Chapter 29

Jack stared at his bank statement. For the first time in two years, he had a balance of five hundred dollars in his checking account. It still wasn’t enough to prevent him from having to pay fees, but it felt good none the less. He folded the page and stuffed it back in the envelope. Christmas was coming and he’d have to find some kind of gift for folks.

He stepped outside to visit the community house. He walked over to the community house taking in his surroundings. After the snow storm, the temperature had climbed and now all of the snow was melting. Rather than being a pristine white, the snow was dirty and gray. It was ugly, but that didn’t affect his good mood. Making the walk dangerous was the fact that the snow would melt during the day and freeze at night creating little patches of ice that were slow to melt.

The house was filled with people eating and talking. Everyone greeted him when he walked into the house. It was kind of nice to have people notice his existence like that. He smiled and waved while going over to get some coffee. He noticed that Abby was putting on her coat. He asked, “Where are you going?”

“I’ve got a job packing up a house,” Abby said with a smile.

“That’s your third one, isn’t it?” Jack asked. He saw so little of Abby that it was hard keeping track of what she was doing.

“That’s right,” Abby said cheerfully. There were two more packing jobs lined up for the next week. She figured that at this rate, she’d pass whatever she would have made for the month at Taco Emporium in another two weeks. She also had a contract to watch over one of the houses until it sold.

“Strange time of year to be moving,” Jack commented. He figured that people would want to move when the weather was better. A few weeks before Christmas had to be the worst time to pack up and ship your belongings across country.

“Not really. One of them was explaining to me that if they moved in by the end of the year the kids would be able to get a tax break by declaring an additional dependent,” Abby said. She wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but it sounded reasonable. Of course, a lot of people were acting on half-facts and pure speculation.

“I guess that makes sense,” Jack said. He watched her leave after cheerfully waving goodbye to everyone. The difference from before the storm and now was like night and day. Turning to Claire, he said, “She sure seems happier.”

“She’s taking charge of her life rather than accepting whatever life is throwing at her,” Claire said knowing that even the illusion of control helped give one a positive attitude.

“I didn’t think about it that way,” Jack said. He knew that her life had been spiraling out of control ever since moving in with him.

Relaxing in a chair, Wanda said, “I’m looking forward to having her move in with me.”

“What? When?” Jack asked surprised to hear that little bombshell. This was the first that he had heard of Abby moving.

“Not right away,” Wanda said realizing that she had inadvertently beat Abby to telling Jack the news. She had thought that since they lived together that they talked fairly frequently.

“Why would she move?” Jack asked thinking that he had been more than fair with her. He had just achieved a reasonable bank balance and now it was going to disappear.

Wanda said, “Abby feels that you need a bit more privacy now that you are dating Melissa. If she moves out, Melissa could move in with you.”

“She doesn’t have to do that,” Jack said thinking that was pretty lame reasoning. He had no plans to have Melissa move in with him. It wouldn’t be hard to get everyone to agree to let Melissa join the commune. Frau Shultz would kill anyone who spoke against Melissa.

“I’m sure that Melissa would love to move in with you,” Ella said.

“I don’t know,” Jack said. Melissa was a lot more educated than he was. He thought that she probably viewed him as a nice diversion from her studies and that one day she would go on with her life leaving him behind. He knew that would break his heart.

Claire looked over at Jack and said, “Jack, it makes sense for Abby to move in with Wanda. You’re doing a lot better financially now and can afford to live alone. Wanda is still living from month to month. So is Abby. If they combine their efforts, Wanda will be better off.”

“I know,” Jack said. That didn’t keep him from feeling like Abby was abandoning him. He had been worried about Wanda not getting a roommate. She, Liz, and Bev had not found anyone to move in with them although Fred was talking about moving in with Bev.

Wanda said, “I didn’t mean to surprise you like that.”

“That’s okay,” Jack said feeling hurt. He took a sip of his coffee and went over to the table. Taking a seat, he said, “It just kind of surprised me.”

Thinking that a change in topic was called for, Dave said, “Are you going to help me install the alarms over at the Shultz’s?”

“That was the plan,” Jack said with a sigh. They had gotten wireless alarm systems that were simple to install, cheap, and fairly effective. Rather than dialing for help, the alarms just made a very irritating loud noise that was sure to attract attention. He figured that the average crook breaking into houses in this neighborhood wouldn’t be too experienced.

Rich said, “Count me in.”

The three men headed out with Ella to install the security system at her house with Jack carrying the system in a plastic bag. Although it wasn’t freezing cold, the air was cold enough that it was easy to see their breaths. They had to take care in walking since there were still patches of ice left from the overnight freeze. Ella wrapped her coat around her tighter and said, “It is getting harder every year for me to handle the cold weather. I wish I could afford to retire to Florida.”

Dreaming of hot beaches under a warm sun, Dave said, “You and me both.”

Jack looked over at one of the houses down the street. A man was coming out of the house carrying a television. There was a car parked in front of the house with the motor running. Jack slowed down and asked, “What’s going on over there?”

