Chapter 13

After pouring a cup of coffee, Jack held up the coffee pot and asked, “Would you like a refill?”

“No,” Abby snapped back at him.

Putting the coffee pot back in the machine, Jack said, “Sorry. I was just trying to be considerate.”

“Don’t bother,” Abby said staring morosely at her nearly empty cup.

“What’s the matter?” Jack asked. Ever since she had returned home from work the previous day she had been as pleasant to be around as a badger. She hadn’t gone out to the garage and eaten dinner last night.

“I quit my job yesterday,” Abby said angrily.

“Okay,” Jack said.

“I’m now a proud employee of Taco Emporium making a whopping seven dollars an hour. It isn’t even a full-time job,” Abby said. The fact that it was a part-time job meant that she didn’t receive health insurance or retirement benefits. Even a minor illness or accident would destroy her financially.

“Oh,” Jack said.

It seemed to him that their situation was getting worse and worse. His most recent job had come to an end and now she was making less than before.

“Yeah, oh,” Abby said sarcastically. She figured that he could have come up with something better than ‘oh.’

“Why did you quit?” Jack asked. He knew that she wasn’t happy with her job, but to quit like that meant that something bad had happened.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Abby said.

“Okay,” Jack said. The pancake breakfast would be starting in an hour and he was half tempted to go out there to help get it ready, but he wasn’t going to abandon Abby. He looked across the table waiting for her to say something.

“I’m going to my room,” Abby said getting up from the table.

“All right,” Jack said watching her head off to her bedroom. She was wearing a man’s shirt for a nightgown. The thought that she looked sexy wearing it flashed through his mind, but he stopped that line of thought immediately. They didn’t have that kind of relationship.

Jack knew enough to know when he wasn’t wanted and didn’t try to press her into talking about her problem. He figured that she would turn to one of the little old ladies and get her issues off her chest. One of the things that he liked about the commune was the increasing sense of community. People were helping people and it wasn’t always in the form of labor. Sometimes it was just a kind word that brought a little cheer when someone was overwhelmed with burdens.

He took his cup to the living room. He turned on the stereo before sitting down in his comfort chair. Abby liked that ‘new age’ music and he was slowly beginning to appreciate it. He sipped his coffee wondering what the future held for him.

The previous evening, he had gone to the library and had submitted an application for a maintenance job at the local college. The college was a state school and that meant the job benefits were pretty good. It had been pretty strange applying for a job on the internet. Most of the jobs he had were run out of a home office or the back of a pickup truck. He figured a hundred other guys had applied for the job and the chances of him getting it were slim to none.

He sighed at the thought that he would spend most of the day going through his bills despite the fact that there weren’t many bills. He had his mortgage, his food, his gasoline, the utilities, and car insurance. He still didn’t have a phone, health insurance, or cable. Considering Abby’s little bombshell about quitting her job, he had a feeling that they wouldn’t have electricity for much longer. He looked down at his clothes thinking that they were starting to look worn.

Jack took a sip of his coffee thinking about the past few weeks. Abby had been a pretty reasonable roommate despite the fact that she was kind of moody. They weren’t together much despite not having an active social life outside of the commune. The houses occupied by the members of the commune were spread out over a three block area and it was pretty easy to avoid seeing one another. She spent a lot of time with Claire while he was usually working at other houses.

The commune was working, but it wasn’t working as well as they all had hoped. Everyone was still strapped for cash and even a minor problem would be a disaster. The situation with Abby quitting her job was a good example of that. He predicted that she would soon have problems making the rent and paying her share of the food.

They were eating better and they had fixed up a lot of things that had fallen into disrepair, but no one felt comfortable with their finances. He didn’t expect that to change. They were still nine separate households despite the fact that they pooled their money for food and their time to ease the burdens of maintaining a home.

He wondered what they would do when it got colder. They couldn’t continue to meet out in his garage. Besides being uncomfortable, it wasn’t exactly healthy for the elderly to spend much time out in the cold. The problem was that none of the houses were large enough to entertain fifteen people at a time.

Finishing his coffee, he wandered out to the backyard to see what was happening out there. Almost everyone had gathered to put together breakfast. Even the two kids, Chuck and Mike, were hard at work setting out plates and silverware. Rather than the expected pancakes, there were three waffle irons on the table.

Claire looked up at him and asked, “Where’s Abby?”

“She’s in her bedroom,” Jack answered.

“Why don’t you get her and we can start breakfast?” Claire said.

Jack bit his lower lip and then answered, “She’s not in a very good mood. I don’t think that she wants to be around anyone at the moment.”

Irritated at Jack’s inability to deal with Abby, Claire said, “Let me talk to her.”

“She’s in a pretty foul mood,” Jack said scratching the back of his neck. He was afraid to say much more than that.

“Then she needs a friendly shoulder to cry on,” Claire said thinking that it should be his shoulder that was offered.

“She’s just as likely to bite that shoulder as to cry on it,” Jack said. If he got snapped at for doing nothing more than offering some coffee to Abby, then he had no idea what would happen if he walked into her bedroom.

