Fiction - Stretch - A Vignette
Stretch – A Vignette
Gene Pool, oh, how he hated the name his parents had given him, stood silent and still, in emotional shock, as he looked at the pink slip in his hand, which was actually regular white copier paper.
With the termination notice was a severance check for one month’s salary, payment for unused sick leave and vacation time, and instructions on how to collect or roll over his 401(k) money.
“What am I going to tell Giselle?” Gene whispered aloud. A hard look from his former boss got him moving toward the exit. When he reached the eight year old Subaru Outback, he got behind the wheel and then reread everything in the envelope he’d been handed. And came up with the same whispered question. “What am I going to tell Giselle?”
Finally, after sitting in the car for several minutes, Gene started it and slowly drove home. He parked the Outback next to the three year old Subaru Forrester his wife drove. With a sigh he got out of the Outback and went into the house.
“Gene!” exclaimed Giselle, one hand going to her chest. “You nearly scared me to death! What are you doing home? Are you ill?” Giselle’s hand moved from her chest to Gene’s forehead.
She couldn’t check his temperature, since he was shaking his head no. He pulled the envelope from his suit jacket pocket and handed it to his wife. She began to cry almost immediately.
Gene sat down in another chair beside her and put his arm over her shoulders. When she’d read everything Giselle turned toward Gene and he held her in his arms until her crying slowed and then stopped.
“What are we going to do?” she asked Gene, sitting back in her chair and looking intently at him.
“Well. There’s the severance and sick leave and vacation time. Plus the 401(k), if I don’t get a job before I can still roll it over. After that, twenty-six weeks of unemployment.”
“Gene, we’re just barely making it now.”
“I know, Honey, I know. We still have some room left on the credit cards. I guess we can use those and just pay the minimums until I find something. Stretch the other money out as much as possible. I guess we should start cutting back on some things, too.”
Giselle frowned. “What? We’re not that extravagant.”
“I know. But there just isn’t going to be enough money to live the way we have.”
“Well… I guess I could give up going to the gym three times a week. Cut that back to just one. But you’ll need to cut out the golf weekends with your buddies from work.”
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
The two sat down and began to make a list of things to cut back on to save money. It was a short list. Both were accustomed to the lifestyle they were living and neither really wanted to give up much, despite the circumstances.
“See. We did good,” Gene said, sitting up straight and smiling. “This will save us some money, for sure.” Giselle didn’t notice, but Gene’s heart really wasn’t in what he was saying.
“Oh, look at the time!” Giselle said, glancing at her watch. “It’s getting late. I’ll go pick up Bobby and pick up something for supper on the way back.
Gene just couldn’t quite bring himself to ask that she get something inexpensive to cook, rather than stop at one of the good restaurants that had takeout available that they often used.
Of course, he ate his share when Giselle returned with a full slab of ribs from their favorite rib joint.
Three months later Gene was drawing unemployment. The severance was gone. The vacation and sick leave money was gone. The 401(k) money was gone. And all seven credit cards were maxed out. The unemployment wasn’t enough to even pay the minimums on the cards. Gene began to pay a token amount on each card, less than half of the minimum.
“Gene,” Giselle said, starting to cry, her tone accusatory, “You said you’d take care of me when we got married. That you’d provide for us. That I wouldn’t have to work.”
“I know, Honey. But we’ve got to get some additional income. My unemployment just isn’t enough. And it’ll run out pretty soon. Maybe we shouldn’t have taken that cruise with Jan and Howard…”
“Oh, Gene! That was so much fun! I was able to forget about our problems for a week and just enjoy myself.”
“I know, Honey. I know. But it maxed out all the cards and then some. We have to start cutting back more, as well as both of us look for jobs. I played my last game of golf for awhile last Sunday.”
“Oh, Gene! I don’t want to give up the gym! What if I bloat out like I was? You hated it when I was heavy.”
“I’ve got a feeling none of us are going to have to worry about gaining weight,” Gene replied softly. He took Giselle into his arms when she began to sob.
Two days later, after seeing yet another credit card debt consolidation commercial on the television, Gene made the call. Giselle had come into the living room after doing the evening meal dishes and caught part of Gene’s end of the call.
When he hung up, Giselle asked, hopefully, “Can they help us?”
