Chapter 16

Jack sat down in his comfort chair and announced, “I know about the rape.”

“Damn that Cheryl,” Abby said angrily. She had not wanted anyone to know, but keeping it to herself had been eating at her.

“You did the right thing,” Jack said looking over at her.

“You don’t believe that,” Abby accused. She was pretty sure that he would have reported the matter to the police.

“My first reaction was that you should have gone to the police, but it would have been extremely stupid to do that. We’d have lost the commune and you would have ended up in jail. It is wrong, but you did the right thing,” Jack said.

“You say that I did the right thing at the same time that you say it is wrong,” Abby said bitterly.

“It is wrong that going to the police is the worst thing you could have done. You did what had to be done to protect everyone else,” Jack said thinking that he was walking on thin ice.

“You don’t believe that,” Abby said finding that her anger was deflating a bit.

“We live in a screwed up world where doing the right thing turns you into a victim,” Jack said shaking his head. The more thought he had given to the situation; the more convinced he was that Abby had done the smart thing. It might not have been the right thing, but it wasn’t up to him to judge that.

“Why are you telling me this?” Abby asked.

Jack answered, “We’re ready to submit the proposal on adding new members to the commune. I’m planning on mentioning the rape when we present our proposal.”

“Don’t you dare,” Abby said. She couldn’t look any of the little old ladies in the eye despite the amount of time that had passed.

“I have to,” Jack replied. He didn’t want to make up something to convey the main point of her experience.

“Why?”

“Rich and I have become convinced that it is us against the rest of the world. Your experience at the nursing home is part of the story. What do you think of one of those little old ladies ending up in a facility like where you used to work?” Jack asked.

“The whole idea makes me sick to my stomach. They would be absolutely defenseless,” Abby answered. The first time one of them showed any resistance to control they would get drugged into submission.

“I agree. We have to position ourselves to take care of them in the future. Part of that is convincing them that they’ll be better off with us than with some nameless crew in a warehouse operation like where you worked,” Jack said.

“I didn’t think of it that way,” Abby said.

Jack said, “You need to tell your story.”

“I can’t,” Abby said. She was ashamed that she hadn’t done more to help Mrs. Donnelly. The idea of airing her shame in front of everyone made her sick to her stomach.

“You must,” Jack said looking at her. He could tell that she was very uncomfortable with the idea of admitting what had happened. It didn’t matter that it had been enough to convince her to quit the nursing home.

With tears threatening to flow, Abby said, “I feel so guilty.”

“I know,” Jack said. He knew that he couldn’t address her guilt directly. It was going to require a community to heal that wound. He had a feeling that the older members of the commune would deal with it much better than she expected.

Abby said, “You tell them what happened.”

Knowing that was as much as he was going to get from her, he said, “You’ll have to tell me what happened.”

An hour and a half later, Jack was standing in front of everyone repeating the story while Abby sat there in tears. Much as he expected, the little old ladies had swarmed over her trying to convince her that she had no choice in what she had done. She had reported the rape to the head nurse and quit when nothing was done about the matter. He finished presenting the proposal for adding new members and asked, “Are there any questions?”

“How is this going to help us economically?” Liz asked. She could see where getting someone to move in with her would help with the taxes and insurance on the house, but it wasn’t all that much of a help.

“To tell the truth, I don’t think it will help us all that much financially unless you get a roommate. I do think it will help us in terms of quality of life and security. Doing a simple background check on applicants will help assure that you don’t end up with a criminal living in your house,” Jack said.

“That’s true,” Liz said. The story about the rape at the nursing home had disturbed her more than she was willing to admit. One of her greatest fears was to end up helpless in a nursing home surrounded by uncaring strangers.

Ella said, “I don’t have any questions. Doing a background check on potential members makes sense to me. Requiring them to believe in God isn’t a bad idea either.”

“Why did you include that as a condition for joining?” Sally asked.

Knowing that it was an unpopular stance in a lot of places, Jack said, “I felt that someone who believed in God would be more likely to be honest.”

“I agree,” Ella said. Frau Shultz had been very pleased to learn that it was a condition of joining the commune.

“Are you requiring them to be a Christian?” Wanda asked.

“No,” Jack answered.

Wanda said, “My late husband was a Mason. They require people to believe in a higher power, but they don’t care what particular religion you believe in. For such a large organization, you don’t hear any stories about corruption and I think that is part of the reason why.”

“I didn’t think about that,” Jack said. He didn’t know much about the Masons. He wasn’t a member and he didn’t know anyone who was. It seemed to him that people his age didn’t join organizations like that anymore.

Dave said, “It is true.”

Bev said, “I move that we accept the proposal as is.”

Claire looked around the garage and saw others nodding their heads. She asked, “Don’t you want to think about it a bit?”