Claire looked at him thinking that he must have said something to Abby to upset her if he wasn’t willing to help her. She asked, “What did you do?”

“Me? I didn’t do anything.”

“The only time a woman acts like that is when there’s a man involved,” Claire said.

Wondering if the whole world was crazy, Jack said, “Go on in and talk to her.”

“I will,” Claire said heading over to the house.

Jack waited around watching the activity. The lack of seats around the tables meant that only half of the people could eat at one time. The boys and the oldest members of the commune ate first. Claire returned from the house without saying a word to Jack although she did gesture to him that she was clueless about what was bothering the younger woman. Claire looked a little upset and it made him wonder again what was wrong with Abby. It had to be pretty bad if she had upset Claire.

Thinking that Abby had to be hungry, Jack prepared a nice waffle for Abby. He didn’t put any syrup on it since it was likely to turn into a soggy mess before Abby got around to eating it. He poured a little syrup into a coffee cup and carried it into the house. He put the plate on the kitchen table. He knocked on Abby’s door and said, “I brought in a waffle for you.”

“I’m not hungry,” Abby said through the closed door.

“I put it on the kitchen table,” Jack said. He waited a few seconds and then headed outdoors. He wondered what the matter with her was, but knew that she didn’t want to talk about it. He wasn’t about to force her. He hoped that the waffle might help a little.

Jack took a few minutes to fix a waffle for himself. After cooking it, he carried his plate and a cup of coffee over to the table. He sat down in time to hear Claire announce, “Let’s get the Sunday morning meeting started.”

While everyone else was settling down, Jack poured syrup on his waffle. It wasn’t real maple syrup. He didn’t think they would ever be able to afford that kind of luxury. He took a bite and listened as the meeting began.

Claire said, “The food budget is good. We are about eighty dollars ahead and we have some food to carry over to the next month. We owe Abby a round of applause. Since she isn’t feeling well, let her know later.”

“What’s the matter with her?” Ella asked leaning over to Jack.

“I don’t know,” Jack answered after swallowing a bite of his waffle.

“We still have a problem with our individual finances. Does anyone have any ideas concerning what we can do?” Claire asked.

Cheryl said, “Let’s have a garage sale. I’ve got a house full of wedding presents that we’ve never used.”

“That’s not a bad idea. I’ve collected a ton of junk over the years,” Laura said.

“Same here,” Wanda said.

Liz said, “Same here. I think having a garage sale is a good idea.”

Jack listened to the discussion without much interest. The problem was that he didn’t have anything he could sell at a garage sale. He had taken everything of any value to the pawn shop to pay the bills months ago. The only thing that would help his finances would be a job.

Not wanting all of the work that would be associated with holding a garage sale, Claire said, “I will require some help to find out what we need to do to hold a garage sale.”

“I’ve done that before. Let me take care of it,” Bev said. There were a lot of little details to take care of but none of them were all that complicated.

“Okay,” Claire said relieved at having someone undertake what would likely be a major effort. She looked around at the gathered group and asked, “Does anyone else have any ideas?”

Sally said, “It isn’t really an idea that helps anyone else, but Emily is moving in with me. We realized that it would allow us to save on our utilities.”

Emily nodded her head and said, “We’d like to rent out my house, but I need to fix some things.”

Thinking that he had nothing else to do over the next few days, Jack said, “I could do that.”

“That would be great,” Emily said with a smile. “We are planning on splitting the rent money. I don’t know how much we’ll get, but even a couple hundred each a month would be a great help.”

“I’ll be able to afford my medicines,” Sally said. The medicine for her blood pressure, cholesterol, arthritis, and osteoporosis cost a fortune. The cold weather aggravated her arthritis. The previous winter had been pure torture for her. The doctor told her that it was all in her head, but she was the one who felt bad.

Gail said, “I talked to my grandson last night. He’s wants to move in with me, but I’m not sure that it would be a good idea.”

“I think it is a very good idea,” Claire said thinking that it would mean another member to the commune in addition to helping Gail out with money.

“I don’t know. A young man like him doesn’t need to live with his grandmother,” Gail said. There was no way he would want to bring young women home for the night while his grandmother sat knitting in the living room.

Thinking about what Johnny had told him the day before, Jack said, “It isn’t that he needs to live with you; it’s that he wants to live with you.”

“What?” Gail asked surprised by Jack’s comment.

“He wants to make sure that you’re okay,” Jack said.

“I’ll think about it,” Gail said looking down at the empty plate in front of her. She didn’t feel that it was right for a person to become a burden on his or her grandchildren.

Claire said, “I think it would be nice to have him in the commune. He’s already contributed to us.”

“That’s true. He dropped off two hundred dollars that first night,” Bev said.

The suggestion that Johnny would join the commune surprised Gail. She hadn’t considered that he might be interested in it. He was making a good living and didn’t need the financial support that the commune provided. She said, “I’ll talk with him about it. He travels a lot and wouldn’t be able to do much work for the commune.”