Chapter 3

With his clothes folded neatly on a chair, Jack sat on the floor of his living room with a sheet covering his body. There was a blanket under him softening the hardness of the floor. Uncomfortable at being nearly naked despite the fact that he was still wearing his underwear, he said, “Okay. I’m ready.”

Abby came out of the kitchen and held up her hands. In one hand she had a bottle of vegetable oil and in the other she had a box of cornstarch. Thinking that this had to be the only house in America without a bottle of baby oil or baby powder in it, she said, “You can have cornstarch or vegetable oil.”

“Which one is cheaper?” Jack asked thinking that this was just going to cost him more money.

“We’ll use the cornstarch,” Abby said. She didn’t imagine that he used it that frequently and wouldn’t miss it.

“Okay. What am I supposed to do?” Jack asked.

This wasn’t the best way to give a massage, but Abby knew they would have to make do with what they had. She said, “Lie down on your back. I’ll massage the rest of your body before attacking the back. That will give your back a chance to relax a little and I won’t have to hurt you to break loose those knots of tension.”

“Ah,” Jack said. He leaned back and pulled the sheet up to his chin thinking that this was pretty much a waste of time. He really needed to get to the auto parts store and get a new water pump.

Abby rubbed her hands together to warm them and then placed her finger tips on his forehead. With light even strokes, she ran her fingers across his forehead. She paused to rub the temples. While she worked, she said, “I’ve been thinking about that United We Stand, Divided We Fall comment.”

“Oh,” Jack said wondering if that was why she was there.

“Just relax and listen. You don’t have to comment,” Abby said. She ran her fingers along his eyebrows. She said, “Our society has fragmented into single person families. Some reports put the numbers at close to fifty percent of all adults live alone. That’s a hair under a hundred and fifty million.”

Jack would have looked up at her in surprise on hearing that number, but she was massaging around his eyes. He grunted to let her know that he was following what she was saying.

“I have no clue how well they are doing financially, but I doubt it is all that great,” Abby said. She went to work on the muscles of his cheeks. She said, “Claire is having a hard time paying her bills on time. From what you’ve said, the woman you’re helping out with her porch is barely getting by. Life is tough for a single person.”

Lying there practically naked and covered by a sheet, Jack was wondering if all of this talk about being single was some sort of a lead in to a marriage proposal. He was going to say something, but she was doing things to his collarbones that felt really great.

“It is all about money. It is getting tougher to earn enough money to support yourself. There’s no such thing as company loyalty to a good worker. They layoff a person making a good wage and hire one back for less money. It seems to me that they reduce your benefits every chance they get. There’s no such thing as a pension anymore. You have to take the money that you earn and put it into a 401K account so that you’ll be able to retire one day. They’re not going to give you any health benefits when you do retire so the first time you get sick you’ll spend every dime you’ve saved up,” Abby said.

Jack had a long way to go before he was ready to retire and hadn’t given it that much thought. She was really working over some of the muscles of his shoulders and it kind of hurt. He let out a grunt. She said, “Sorry. You’re really tight in this area.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. She wasn’t telling him something that he didn’t already know.

“Things aren’t made to last. I’ve bought stuff that didn’t work after a week. It seems to me that there is a lot of junk on the market. You take it back and they give you a replacement that breaks just as quickly. If you do that too many times, they put your name on a list that won’t let you return merchandise anymore.

“Somehow or another, we need the stuff to get by. You can’t trust a brand name anymore. You spend a little extra to buy the name brand stuff and it falls apart just as fast as the junk brand. I spend weeks researching before I buy anything now, and I’m still not sure that I’m getting a good product,” Abby said.

“Most of the time, I’m going after commercial quality stuff so I know that it will last. Of course, that costs a fortune and I can’t afford to do that now. I can’t afford to do anything now. I tell you, this sucks big time,” Abby said feeling like she was doing a lousy job of explaining her idea.

“I was talking to Claire about families. Her parents grew up surrounded by family with lots of brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles that all chipped in when they had a problem. She and her husband were an atomic family without that kind of support, but she was a stay at home mom. Her daughter married a guy and they had to raise the kids with both of them working. My parents divorced so I didn’t even have two parents growing up,” Abby said with a sigh.

She started working on his right shoulder. She said, “We just keep getting more and more isolated as time goes by. I’m not talking about loneliness or anything like that. An isolated person is an easy victim. You can’t watch every direction at once. You’re watching your money and things break. You spend time fixing them and you aren’t out earning any money. You end up doing everything and you have no time left. You don’t know how to do everything and you don’t have the time to do some things, so you hire someone. Then you’re out money and time.”

“After a while, you feel like you’re a caribou surrounded by wolves. No matter which way you turn, someone is biting your back. You’re busy working and trying to save money. Someone comes along and raises the taxes while you’re not watching. There goes that money you’re trying to save. It just gets worse and worse. You’ve got no control over how much things cost,” Abby said.

