Chapter 14

Two o’clock in the afternoon was the quiet time of the day when no one was usually in the garage. Jack was seated on the couch waiting for Claire, Emily, and Sally to arrive for a quick meeting. He sighed while thinking about the bad news he was going to have to deliver. He took a sip of the generic store brand soda wishing that he was drinking his usual brand. The generic soda was better than nothing.

Claire arrived and took a seat on the couch next to him. Smiling at him, she asked, “What did you want to ask me?”

Rubbing his shoulders in an attempt to get rid of some of the tension in them, Jack answered, “I’d like to wait to discuss it when Sally and Emily arrive.”

“That sounds ominous,” Claire said pretending to shiver in fear.

Jack laughed and said, “It is and it isn’t.”

“How are things with Abby?” Claire asked. For the past three days, Abby hadn’t been over to her house. She knew that Abby had only worked a small fraction of that time and that wouldn’t explain her absence.

“She’s still upset about something. She won’t tell me what is bothering her so there isn’t too much that I can do to help,” Jack answered. He had no idea what he had done, but she was demonstrating significant hostility towards him.

Claire studied Jack for a minute. The young man was always helping people. Everyone in the commune had come to depend upon him. He always answered the call despite the fact that he was trying to find a job. He had spent the past three days fixing things around the neighborhood. She said, “She just needs to work it out on her own.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Jack said. The fact was that he didn’t understand women. He didn’t know what they wanted from a man anymore. A man was supposed to act like a man and not act like a man.

Sally arrived and took a seat on the other couch facing the pair. She asked, “What did you want, Jack?”

“I’d rather wait until Emily arrives,” Jack answered.

“Oh, I didn’t realize that you had asked her to come also,” Sally said.

Jack said, “I had an idea and thought we should all discuss it.”

Sally asked, “How’s Abby?”

“Still upset,” Jack answered thinking everyone was asking him and he knew less about her problem than anyone.

“That’s a shame. I don’t think that working at Taco Emporium is all that bad,” Sally said. She felt that Abby was probably over reacting to something.

“I don’t think that bothers her so much,” Jack said. She had been talking about leaving the nursing home for a while and didn’t think actually leaving it would depress her. He wondered if one of her favorite patients might have died.

“She’s lucky to have you around,” Sally said.

Jack was puzzled. He asked, “Why?”

“I’m sure that you are helping her deal with this. A snuggle or two at night in bed does wonders for getting over depression,” Sally said causing Claire to chuckle.

“She’s just renting a room,” Jack said wondering why everyone assumed there was more between the two than there was.

Sally snorted and said, “Then she’s a foolish young woman.”

“What?” Jack asked.

Sally said, “She should be strutting around the house nearly naked to get your attention. If that doesn’t work, she should try sneaking into your room at night.”

“Mrs. Bagley,” Jack said shocked at the suggestion.

Claire laughed at Jack’s reaction. She said, “Sally was always a little more liberal than everyone else in the neighborhood except Bev. She embraced the sexual revolution. The parties she used to have at her house were the talk of the town.”

“And you were a prude,” Sally said looking across the table at Claire.

“That’s true,” Claire said without embarrassment. She added, “And I don’t regret it.”

“Neither do I,” Sally said.

Jack shuddered and said, “Another topic please.”

Sally laughed at the expression on Jack’s face and said, “We’ve embarrassed him.”

“He’s a lot more conservative than you,” Claire said.

Turning to Claire, Sally said, “I still say she’s a fool. Jack is too good to let someone else get to him first.”

“Come on, Emily. Get here,” Jack muttered. He really didn’t understand why everyone was trying to push him and Abby together.

Seeing that Jack was actually very uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, Claire said, “So how are things going with the garage sale?”

“Pretty good. We need another young man or two in the commune to help with the heavy lifting. Poor Jack has been working hard,” Sally answered. He had been carrying stuff from the houses for sale at the garage sale without stopping for a break.

“I figure he’s put in thirty hours of service to the commune, just this week,” Claire said.

“At least,” Sally said.

Jack shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“You could be out looking for a job,” Claire said.

“I spend two hours every morning making calls to the contractors that I know and I know a lot of contractors. As soon as one of them gets a job, I’ll be working again,” Jack said. He was afraid that he would be joining Abby at the Taco Emporium by the end of the week if he didn’t get a line on a job soon.

“Maybe you should consider a career change,” Claire said.

Jack shook his head and said, “To what? I don’t have a college degree. I can probably get a low paying part-time job at a fast food place, but it wouldn’t pay well and would mess up any chance of getting a construction job. They’d have me working while the kids are in high school so that I wouldn’t be able to get a higher paying job.”

“It would still be a steady income,” Sally said.

“I can work two days on construction and make as much money as working thirty-two hours at a fast-food place. If I get a job that lasts a week, then I’m way ahead,” Jack replied.