“Well,” Gene replied with a sigh, “They probably could, if we had some income. Even with consolidation and some forgiveness of part of the debt the card issuers are likely to do, we still don’t have enough income to make the payment. I’ve only got a few more weeks of unemployment, anyway.”
Giselle’s face fell. “I still have to look for a job?”
“I’m afraid so. I’ve been on the internet looking for work. And ideas on how to get by. Found a couple of weird sites. Preppers, they call themselves. Most getting ready for nuclear war…”
Giselle had a disproving look on her face. “Survivalists! We don’t want anything to do with survivalists!”
Gene was shaking his head. “I know. I know. But I did find some ideas on how to cope… Nutritious food at low cost. And even a list of home based jobs that we might do until we find permanent work.”
“Permanent? You mean for you. I don’t plan to work the rest of my life. I’ll get a temporary job, if I can find one suitable. But as soon as we’re back on our feet, that’s it.”
It sounded like a threat to Gene, but he said nothing in reply, for fear of hearing that is was, in fact, a threat. Instead, he said, “I printed out the list one guy posted. Don’t know where he got his ideas, but there were some we might be able to do. We can both look it over and see if there is anything you might want to do.”
Giselle ‘harrumphed’, but took the printed list when Gene went to the computer desk and retrieved it.
Courier work
Sell blood plasma a couple of times a week for a few dollars
House/apartment/condo sitting/caretaking
Lawn watering: turn on/off at night, and/or move sprinklers when needed
Messenger service
Bank messenger: money/papers transfers for businesses
Errand service: grocery delivery, laundry pick up, shopping, etc.
Business lunch delivery service: prepare food or arrange with a restaurant
Commercial building window washing service (could do for homes, too, but would need ad.)
Flower subscription service: pick up & deliver fresh flowers to businesses
Work as security guard
Telephone stenographer
List broker: travel the local area, note everything, compile lists & sell to businesses. Lists such as a needs list: roof, siding, painting, lawn mowing, tree trimming, etc. Own: boat, RV, dog, cat, old car, etc. Event occurring: graduation, marriage, birth, moving, etc. Any visible or researchable need for a service or possible sale.
Knife sharpening service
Gift basket service
Romance catering service
Clothes washing & drying (clothesline hanging for freshness extra)
Sewing & clothing repair
Dishwashing (for caterers or after parties, or in clients’ home for lazies)
Firewood/log splitting/newspaper logs (delivery and stacking available)
Make fancy lamps
Make fancy walking canes
Make candles
Make sundials
Make fancy perpetual calendars
Make fancy Solitare card game boards
Make fancy board game holders/layouts
Make fancy game sets (chess/backgammon/etc.)
Make/build-in secret compartments
Make fancy boxes/boxes with hidden compartments (also hide-a-books)
Make scarecrow kits for gardeners
Services that could be run from home but would need some storage space and/or equipment:
Closet organizing service
Karaoke service
Searchlight service (mounted on vehicle/trailer w/generator)
PA service w/unique vehicle/PA equipment rental (can tow searchlight)
Mobile billboard trailers
Mobile electric scrolling signs
Outdoor party truck/mobile disco (has food service equip and sound system)
Utility pick-up truck w/QD mount snow plow, QD mount deicer pellet spreader, winch, tilt pick-up bed w/bedliner, lift tailgate, swing arm hoist, platform hitch with QD equalizer arms & brackets, set of different size hitch balls on inserts, set of different light connections & adapters
Limo service
Rickshaw service (bike & hand pulled for use at holiday events or tours)
Scrap collection and sale.
Salvage buildings slated for demolition (only with consent of owner/demolition company, obtain and keep lists of the wants of antique/curiosities/collectables dealers
Own/place/service video games/vending machines
Teach/Supervise a skill you have for home owners & supply specialty tools for jobs
“We can’t do all of these!” exclaimed Giselle, after reading the list silently. “And I am not going to do other peoples’ dishes! Not even in their dishwasher!”
“It’s just some ideas, Honey. Things to make us think and maybe come up with some on our own.”
“Well, I think it’s silly. And some of these we couldn’t do anyway. We don’t have the equipment or supplies that are needed.”
“About that… Not just because of the things on the list… But I think we should sell the newer Subaru. Get out from under the payment and extra insurance, and give us a little capital to use to do something to generate income.”