Jack was starting to feel pretty depressed. Actually, he was feeling even more depressed than normal. Everything she was saying described his life and he had no idea what he could do to fix things.

He said, “It is impossible to budget money when the prices of things change all of the time.”

Abby said, “I know that two can’t live as cheap as one, but I’m pretty convinced that two together can live cheaper than two apart. Think about you and Claire. You both live in houses that have more bedrooms than you have people. You’re both paying property taxes. If you were living in the same house, you’d only be paying those taxes on one house. You’re both trying to heat and cool your houses. If you were living in the same house, you’d only be paying the costs to heat one house. If you were to move in with Claire and shared the costs, you would both have more money.”

“You could take turns cooking, washing the dishes, and running errands. You’d end up with having to do half of the stuff you currently do. Only one lawn would need to get mowed for you both to have a nice yard. You’d only have to buy half the stuff that you currently buy living by yourself,” Abby said.

Jack said, “I don’t want to rent a room from Claire.”

“I don’t want to rent a room from anyone either and I don’t want a roommate. That’s still two separate economic entities living together. Renting doesn’t result in ownership for the renter and the owner gets all of the benefits. It is an unfair arrangement and politically unfair. The owner can always say that this is my house and you live by my rules. That may solve some of the problems, but it doesn’t solve the real problem. You’re alone and having to watch out for yourself,” Abby said.

“What are you saying?” Jack asked after thinking about what she had said for a few minutes.

Abby answered, “I’m saying that you need a real economic and social partnership to get by in today’s world. Everyone involved has to own a share of the pie. Everyone has to do their bit to make things work. Everyone has to support each other to keep the wolves at bay.”

“Sounds like a utopia,” Jack said with a derisive snort.

Abby had been afraid that Jack would discount her idea like that. Everyone she talked to had pointed out all of the problems and dismissed the idea without giving it much thought. Angry, she asked, “And is your life all that perfect right now?”

“No,” Jack admitted.

“That’s right. Your life sucks just as much as mine does. You’re running around trying to pick up the pieces all by yourself. The worse times get, the more you’ll lose. By the time that things get better, you’re going to have nothing. You’ll lose this house; you won’t have a truck. You’ll have to start all over again,” Abby said.

Shaking his head, Jack said, “I’m not going to let it get that bad. I’m looking for a better job and I’ll be making more money soon.”

“Dream on, buddy,” Abby said scornfully.

Jack was starting to get angry. He said, “Look I don’t need you dumping on me. I’ve already got enough problems in my life.”

Abby asked, “What are you doing about them? You had a good job. What happened? The job deserted you; you didn’t desert the job. You were working six days a week and now you’re working three. Do you think your next job is going to be any better? You’ll sell cars at a dealership or refrigerators at the mall. Sales go down and you’ll be out of a job again. It won’t be your fault, but you’ll be the one suffering.”

“I’m doing the best that I can,” Jack said defensively.

“And you’re doing it alone,” Abby said. She moved down to drape the sheet around his leg so that she could work on his leg. When he didn’t reply, she said, “That’s the real problem. You’re doing everything alone. You don’t have anyone helping you.”

Jack was about to retort that he didn’t want anyone to help him, but it wasn’t true. He was lying on the floor of his darkened house because he couldn’t pay the electricity bill. He was eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because he couldn’t keep his food cool. He was walking because his truck didn’t work. He had a thousand things to do and not enough time to do half of them.

His truck was sitting in the driveway because the water pump was bad. After mowing lawns all morning, he just barely had the money now to buy the parts. He still had to walk to the parts store to get the part and then walk back. He’d spend the rest of the day fixing the truck and wouldn’t get anything else done. Even a ride to and from the parts store would save him an hour.

Jack said, “Maybe you’re right.”

“I am right,” Abby said.

“So what are you suggesting?” Jack asked. He jerked his leg in response to the sudden application of cornstarch on it. If felt surprisingly cool against his skin.

Abby answered, “I was thinking of something like a commune.”

Jack laughed and said, “That’s stupid.”

“No it isn’t,” Abby replied angrily. She said, “You didn’t even listen to my idea.”

“A commune? I’m not some kind of hippy from the sixties,” Jack said.

“Those fucking bleeding ponytails took a good idea and screwed it up. Did you know that the idea of a commune goes back eight hundred years? No. Everyone thinks it was invented in the sixties. Guess what? There’ve been successful communes in the past, and there can be successful ones in the present. You just have to figure out how to make the idea work, today,” Abby said.

“You’re kidding,” Jack said looking over at Abby.

“Ever hear of an Amana oven? Amana started out as a commune more than a hundred years ago,” Abby said. She couldn’t remember the exact dates, but did remember that it was just after the civil war.

“They were swingers?” Jack asked surprised.

“No. They were a religious group,” Abby answered shaking her head in disgust.

“I’m not starting a new religion,” Jack said.

“I’m not talking about a religion,” Abby said.

Frustrated, Jack asked, “What are you talking about?”