Laura's Big Win (4 page)

Be that as it may, their life continued
without significant events for the next few years. Richard traveled
more than before, and continued to make no effort to be home when
he could have done so. Nor did he make any effort at all in the
bedroom, usually claiming fatigue from his long work hours. Laura
learned to tolerate the absence of physical love, partly because it
had never been a high point in their relationship to begin with,
and immersed herself in other things. At least she had a good
provider who seemed to at least care that they were well taken care
of and all their needs met, and that fact she used to excuse the
other voids in their relationship. On the other hand, he brooked no
excuse from her if he called to say he was bringing a client home
to dinner that evening. It didn’t matter what else had been
arranged in his absence, it didn’t matter if one or the other of
the kids was ill, it didn’t matter how Laura felt about anything,
and it was adequately clear that the only thing that mattered was
that his client be shown a good time, fed a good dinner. The kids
were to be spotless, polite, and quickly invisible at the same
time. Laura was equally to be the epitome of the ideal housewife,
charming with just a hint of sexiness, clearly a perfect mother,
and ever so happy to see her returning spouse.

It was more an existence than a life,
but Laura had two great kids to keep her busy; she maintained a few
clients for her accounting services and used that income to go back
to school now and then to stay a little more current in a rapidly
automating field. She had a social life of sorts with some of the
neighborhood ladies, and there was the occasional dinner party they
would attend as part of entertaining his clients. She did still
believe things could be better, or at least different, but wondered
if they really were for other families or if it was all just window
dressing. One thing that did bother her a bit more was when she saw
fathers playing with their children, or at least with them at a
ball game or something like that; she realized that Richard had no
idea what went on in his home when he was gone, nor did he seem to
care. Laura had even briefly entertained the thought of perhaps
doing more socially than she would have previously considered, an
affair by another name, but two things stopped her. She didn’t have
any idea how to go about it, and she realized she could not live
with herself if she wrecked her marriage and ended up losing her
children because of her own selfish expectations. ‘Maybe,’ she
thought, ‘I could become a little more active in the job market
next year; Jack is five now and headed for first grade in a few
months when he turns six, and Amanda could go to daycare at least
part of the day.’ She needed to do something to break what had
become a routine she could do asleep. Richard or not, she simply
was unwilling to let her brain die.

What Laura didn’t know, nor could she
have known, was that life was about to be irrevocably changed for
her, for Richard, and for Jack and Amanda, and in at least one case
not for the better.

Chapter 4 –
Eviction

The midweek day dawned like any other:
no Richard home for a couple more days, summer day activities to
get the kids ready for, maybe a trip to the pool, a little laundry
to take care of, and she needed to call the appliance repair shop
about the dishwasher dripping water on the floor. Some days she
actually wished they had a dog to walk; every day was a new
adventure to a dog, she thought; maybe some of it would rub off on
her life. But Richard would hear none of that; he made it painfully
clear he would allow no animals where they might cause even the
slightest problem with a client, always the client, never a thought
about his family or their needs. Laura was slowly coming to the
conclusion she and the kids were all just some part in his scheme
for success, the up and coming business man with his picture
perfect wife, two kids, and beautiful house, all just parts in a
plan, nothing more. Shaking off the dark thought, she had only a
few minutes of quiet before the kids hit the floor at full
throttle; time to call the repair place and get that
arranged.

Laura flipped through the book to the
right page, found the number, picked up the wireless, and punched
the number in one-handed. The beauty of working with numbers a lot
was that she automatically memorized the configuration of every
keyboard for every appliance in the house, even on her mini-van
door locks; she could key anything without looking, even in the
dark. Phone to ear, she waited for the usual ringing tone; silence.
Checking the number, this time she confirmed the number entry and
re-tried. Silence. Undaunted, she headed into the office to try the
wired set in there. Silence. Someone must have dug up the wires
again, she thought; it had happened once before during some
neighborhood excavation. Not a problem; her cell was always in the
countertop charger and ready to go. Number in, hit send, silence.
The tower wouldn’t accept her phone. This was becoming an
irritation. She would have to load up the kids and drive to the
phone company and to the cell store to get things straightened out,
and there was still the dishwasher problem; strange that both
phones quit at the same time, but she didn’t put too much concern
into the coincidence.

The kids were climbing out of bed now,
anxious to start another day of summertime fun. Laura found their
favorite cereals for starters, and enjoyed another cup of coffee
while they dined mightily. Amazing how much food went into those
little mouths; she thought: ‘If I ate that way, I’d weigh 200
pounds in a week!’ although in truth she weighed what she weighed
the day she graduated from college; she did not consider having two
children to be an excuse for “letting go”. Even at that, she often
thought there must be something wrong with her body, or maybe her
looks, or something about her that kept Richard away. It had been a
long time since he had even looked at her as a women. But as usual,
she banished the thought to the back of her mind and looked forward
to a day spent with her children. Now, if it weren’t for the
miserable dishwasher and the phones, the day would be a little
brighter.

When the door bell sounded, Laura
thought it a little early for anyone to be calling, but headed for
the front of the house to respond. Opening the door, she saw a
rather rough looking, unshaven man in blue coveralls with a “Bud”
name patch over the pocket, and noticed a tow truck sitting in the
drive.

“Morning ma’am. I’m from A1 Towing and
Salvage; I’m here to repo your car. Usually I just take ‘em, but
this looks like a nice neighborhood so I figured there wouldn’t be
any rough stuff. Now, all I need is your keys and I can get on with
it. Okay? All sets if you have more than one, although the locks
get changed anyway as soon as they’re impounded.”

