, what’s wrong?”

It was hard for her to speak, between the sniffles.

“When I woke up, I remembered what you said, Mama, about Jacob. You said, when his ankles got better, he would be leaving. Mama, I don’t want Jacob to leave! I want him to stayyy!”

“Oh, Amy, baby, don’t cry. I want him to stay, too. Should we ask him?”

“<Sniffle.> Uh-huh.”

“Jacob, do you want to stay with us, with Amy and with me?”

“I’m staying. Amy, can I give you a big hug?”

Amy and Jacob cuddled, while her tears and snuffles slowly subsided. When she was calm and quiet, Melanie spoke to her.

“Baby, go out to the kitchen, please. I’m going to put some clothes on and get your breakfast. And then I want you to watch a movie while Jacob and I do some more talking. OK?”

Amy agreed and left for the kitchen.

Melanie had ignored the frowny face on Jacob when she said, “put some clothes on.” She said, “Just hang on, willya. I’ll be back in 15 minutes with your pancakes.”

When she returned after breakfast, after locking the bedroom door, “I guess we need to talk. You’re serious, you want to stay with us?”

“Do cats climb trees? Of course I do, Melanie. I have no doubt about that. But there are some things we need to discuss, all right?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“There’s a lot, so bear with me. Remember, I’ve been stuck in bed for hours at a time to ruminate on things.

“First, my apartment is much bigger than yours. I want you and Amy to move in with me, instead of what we’re doing here. Your unit is only two bedrooms, one bathroom. We will make my third bedroom just right for Amy, with places for her to read and for her library she will be building. We’ll make the main bathroom safe for her to use. My second bedroom is my office, and the master suite and its attached bathroom has lots of free space for your clothes and things.

“You must have noticed my updated kitchen, and one thing you probably missed: I have my own washer and dryer too. No more hauling laundry around the complex. We don’t need to be paying two rents when we are living together.

“Second, I want you to quit your job. No, hear me out. Your job is awful, and it oppresses both of you for little reward. It’s not that I think you shouldn’t work. I just want you to have a better job; a job which pays well, has benefits, and doesn’t leave you exhausted and feeling like crap every evening. Actually, I suspect those assholes you work for might be wanting to fire you anyway, just because of the time you took off for me.

“Believe me, you’ll be better off. And, trust me, I have good connections for getting you hired at a much better place. Hell, any place would be better. You already told me you have a 2-year business degree.

“Third, I would ask you to consider me as your part-time care for Amy. She does benefit from being over at Northeast Daycare, for her friends like Jordan and for the structured activities. But it doesn’t have to be every weekday for her. She could be staying here with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays, perhaps. Or she could be at daycare on those two days, and home with me on the other three weekdays. Up to you.

“Fourth, this would be almost painless for you but would be a big financial improvement. I’m making some safe assumptions here: you have one ordinary credit card that is maxxed out to your credit limit and has an interest rate between 21 – 32% annually. All you can do with it, really, is make the minimum monthly payments. I don’t know your specifics, but I’ll use a typical example for people with this kind of credit card. At these very high rates, a $4,000 balance will end up costing you almost $12,000 in interest and take at least 25 YEARS to pay off with minimum payments of 3% ($120 a month). That little piece of plastic is financial cancer. It’s robbing not only your future, but Amy’s, and I can’t stand to think about it. Wrecking your Honda would be far less expensive. Remember, I do finance for a living, and I said this would be almost painless.

“Here’s how it works: I’m going to loan you the amount of your balance on the card, so you can pay it off. The interest rate for MY loan will be 2%, and the minimum payment will be set to 2%, that’s $80 a month on a $4000 balance. Life of the loan, your interest cost would be about $310, not $12,000. Between individuals, I just need to be reasonable with you so I won’t have any issues with auditors or the tax people. These loan parameters would be deemed reasonable.

“Now, why would you do this? Because it will save you and Amy thousands of dollars that would otherwise go to your greedy bank. Because it makes your monthly payment a whole lot less, and the interest I collect from you is less than $8 a month, instead of around $90 to the bank. Because, if we have a falling out, you don’t have to keep making payments because I get a tax advantage for writing the debt off, and of course I wouldn’t pursue you for such a vanishingly small debt in my portfolio. Because once you have a better job, you will probably have the whole debt paid off in six months anyway because of your higher salary.

“Why would I do this? Imagine a leaky pipe, where the drip is causing a rusty, moldy, smelly, and ever-increasing failure in your bedroom wall. Like I said, I do finance for a living. And your credit card is that leaky pipe, which I can fix for good in about ten minutes of work. You’re not getting a gift, you’re just getting a much better deal on credit from the Bank of Jacob.