Again, Giselle turned on the waterworks. “Oh, Gene! No! I love my Subaru! If we have to sell, we should sell yours.” She was sniffling and tears were running down her cheeks, but her voice was sharp.
“Giselle, even though it is paid off, we wouldn’t get nearly as much for it as we will for yours. And because it is paid off, we eliminate one of our payments. I…”
“I hate this! I hate being poor!” Giselle stormed off and Gene sighed.
“How did I ever let it get to this point?” he asked himself silently. Then started studying the list again.
Getting an old used truck and using it for a few of the things listed was what Gene wanted to do. But he sighed again. He really didn’t have the experience to be working with equipment like that, even if he could get it. He wasn’t that good with tools, either. Most of the ‘make something’ options were out of the question.
Gene looked up when something flew past him and landed on the sofa. It was a blanket and pillow. Giselle was gone when he looked around. “Guess I’m sleeping on the sofa tonight,” he muttered.
It took another week with no luck through the temp services for either of them that Giselle agreed to start doing closet organizing, if they could find people needing the service. Gene was already selling blood plasma, and making note of everything he saw on his solicitation trips, coming up with the types of lists on the list.
Giselle refused to do the blood thing, and the first night after her first closet organizing job obtained through a ‘work wanted’ ad, Gene found his things moved to the spare bedroom.
Giselle suggested bankruptcy several times. Gene finally went to an attorney specializing in bankruptcies and came back both relieved and disappointed. He hated the idea of bankruptcy. But it turned out not to be an option for them. The lawyer said they’d never win a case based on their spending habits.
Most houses in the area had automatic sprinklers, on timers, so the lawn watering service didn’t work out. Giselle’s Subaru was sold and half the money applied to their debt. The other half Gene invested in a karaoke set up and a good used firewood splitter. Even Giselle got into the regular Wednesday night karaoke show that Gene arranged with the bar that he and Giselle frequented.
She was able to see some of her friends in a social situation, and show off one of her talents. She was an accomplished singer and usually opened and closed the show, doing a song or two when things were slow.
Gene was putting in sixty to eighty hours a week, sleeping in the spare bedroom, gone from the house more than he was there. Splitting and stacking firewood turned out to be a decent income producer, though extremely exhausting on a day-to-day basis. He continued to sell plasma every week, too.
Giselle used all the money she made in her endeavors for herself. Gene’s went to household expenses and reducing their debt.
Gene picked up a little bit of work in his regular line of work through a temp service. And he managed to work with all the credit card companies, one after the other, to get their card debt reduced to a level where he could meet the new payments if he could stay busy.
He found himself drawn to the prep site where he’d found the job list when he had a few minutes to spare. He and Giselle weren’t alone in their situation. There were many people trying to prep for various disasters on limited incomes, just like him. Though he wasn’t preparing for anything special, just to make it through the tough times, he began to do many of the other things other people wrote about in the forums.
Much to Giselle’s disgust, they began grocery shopping exclusively in stores that were running specific sales. Gene insisted they spend the little extra money to buy extra of the items on sale. They actually began to build up a pantry. It meant Giselle had to cook, rather than open up and heat, but she actually had a knack for it and finally quit complaining about it. And she moved Gene’s things back into the master bathroom.
The only constant the last several months had been not to let their financial situation adversely affect their eight year old son, Alan. It was the only place that Giselle willingly sacrificed. If it was for Alan, then she went along with it without complaint.
He’d been asking to go camping for some time even before their financial situation changed, and had asked just recently to get a sleeping bag and some other gear so he could camp out with his friends that had invited him along.
It was an expense they didn’t really need. But both were committed to letting Alan experience the outdoors. And Mike Jenson was one of their oldest friends. He was one of the few that Gene had admitted to that they were in financial trouble. He’d thrown Gene some wood splitting jobs and Gene trusted the man implicitly. Enough to allow Alan to go camping with Mike’s family, un-escorted.
Another of the things that Gene had learned from the various prep forum sites he was on was to buy quality first, even if you had to forgo some purchases for a while. So when Giselle and Gene took Alan to REI to shop for camping gear, they scrapped together all they could so Alan could get good equipment.
When they left, Gene had a dollar ninety-eight in his pocket and that was all. But Alan would be going camping with equipment as good as that the Jensen family had.