“You might be right,” Sally said shaking her head. She would have settled for less knowing that it was consistent from week to week rather than face continuous uncertainty like he did.

Emily arrived and took a seat beside Sally. She asked, “What did you want to talk about, Jack?”

“I’ve got some bad news and what I hope is a good idea,” Jack answered.

“What’s the bad news?” Emily asked feeling a tightening in her abdomen.

“Well, I found some problems in your house that I don’t think we can afford to fix immediately,” Jack answered knowing that he was going to upset Emily.

“What?” Emily asked feeling like Jack had just slapped her.

“You were concerned about the roof,” Jack said. She had said that the roof leaked when it rained, but that the damage wasn’t too bad. The cursory survey that Rich and Dave had performed had not identified the full extent of the damage.

“Yes,” Emily said.

Jack took a deep breath and said, “Well, I looked into the problem a lot closer and discovered the water damage is pretty extensive. Rather than dripping into the interior rooms of the house, the water ran down through the walls. There’s some major damage to the interior structure. I’m going to have to rip out some walls and replace some of the wood before the whole house collapses.”

“What can I do?” Emily asked. She understood that she wouldn’t be able to rent out the house until the damage was repaired.

Jack said, “Well, I was thinking about that and came up with a little idea. I wanted to see what the three of you thought about it.”

“What?” Claire asked wondering how this involved her.

“Well, winter is coming and the weather is going to get bad,” Jack said.

“That’s true,” Sally said. The coming of colder weather had been a frequent topic around the dinner table.

“Right now, we are meeting here in the garage. We aren’t going to be able to do that in the future when it gets cold,” Jack said looking at all three women.

“I’ve been wondering what we should do about that,” Claire said. Discussions had mainly focused on shifting the meeting spot from house to house over time. No one really liked that solution.

Jack said, “I’m suggesting that we all contribute a bit to cover the bills for Emily’s house and use it as our meeting place. That would get us out of the weather. We could all chip in seventy dollars to cover the taxes and utilities, but it would give us a common kitchen, dining area, office, and storage space. We could use a common room for meetings and things like that. Her garage could serve as a common repository for our tools. Emily would collect the rent and still move in with Sally.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Emily said.

“I could fix the house when the weather is bad since it is interior work. It might be a little inconvenient at times, but I’m sure that we could all live with that,” Jack said. A renter would not appreciate having a work crew fixing up the house for a couple of months.

Looking at Jack in surprise, Claire said, “That solves a lot of problems.”

Jack said, “To tell the truth, it solves one of my problems too. I got the electric bill this month. It was a whole lot more than usual because of the cost of having people use my garage. I’m paying for an extra refrigerator, a freezer, and hot plates in addition to washing three loads of dishes a day.”

Claire looked embarrassed and said, “I didn’t even think of that.”

“It was only fifty dollars, but that’s fifty dollars Abby and I don’t have,” Jack said a little defensively. He felt like he should have been able to cover those increased costs and was a little embarrassed at having to bring up the subject.

“It is not fair that you have to pay for us,” Sally said with a frown. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that it was costing Jack money to host everyone.

“I don’t really mind doing that when I can afford it,” Jack said.

Claire said, “With two more people coming in, that would reduce our costs significantly. We already have enough leftovers to feed an extra person or two so that wouldn’t directly impact our food budget. I’ll work up the numbers and see what it would ultimately cost us.”

“The only problem that I see is that money is still tight for everyone,” Jack said. He hoped that this wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“We’ll have the garage sale and see what that does for our budget,” Claire said.

Although he didn’t have much hopes for the garage sale earning much money, Jack said, “That’s great.”

Claire said, “Oh, by the way there is one other little thing I need to mention to you.”

“What?” Jack asked.

“You’ve been selected to serve on the committee to come up with the bylaws,” Claire said with a smile.

“How did that happen?” Jack asked dismayed by the idea.

“Well, only one person didn’t nominate you,” Claire said with a smile.

“I didn’t nominate me,” Jack said.

“I know,” Claire said with a laugh.

Frowning, Jack asked, “Who else is on the committee?”

“Rich and me,” Claire answered.

“What about Abby?” Jack asked thinking that all of her hard work shouldn’t go unappreciated.

“She’s on the budget committee,” Sally answered.

“The budget committee?” Jack asked. This was the first that he had heard of a budget committee.

Looking embarrassed, Emily said, “We talked about it after you went inside the house Sunday. All of us felt that you would watch out for everyone. We felt that Abby was doing such a good job managing the food budget, that we should make it official.”

“We’re going to discuss it at the next Sunday breakfast,” Claire said.

“Does Abby know?” Jack asked looking from one woman to the next.

“I was going to talk to her about it when she came home from work,” Claire said. She hoped that it would help rouse Abby from her depression.

“Maybe I should make myself scarce,” Jack said.