Chapter 12

It was lunch time and Jack had just finished mowing five lawns before returning to the house to check on his pot of beans. It was his turn to cook dinner for that evening and he was serving pinto beans, barbecued brisket, and canned corn along with Texas Toast. The brisket was cooking at a nice low temperature in the oven. The beans were slow cooking on the stove.

He had spent twenty dollars on the brisket, a dollar on the barbecue sauce, three dollars on the pinto beans, two on the bread, and three dollars on the corn. He just came in under his budget of two dollars a person. It had been a long time since he had cooked something like that.

Jack headed out to the garage for lunch. It seemed to him that the little old ladies were always around the garage. Claire, Laura, and Bev were knitting sweaters to wear around the house when the weather turned colder. He had a feeling that everyone in the commune would end up with new sweaters this year.

Laura looked up from her knitting and said, “We opened a can of soup. It is in the crock pot staying warm. You can make a grilled cheese sandwich in the electric skillet. We’ve also got some lunchmeat if you prefer.”

“That sounds good,” Jack said. He went over to the table and started fixing a sandwich. They had some pressed turkey so he made a simple turkey sandwich. After pouring a bowl of soup, he carried his lunch to the other table.

“I see that you mowed my lawn,” Bev said cheerfully. Her standard of living had risen significantly since they had started this commune idea. Her lawn looked a whole lot better than ever. Having Jack mow the lawn for free was saving her forty dollars a month. She was eating as well as when her husband had been alive. Dave had fixed her leaky faucet. She was interacting with people every day.

“Yes. That riding lawnmower makes it a whole lot faster,” Jack said. It took him as long to drive it to the house that was the furthest away as it did to mow that lawn. He would get the rest of the lawns mowed after lunch and be back in time to finish preparing dinner for that evening.

“You work too much. Dave can mow the rest of the lawns,” Laura said. Her knitting needles clicked with a steady rhythm.

“That’s okay. I don’t mind doing it,” Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders. With the gas powered weed whacker, he would get all of the places spruced up in no time at all.

“Dave will be around in a while to help you,” Laura said. It was her opinion that Jack was doing all of the physical labor while Dave was puttering around fixing little things. Rich tended to do more of the organizational stuff with Claire although he did help out with some of the lawn work and repairs.

“The more the merrier,” Jack said before taking a bite out of his sandwich.

With knitting needles clicking away, Claire said, “I was thinking about how things have worked out over the past few weeks. Money is still tight, but at least we’re eating better.”

“I don’t feel so alone,” Bev said.

“Same here,” Laura said. She had Dave to keep her company, but he had gotten quiet and moody since retiring. After years of being an active man, sitting around the house had been hard on him. The past two weeks had given him something to do.

Although things had improved, they hadn’t improved that significantly.

Claire said, “There has to be something else that we can do to save a bit more money. I’m still going to be broke by the end of the month.”

“Same here,” Bev said. The difference now was that she was going to run out of money at the end of the month rather than a week before the month ended.

“Should we be looking at getting part-time jobs?” Laura asked. She wondered if she could get a job as a greeter at one of the large stores in the area.

“I don’t know,” Claire said shaking her head. She didn’t really want to hold down a job anywhere. She had never worked in a paying job and felt that it was a little late in life to be joining the workforce. It also seemed to her that there were young kids like Jack and Abby who needed jobs even if they weren’t the best paying jobs out there.

“We can only save so much money,” Bev said.

Looking over at Jack, Claire considered what he had done to help cover his bills. She said, “I was thinking about getting a boarder.”

“Taking in Abby sure helped my finances,” Jack said. He wasn’t charging Abby all that much, but it was helping him pay his mortgage. She had paid the electricity bill and the return of electric service had lifted his spirits far more than he had ever considered it would.

“That’s an idea,” Bev said with a frown. She wasn’t sure if she could take having a stranger living with her.

With two people in the house already, Laura said, “We don’t really have room for a boarder.”

“I’ve got a guest bedroom that is sitting empty,” Claire said. The past few weeks had driven home just how bad her life had gotten. Now that she was eating better, her thoughts had returned to her health. She had stopped taking the calcium supplements for her bones and it was time to start taking them again.

Jack shrugged his shoulders and said, “The librarian told me that she was interested in joining a commune. You might want to talk to her.”

“Really?” Claire asked.

Jack answered, “She knew all about the subject when I went up there to research it.”

“That’s interesting,” Bev said putting down her knitting.

“She’d probably want to join the commune rather than just be a boarder,” Jack said.

Bev asked, “What kind of woman is she?”

“She’s single. She’s pretty helpful and pleasant,” Jack answered. He didn’t know that much else about her.

“What’s her name?” Claire asked.

“Mary,” Jack answered. He looked down at his plate and wondered when he had finished his sandwich. His soup bowl was empty as well.

Bev said, “We’ll stop by and talk to her.”

“You might want to sign up for the internet class they have,” Jack said.

“Computers?” Claire asked doubtfully.