“Repo? I don’t understand. I haven’t
done anything. What’s the problem?

“Look lady; I just repo ‘em. If you
want details, ask him.” As he gestured over his shoulder Laura
noticed a police patrol car sitting at the curb.

“Okay, just wait a minute until I get
this straightened out with the officer. I’m sure he can clear up
this mistake in a second. Will you wait a minute?”

“Sure. Take five if you want, but the
van goes with me when this is over. I got my orders.”

Laura walked out to the patrol car,
from which a somewhat portly, older officer was now emerging. This
all had to be some sort of big mistake, first the phones, now this.
It didn’t make sense. And it didn’t exactly look great having a
patrol car sitting in front of their house.

“Good morning officer. There seems to
be some misunderstanding here about my van; this gentleman says
he’s going to tow it, one way or another. Can you help get this
figured out?”

“Morning ma’am. Yes, I can get it
figured out; I just didn’t plan on starting this early. Anyway, I
have to inform you that he has a right to tow the van. One of the
reason’s I’m here is to see that he doesn’t have any problem with
the impoundment, since it’s court ordered. Now, would you get the
keys for him, or do we do this the hard way?”

“No, no problem getting the keys. I’ll
be right back, if that’s what you say, but I don’t know what’s
going on here. I haven’t done anything wrong; what’s the problem?
Can you tell me, or should I call a lawyer?” Laura realized the
futility of her last statement when she recalled that none of the
phones were working, but it sounded good anyway.

“No problem lady. Just get him the keys
as he asked, and I’ll fill you in, as if you didn’t
know.”

Laura found both sets of keys, and
after removing the house keys, handed them to the tow truck
operator. “Can I take our things out of the van before you
go?”

“Sure, anything you want, but I need to
get moving now so hurry it up if you could. I have a couple more to
do this morning.”

The kids were finishing breakfast as
Laura went to find a laundry basket, the quickest thing she could
think of to hold the assortment of things in the van. Realizing
something was going on, they followed her to the driveway, excited
at seeing the tow truck and not realizing it was not entertainment
but bad news.

“Where’s the car going, mom? Is it
broke, is that why there’s a tow truck here?” Jack
asked.

“No, it isn’t broken, that I know of.
This man just needs it for a while for some reason, so he’s going
to take it along for now. I’m sure it will be back soon and
everything will be fine. Okay? Now, stay out of the way. You can
watch from the sidewalk.” And with that Laura removed their
assorted belongings and handed the keys to the operator.

“Sorry lady; you look like a good sort;
I sure hope you can works things out. Nice kids. Sorry. Gotta go.”
With that he loaded the van on the tow truck and drove
off.

Left with the police officer, Laura
invited him inside, followed by the kids, now curious at this new
event in their lives. In the kitchen, she offered him a cup of
coffee, which he refused, and again asked what was going
on.

“You really don’t know? You know, I
deal with this a lot, and most people are just playing dumb, but
you don’t seem like the sort for game playing. So, you don’t know
about the bankruptcy? For real?”

“No, I have no idea what you’re talking
about, and I can’t call my husband to ask him; for some reason the
phones aren’t working just now. What’s going on? Please, can you
tell me something, anything about this repo?”

“Look lady, Mrs. Nessing, that’s you,
right? Laura Nessing, Mrs. Richard Nessing?”

“Yes, I’m Laura Nessing; Richard in my
husband. He’s on a business trip at the moment but I’m sure he
could clear all this up in a second, if I could just get hold of
him.”

“Mrs. Nessing, your husband filed
bankruptcy last month and declared no assets. I don’t know much
about it, and I don’t think I could get the states attorney to talk
about it much with a case pending, but what I do know is this:
since he declared no assets, everything you have is subject to
impoundment, except your clothing and identified personal items. We
don’t normally enforce impoundments, but since this is a
bankruptcy, we have to get involved and protect anything of value.
The other thing I need to tell you is that as of 4 PM this
afternoon you must vacate this premises. I’m sorry, but that’s how
it is. You can go anywhere you want at this point, since only your
husband is involved in the bankruptcy filing. He’ll probably be
called to testify when it goes to trial, but since you say you
don’t know anything about it, all I need is a forwarding address
where we can contact you later if needed.”

“I still don’t understand; how could he
file bankruptcy? He has a good job, I work part time, we have
money. We put money in the bank all the time, and I’m sure he keeps
the bills paid.”

“Are you telling me you haven’t seen
any of the notices for payment due? How could you not? We impounded
the contents of your post office box yesterday afternoon and put a
seal on it; the thing was packed like you hadn’t emptied it in
days, notices from everyone under the sun: power, phone, cable, the
bank, credit cards, all that stuff. I’m probably telling you what
you already know but give me a break lady; you owe everyone, and
it’s no surprise your services are being cut off one by one. And
you still say you didn’t know?”

“No, not a word of it. You say a post
office box? We don’t have a post office box; all our mail comes
here.”

“Mrs. Nessing, if you really don’t
know, then I’m sorry you have to find out this way, but you owe
everyone in town and then some. Come to think of it, the letters I
saw yesterday only had his name on them, not yours, but the
bankruptcy affects all joint property, including the house. To tell
the truth, I did hear some talk about him owing a ton to the casino
over on the state line; is he a gambler”

“Yes, he is, only I thought it was just
for fun. I had no idea things had gone this far. I don’t have any
idea what to do, and I have two kids to take care of. What should I
do now?”

“I can’t advise you in any way; I’ve
probably said a lot more already than I should have, but if it were
me, I’d head for a friend or relative and lay low until this gets
cleared up and you find out how bad things are. Do you have
anywhere you can go for a while?”