Chapter 3

I got my things arranged and helped the kids. It had seemed like so much stuff when we were packing it but it was little different from moving into a cabin for a two week vacation. Oh, I guess there were a few more toys, DVDs and books.

One thing I knew we were going to have to do was call Alex. You see, kids are shorter than most people and the housing industry rarely takes that into consideration. The first problem I saw was the closets. None of the kids were tall enough to hang up their clothes, much less get anything to wear short of jumping up and grabbing it. If he could hang a second rod a couple of feet lower, they'd be more likely to take care of their clothes. Billy and Laurie were all set as far as stools to use the bathroom sink but Annette still needed something.

I also wanted to see what we could do about the kitchen. I saw the improvement in my two in the short time we'd known Jack and Jill and I put a lot of it down to the way they were treated. Not as adults so much, but as people. So many adults treat a child like a pest or a nuisance to send away to do something else. Until recently, I'd been in that last category. A lot. It wasn't on purpose; it was a matter of not knowing any better. There was no reason I couldn't get all three of them to wash up and help with the meals, help keep their rooms clean, even do their beds. We needed some kind of stepstool for each of them that they could move around and use to reach the sink and the kitchen counters. One that stayed in the kitchen that didn't have to be carried up and down the stairs.

The majority of our meals would be eaten at our new home but I knew we'd be over at Jack and Jill's for dinner on occasion. I figured between one and three out of ten meals at their place. I could get by with the girls and their booster seats. Annette had gotten used to carrying hers back and forth from the apartment to the car but I didn't want to do it with Laurie and as far as I was concerned it was a pain in the butt. I wanted to leave the boosters in the car and buy some cushions to take their place at the kitchen table. I figured a pair for our new home and another for the apartment. They could carry them into the dining room or downstairs to June's when needed. That left Billy. He just wasn't old enough to sit in a regular chair, cushion or not. Maybe the Pennysaver would have a highchair somebody had outgrown. Or a yard sale. I just knew I didn't want to cart that stupid high chair around with me. I'd have to see who drove the kids where. An extra set or two of boosters might not be a bad idea for John's or Jack's car or both.

The other thing I needed was a desk. I had my laptop but it wasn't going to be long before Jack would want me to have a printer and all the photo papers, the cutter and all that. A drawer or two in the desk suitable for files would save getting a file cabinet.

I wasn't worried about money. John had just given me a hundred and I had $675 put aside for the December rent that I'd never have to pay. I was supposed to call up Liz on Monday and make an appointment for the three of us. One of the things we were going to do was set up payroll. My food and rent were handled and John was going to give me two hundred each Friday.

Things were going to be a lot easier now; the first time since Jerry died. Things didn't have to be as tight as they were but I'd been overwhelmed by everything and my parents insisted I put the death benefit away for the future instead of squandering it all away and I listened. I don't know. Maybe they were right. I know things would have been a lot easier on us if I'd been able to tie it up for 6 months or a year at a time and take a little out for expenses between renewals.

Jerry got $100,000 for dying. Actually, I got it, he was already dead. Not too bad for being in the service for just over a year. But you figure his life would have gone on for 70 years or so. That's $1500 a year the insurance company had to pay for the time we lost.

Anyway, my parents had a friend who had a financial advisor and the next thing I knew my money was locked up for five years. I think they had the right to charge 15% interest if I even thought about using some of it for food or shelter or something like that.

The Army flew Jerry's casket here and paid for plane tickets for the parents to fly out for the funeral and paid to put him in the ground. Since he was on active duty when it happened, he got a military funeral and I got a flag out of it. There was no medal involved because he'd been shopping when it happened. He was checking out vegetables outside a market when the truck crashed a few feet away and blew up. It was quick for Jerry, which is nice, I guess. It was also closed casket. I never did find out how much of him, if any, was in the casket.

We got a check deposited in my account on the first of every month for $1483. That's the benefit for surviving spouse and two children. That was subject to review every year and as far as I know, it always went up a few bucks. My parents, who lived on a small farm in Missouri that had been paid off for years, who grew a major portion of their own food and who had no one to support since their daughters had both moved as far away as possible felt that almost $1500 a month was exorbitant. They'd never tried to find an apartment or feed a family in California.

I did get $1800 in pay that Jerry had earned but not received and I had education assistance, such as it was at the junior college. If I ever went to a four year college, that would come in handy. I went to the JC to learn computers enough so I could get a job somewhere. Everybody wants experience and computer knowledge. So I decided to get the one I could do something about. Now that I had Jack and Jill to work with, I was going to get out of my two classes as easily as possible. What I'd like to do is drop out and have the records torn up, just as if I'd never been there. As far as I was concerned, I got out of it exactly what I went into it for. A job and a chance to show what I could do.

I met Jill the first night we had class. It was Tuesday night, so that means it was Excel. I walked in there nervous, wondering how I was going to fit in, how well I was going to do in class, if I was even going to get it at all. There were others like me, though I don't think any had it quite as bad. Most of the class was bored. They were there because they had to be. This bright and perky kid with the hair and the most piercing blue eyes you've ever seen came in the place. All she was missing was a sweatshirt that said "Princess" and a wad of gum in her mouth. She sat down next to me and she had a rolling suitcase like she was a stewardess on a flight to Arizona that she set down next to her. Then she pulled out a laptop that looked like it was made out of platinum. She opened it up and turned it on and then she looked at me and smiled.

I saw that smile and I knew I wanted to know that girl. I'd heard the expression "warm smile" hundreds of times but this was the first time I'd ever experienced it. It was more than her mouth, her eyes, her face; it was like her whole being was smiling at me. I felt like I was in the warm kitchen on a rainy night eating hot chicken soup. That kind of warm.

She told me she was Jill and I told her I was Myra and she asked if I was nervous. Here I am, 23 years old and a girl I later found out was 14 was asking me if I was nervous. And I was laughing and telling her I was scared shitless.

"Don't worry. This stuff's a piece of cake. If you ever need help, just let me know." That's when I knew I had nothing to worry about in that class. A couple of days later when I saw her in my HTML class, I knew things were going to go just fine.

It bothered me when our teacher had her describe the web page she put together for her volleyball team and gave her the rest of the semester off with an A for the class but I knew she'd still be there for Excel and she'd give me any help I needed for either class. When she came up to me one night in the lounge and asked if I would be interested in working for her and her boyfriend, I was shocked. I knew she was fifteen by now, but working for a fifteen year old and her boyfriend in two new businesses they'd just decided to start up was scary. I know for a fact that if I'd been talking to my parents and told them about Jack and Jill, they would have been convinced the two of them were out to cheat me somehow.

I really felt like she'd put me on the spot. She'd been a great friend while we'd gone to school and God knows there were a few times I would have been completely lost without her help. She was excited about her boyfriend's business because he had so much work he couldn't handle it. This friend who helped me out all the time needed help and she thought of me. I told her I'd meet with Jack but I wasn't going to promise anything. That would work. I'd go over there, listen to what they had to say, then let them down easy. Then she told me to come over for dinner and bring the kids with me and she'd watch them while I was talking to Jack. I didn't know what was going to happen when I went over there but my stomach was full of butterflies.

It's funny. Jack usually tries to put on this serious, conservative image, but once he got talking about his photography he showed that same excitement that Jill does and I couldn't help but love him as much as I did her. Fuck my parents and their common sense. I knew I wanted to work with these two and do whatever I could to make them successful. I didn't even think to ask how much I was going to make. They'd take care of me. The next thing I knew, I was on the phone with their accountant making arrangements to meet with her on the following day, a Saturday.