“Who is that?” Dave said, “I don’t recognize him.”

Jack shouted, “Hey you!”

On hearing the shout, the man looked over at them. Seeing four people looking at him, he dropped the television and headed towards the car at a fast run. Without taking a moment to think about what he was doing, Jack took off after the man at a hard run. He reached the curb and went flying when his feet slid out from under him on a patch of ice. The next thing Jack knew was that he was landing face first on the street with his arms stretched out in front of him in a futile attempt to break his fall.

Stunned by the impact, Jack was slow to get up. Although his gloves had protected his hands, his face was scraped raw and his nose was bleeding. He looked down the street and didn’t see the man he had started to pursue. The car was heading down the street. He put a gloved hand under his nose and said, “Oh that hurts.”

“Are you alright, Jack?” Dave asked coming up behind him. There were patches of ice everywhere. Having seen Jack go flying, he wasn’t about to tempt fate by rushing around on uncertain footing.

Jack turned to look at Dave and answered, “He got away.”

“You’re bleeding,” Rich said kneeling down next to Jack. The blood was coming from Jack’s nose at a pretty good rate.

Ella watched from the sidewalk worried about him. She asked, “Is he alright?”

Dave knelt down and pulled Jack’s hand away from his nose. He looked over it for a second and said, “You might have broken it, but I doubt it. Lean forward.”

Jack leaned forward and Dave pinched the nose and said, “I’ve got to hold this for five minutes to stop the bleeding.”

“Is he going to be alright?” Ella asked worried that Jack may have broken a bone in the fall.

Although the front of his coat was red with blood, Jack appeared to be okay. Rich said, “He’ll be fine. Nothing seems to be broken except for possibly his nose.”

Looking across the street, Ella said, “The front door is open. Do you think Gladys is inside?”

Rich looked across the street and, afraid of what he would find inside, said, “Stay here. I’ll check it out.”

Jack fumbled around in his coat pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Holding it up, he said, “Call the police.”

Dave took the phone from Jack with his free hand and passed the phone over to Ella. While she dialed the police, Dave said, “The bleeding has stopped as a result of the pressure which is a good sign. I’ll continue to put pressure on the bridge of your nose until it has clotted.”

“Thanks,” Jack said looking down at the blood that covered the front of his coat. He had a feeling that he looked pretty bad. He could feel the scrape on his chin and wondered how much skin he had lost.

“That was impressive, Jack. I haven’t seen anyone do a nose dive into the dirt like that in years,” Dave said with a smile.

“I’m glad you’re impressed,” Jack said wryly. He figured his chase had made it maybe ten feet.

“I used to coach baseball when I was younger. A lot of kids got bloody noses and very few of them were actually broken,” Dave said. In those days, parents didn’t rush off to a hospital at the first sight of blood. They got it to stop bleeding and then took a wait and see approach to the problem. Only if the kid was having problems breathing or if the nose was too crooked would they take them to the doctor.

“It sure hurts,” Jack said although it was his pride that hurt more than his nose.

“You lost a bit of skin when you hit the pavement,” Dave said examining the rest of Jack’s face.

“I can feel it burning,” Jack said. He wondered if anyone had something to take the sting out of scrapes like that and then realized Cheryl would probably have something with her. Mothers of young boys always had stuff like that.

Dave said, “I was impressed when you took off running after that guy.”

“That was a pursuit worthy of a column in the newspaper,” Jack said thinking of how badly that had turned out.

Grinning, Ella said, “I hope you are a little more effective than that when you come to rescue me.”

Jack chuckled and said, “I’ll pencil that into my busy social calendar.”

Dave looked around and asked, “When are the police going to get here?”

Ella said, “The police said they would be here in five or ten minutes.”

“Five or ten minutes?” Dave asked shocked at the delay. Houses were getting broken into and the police were taking their time getting there? It didn’t make sense to him. He asked, “There was a crime here. What is this bit about five or ten minutes?”

“That’s what they said,” Ella answered shrugging her shoulders.

Dave released Jack’s nose and watched to see if it started bleeding again. It appeared that the bleeding had stopped. He leaned back and said, “Don’t blow your nose for a while. That will start the bleeding again.”

“Thanks,” Jack said. He got up from the ground and took stock of himself. His pants were wet where he had been seated. The cold pavement had sucked all of the warmth from his body. Looking around, he asked, “Where’s Rich?”

“He went to check on Gladys,” Ella answered.

Jack started shivering as the chill in his bones finally exceeded the adrenal boost that had been coursing through his body. Jack said, “I know that. Shouldn’t he be back by now?”

“You’re right. We better get over there,” Dave said heading across the street.

Despite the fact that Jack was having trouble standing from the cold, he waited for Ella to help her across the slippery sections of ice. He was young and a fall wouldn’t kill him, but it could really do a number on the older woman. Taking her arm, the pair carefully made their way to the house. On reaching it, Jack observed that the damaged front door and knew that it had been kicked open. He hoped that meant that no one had been inside.