Recognizing her lack of enthusiasm, Jack said, “I know. I don’t like them either, but I was able to get access to a lot of good information. Abby was telling me that you can find discount drugs on the internet.”

“We’ll have to check that out,” Bev said.

“I think we’re going to have to get rid of one of our cars,” Laura said. It wasn’t so much the cost of operating the second car that was killing their budget, it was the insurance.

“That’s actually a good idea. My insurance dropped more than sixty dollars a month when I stopped coverage on my second car,” Bev said.

“Sixty dollars a month is a good bit of change,” Laura said.

Bev said, “The thing that is killing me is the property tax. If they raise the taxes one more time, I’m going to lose the house.”

“With the drop in real estate values, you’d think that we could get the property taxes lowered,” Jack said. Of course, the city was still spending the same amount of money and it couldn’t lower the taxes without making additional service cuts.

“My house is still worth more than what the property is assessed. I’d probably end up having to pay more in taxes if I contested it,” Bev said.

Claire said, “Same here. I’ve been living in that house for fifty years. They’ve got it assessed at the market value of the seventies.”

Shaking her head, Laura said, “I’m not sure about that. You might want to check out what they have the house assessed at. If I remember correctly, that last tax hike we got hit with was a result of an adjustment on real estate values.”

“You might be right,” Clair said. She had been so upset with the amount of the tax increase that she didn’t really looked at the reason for it. If the years had taught her anything it was that you didn’t fight city hall.

“They have mine assessed at the price I paid for it,” Jack said. He didn’t think he would stand a chance of having his taxes reduced.

Bev asked, “I don’t want to go down to the tax assessor’s office and raise a fuss. I’m afraid that they’ll raise my taxes again.”

“I know what you mean,” Claire said. She had been afraid of that same thing.

Jack said, “Go to the library and ask Mary about it. She might know how to find out what you need to know.”

“That’s a good idea, Jack,” Claire said. She returned to her knitting with a thoughtful expression on her face. She realized that having someone who knew how to find out important things to know would be a real asset to the commune.

“I’m going in the house for a minute and then head out to mow some more lawns,” Jack said rising from the table.

Jack returned to his house to check on the beans and brisket. The odor of food cooking filled the air. He lifted the cover on the beans and stirred them with a large spoon. The beans were coming along quite nicely.

He sighed and said, “That’s heavenly.”

Walking past the front window of his house, Jack noticed a black car pull up to the driveway. He didn’t recognize it and figured that it meant trouble. He had wondered how long it would take someone to discover what they were doing and come shut them down for some reason or another. He clicked his tongue and said, “I knew it was too good to last.”

A young man in his mid-twenties and wearing a suit got out of the car. With a frown, he pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket, glanced down at it, and then looked at the house number. He looked over at the garage and headed over towards the small gathering of elderly women.

Jack left his house and headed over to the garage hoping to catch the young man before he upset the old ladies. He reached the garage in time to see the young man hugging Gail. The elderly woman said, “I’m glad you could make it, Johnny.”

“I just wanted to check up on my favorite grandma,” Johnny said with a grin.

“I’m your only grandma,” Gail said with a laugh.

“That doesn’t keep you from being my favorite,” Johnny said.

“You’re all dressed up,” Gail said holding him at arm’s length while inspecting him.

“I just got off the plane,” Johnny said.

“You travel too much on that job of yours,” Gail said shaking her head. As much as he traveled, she doubted that he had a chance of ever finding a wife.

“Is this commune of yours keeping you out of trouble?” Johnny asked trying to change the subject. He knew that she’d start asking him about his girlfriends, or lack of one, any minute now.

“Yes,” Gail said with a laugh.

Smiling at the young man, Bev said, “It is more like she’s keeping us out of trouble.”

Johnny looked around at the people watching him. His grandmother had told him all about the commune and what a difference it was making in her life. He said, “Thanks for taking care of my grandmother.”

Claire said, “Thanks for dropping that money off the other night. It really helped.”

“I didn’t realize that things were so desperate. Grandma didn’t tell me that she was having such a hard time making ends meet,” Johnny said. He did what he could to help, but she was too proud to accept handouts.

Gail said, “You have too much to worry about without having to worry about me.”

“I told you that if you ever needed something to give me a call and you’d get it,” Johnny said looking over at his grandmother with a stern expression on his face. It bothered him that his mother and father didn’t take better care of her.

“We’ve had that argument before,” Gail said. She gestured to the food and said, “Get something to eat. You’re still a growing boy.”

“I stopped growing eight years ago,” Johnny said.

“You’re too skinny,” Gail said. Everyone in the room laughed at that.

Jack watched the pair talk thinking that Johnny was the first relative to even show some concern for anyone in the commune. He thought it was kind of odd that no one had mentioned any relatives calling to see how they had managed to survive the cash crunch crisis that the banks had set off.

Johnny noticed that Jack was watching him. He came over and said, “You must be Jack.”

“I am,” Jack answered with a nod of his head.

“My grandmother was telling me that you’ve helped her around the house. Is there anything that I can do to help?” Johnny asked.