With the situation they had found themselves in, neither Giselle or Gene had paid much attention to the news. Giselle wasn’t one much to, anyway, but Gene had always kept a weather eye on the news, especially the financial news, since he was an accountant in a large firm. Even without that job, now that the family was at least making ends meet, and because of some of the things Gene was seeing on the prep sites, he began to watch the news religiously again.
Though he didn’t put it to Giselle the same way, Gene realized that they were both lucky, and had made some good decisions on how to manage the situation. They’d been foolish getting into the trouble, but were doing some of the right things to resolve it. And the world around them was falling apart in a dozen different ways.
Now, besides just getting themselves out of the hole they dug themselves, Gene decided the family needed to prepare for even worse times. Both financially and from a physical safety standpoint.
The first step was to go to the local shooting range when Giselle was otherwise occupied. Several people on the forums had said that someone at just about any range would be willing to lend a hand to a new shooter. Over the period of six months, Gene shot a total of sixteen different firearms, from twenty-twos to a single-shot .50 BMG sniper rifle. Rifles, shotguns, and handguns.
He decided on what he wanted to buy, and began to set aside a small portion of the money he was making toward it. Gene didn’t tell Giselle. That is, until the incident at the mall. They were shopping for new school clothes for Alan when a robbery was attempted. Fortunately, there were three concealed carry weapon permit holders in the mall at the time and the would be bank robber was stopped and apprehended without a shot being fired.
Giselle was scared, but seemed to be fascinated with the CCW permit holders. One of them she and Gene knew. And had never suspected she carried a gun in her purse on a daily basis.
When things had calmed down, and it looked like Alicia had a moment, Giselle went over to her and the two women began to talk. Gene was left to go with Alan to get his new clothing.
That night, as they were preparing for bed, Giselle asked Gene, “Gene? You know how Alicia carries a gun and what happened today? Do you think I could learn to shoot and carry a gun? There are so many things going on… Seems like there is a case like the one at the mall every few days. I’ve always just been scared. Like I was today.
“Alicia said she was scared, all right, but confident of her ability to handle the situation. I want to have that kind of confidence.”
“Giselle, you’ve always been rather anti-gun, when the subject came up.”
“I know. But being there, with Alan, in danger from someone with a gun. I want to be able to protect Alan and myself.”
She wouldn’t quite look at Gene, fully expecting him to explain to her that he would be the one that would protect them. But she was ready with the argument that he couldn’t be there all the time to protect them.
But Gene surprised her. He simply nodded, and then said, “I think it’s a good idea. We’ll both take lessons and even get Alan to try his hand at recreational shooting.”
Giselle wasn’t so sure about that idea, but she’d deal with it later. Right now just getting Gene to agree to let her get a gun was a triumph in her mind.
Another six months and not only had Gene and Giselle paid off not one, but two more credit cards, but they were confirmed shooters. And Alan was a crack shot with a Ruger 10/22. They couldn’t afford to buy any weapons yet, but they did have enough income to be able to rent what they had decided they liked and practice once a month.
It was one of the few things they could do together. Giselle and Gene continued to work, Giselle’s attitude having slowly changed over the months. Since it had been Giselle that brought it up, as soon as they could afford one gun, it was the Walther PPK in .380 that Giselle liked so well that they bought, along with a supply of ammunition and accoutrements so all three in the family had a way to carry it.
While they were still a long way from being as solvent as they once had been, money was much less a worry now than the ongoing world situation. Not only were governments around the world rattling sabers, but Mother Nature was acting up with a vengeance. Every time they turned the Weather Channel on, there were new reports of not only weather related phenomenon, there were earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and a myriad of other natural disasters.
Gene introduced Giselle to the prep forums he was now a member of. It was a slow sell, but Gene finally won her over to the path he’d decided the family should take as they regained their financial footing. Giselle had changed over the months of doing without.
She was determined to get back to the financial security the family had enjoyed, but without making the same mistakes that put them on the track Gene getting laid off had started. Even when Gene finally found a full time job, paying even slightly more than he’d made at the previous place, Giselle kept working. It was her ‘prep’ money, she said. Set aside for some of the not quite necessities, things she wanted to have in case things got bad again.