“What’s there to think about? You require that they pass a background check, believe in God, and demonstrate that they are willing and able to contribute in some substantial manner to the commune as a whole before joining. Even the contribution isn’t that bad. They can contribute money, a service, or a skill that is necessary,” Bev said.

“It seems fair enough to me,” Gail said.

The proposal passed unanimously and without further discussion. Claire asked, “How are we doing with the garage sale?”

“Great,” Bev said. She pulled out a stack of papers and said, “I’ve got all of the permits to hold a garage sale. We’ve got everything together in three garages and each item is priced. I’ve set up an inventory of what we have for sale and who it belongs to. I’m ready to place an advertisement in the newspaper. Dave made some signs. Everyone has agreed to work a shift or two during the three days of the sale.”

“That’s great,” Claire said surprised at how dedicated Bev had been about organizing the garage sale.

Bev said, “I expect that we’ll bring in over a thousand dollars. We can donate the rest of the stuff to a charity and get a tax write-off.”

“You’re kidding?” Jack asked not sure if he believed the amount of money she expected to make or the fact that donating junk that no one would buy would be a tax write-off.

Understanding Jack’s disbelief, Bev said, “We’ve got a lot of clothes that have gone out of fashion. We can each donate a closet full of clothes and get five hundred dollars as a tax write- off. It might not get us much money, but we’re counting pennies right now.”

“That’s true,” Claire said looking around at the people gathered there.

Jack looked around the garage for a second and then said, “We need to move to where a lot of our expenses are paid in cash. We need to demand on accepting cash from others. We can get some things done a whole lot cheaper by using cash.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” Liz asked with a frown. She thought of herself as a law abiding citizen.

Shrugging his shoulders, Jack asked, “Do you want to pay taxes on the money that you get for renting a room in your house?”

“No,” Liz answered surprised by the suggestion that she would have to pay taxes if she had to rent out a room. She hadn’t thought about it as income, but as just a way to be able to pay the bills.

The subject of taxes was an irritant for everyone there. Changes in federal tax and spend policies had affected state tax and spend policies which trickled on down to the local level. Tax cuts at one level led to raises in others. Giving voice to a sentiment shared by everyone there, Claire said, “I’m tired of paying property taxes.”

“Do you like paying fees to the bank for paying your bills by using a check?” Jack asked. The newest banking regulation was charging him a dime for each check he wrote because of the cost of processing paper checks. The bank was pushing the use of debit cards, electronic bill pay, and direct deposit.

“No,” Liz answered. For elderly people, the electronic banking movement was threatening. Having grown up with horror stories of computer billing errors, they didn’t trust computers.

Jack paid about twenty percent of his earnings in taxes including income and payroll taxes. His income taxes had gone up that year. That tax burden didn’t include the thousands he paid in property taxes and sales taxes. Each time he filled his car, he thought about how much in gasoline taxes he was paying. He said, “I’m tired of paying fees for everything I do and taxes on every dollar I make. I write three checks a month and it costs me twenty five dollars to do that. It is ridiculous that I pay money because I’m too poor to have an account large enough to get the fees waived.”

“That’s true,” Bev said.

“I cut up my ATM card because of all of the fees,” Abby said.

Jack said, “We have to start thinking in terms of us versus them. Businesses, banks, and the government are out to get every dime they can out of us. We have to protect ourselves as much as possible. If they try to raise our property taxes, we have to find some means to prevent it. We have to double check every bill we get for accuracy.”

“Don’t remind me of that,” Laura said. She had gotten double charged for a couple of items on her last trip to the grocery store. She had discovered it before leaving the store and getting it straightened out had taken almost an hour.

“Sorry about bringing up that sore subject,” Jack said with a smile.

“At least you caught it,” Abby said. She was using the self-service checkouts now so that she could make sure that each item was charged once.

“I’m sure it wasn’t intentional,” Claire said.

Having heard the story, Jack said, “It doesn’t matter. They shouldn’t have argued with her once the mistake was discovered.”

“That’s true,” Laura said. She was still infuriated by the incident at the store. The manager had treated her like a senile old woman who didn’t understand what he was telling her.

“We have to watch out for each other,” Jack said wanting to stress the point.

Worried by Jack’s attitude, Ella asked, “Are you becoming paranoid?”

“No. I’ve just taken a very simple look at what is happening around me, and I don’t like what I’m seeing,” Jack answered. He sighed and said, “Maybe I’m just a fool, but I grew up believing that I could be anything that I wanted to be if I was willing to work for it. I don’t believe that anymore. It seems to me that the more I work, the less I get. My wages have gone down and my costs have gone up. I see that the more successful I become the more I have to pay for that success. I’m convinced that you have to be a crook to get ahead. I’m never going to be rich and because of that I’m a victim of a very hostile system.”