Gene didn’t mind. She was fully on board now with becoming prepared for more than just being out of work. They even went camping together for the first time, after Alan’s joyous retelling of all the fun he always had on the trips with the Jensen family.
It wasn’t her cup of tea, but Giselle stuck it out, making sure that Alan was having fun. She’d never be an avid camper, but she turned into a capable one.
That was the position they were in when the mortgage company called their loan. It was the only payment they’d made sure never to be late with, much less miss. But the company was in the process of failing, like many others, and was calling in loans right and left.
Giselle surprised Gene when he showed her the letter.
“No. They are not going to treat us this way. We got into trouble on our own and are getting out of it on our own. I won’t give them the satisfaction of taking everything else we have for something that is their fault. We start looking for a new place tomorrow. And we don’t pay anything else on this one. They threaten us with foreclosure… Well, they can have it.”
“But you love this house,” Gene protested.
“Well, Gene,” Giselle said, “I thought I did. It is a good house. But our needs are changing and I have to change with them. With the way things are going, mortgage companies are going to have some bargains on the market, just trying to survive.”
“So what do you think we should look for?”
“Something in a gated community,” Giselle replied.
Gene winced and Giselle saw it. “Nothing extravagant, Gene.” She was smiling and Gene relaxed. Not all the gated communities around here are full of mansions.”
“I hope not. Okay. We’ll go house hunting tomorrow. Should we inform the mortgage company we are defaulting?”
Giselle was shaking her head before Gene finished the question. “We probably should… but the way this letter is written… The attitude. No. I say we just let them do their worst and worry like we have to.”
Gene decided not to argue the point. They didn’t have enough equity in the house to try and sell it, and the mortgage company wasn’t going to give them anything back. There were steps that the mortgage company had to go through to evict them. He and Giselle had a chance to go looking without much additional worry for probably three months.
It took all three months. But Gene found a house that satisfied his new interests, had a huge fenced back yard, so Alan could have a dog, and satisfied all the requirements that Giselle had listed. Several of them meshed with Gene’s, surprising him more than a little as they discussed the various places they found.
The house was only half the size of the one they were leaving, but had a full basement, one-fourth of which was finished as a family room and spare bedroom with a full bath plumbed in. There was a master bedroom with en-suite bath, a second bedroom and a hall bath. A more compact kitchen than the old house, but adequate, even for the home canning that Giselle promised Gene she would master.
The same back yard that allowed for the dog was eminently suited for a decent size garden. Something they discovered after they bought the house, was the proliferation of pecan and black walnut trees in the forest the lot backed against. There were also wild blackberry and raspberry patches.
Buy it they did, with much better terms than on their old house, resulting in a mortgage payment less than half of what they’d been paying. An angry mortgage agent watched as they moved their household from the old house to the new. Giselle was grinning when she tossed the keys to the woman. “Good luck,” she said. The agent said something, but Giselle just walked away without responding to the taunt. She had a CCW permit now. The old outbursts were no longer an option for her. She had to be calm, cool, and collected at all times.
Alan was ecstatic with the place. Not only could he have the dog he’d always wanted, but he had immediate access to the forest. Under supervision, of course.
The moving expenses were paid for by the extra furniture they didn’t need and sold for a modest sum. They were pretty much at a zero bank balance at the point the closing costs were paid, but Gene was getting a full check in two days and Giselle had a small check coming too. They already had more than enough food accumulated to get them through three months, if they so chose or had to.
As they accumulated some extra funds, half of which went into savings, the other half was spent getting the tools, equipment, and supplies to put in a garden and then dry, can, or freeze the products of that garden.
It was too late to actually plant anything, but the half of the back yard that was to be the garden was stripped of sod, which Gene managed to sell to a neighbor, fertilized with horse manure from a small farm not too far away, and tilled and plowed into ridges to hold the winter’s moisture it would get.
Giselle, as she had feared, had gained some weight after giving up the gym because of the expense. Between the stairs to the basement, and the help she gave Gene in the garden, and a much better diet, she trimmed down to what she considered her ideal weight.
Both Gene and Giselle were monitoring the prep forums daily, making further plans to see to their physical and financial security. They even brought Alan on-board their new life style, slowly, so as not to scare him or overwhelm him with the possibilities of disasters that were an inherent part of the forums.
Copyright 2009
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Originally Posted by mmszbi
