Morning all. The coffee is brewing and as I didn’t sleep terribly well it smells like heaven. Before I heed it’s siren call, let’s go ahead and jump into the morning prompt. Ready, and off we go…
I think I wrote something on a similar theme a while back. both are sort of adjacent to a story I have been piecing together for a while. It still has some missing gaps but I think this may go in that file to be worked into it.
Tuesday, July 18th: I hoped for more than that from you.
“I hoped for more than that from you,” he said. John looked at him with a disappointed expression painted across his features.
George had seen the expression too many times for it to have any impact. “I am sorry but that is all I can spare at the moment. Had I known earlier in the month…” He let the thought trail off.
John nodded slowly. He calculated the days in his head. George could practically see the calculations dancing in his head. He knew that the bulk of George’s bills came due at the beginning of the month. He suspected John would now mark this as the time of month when George had already spent the bulk of his discretionary funds and come looking for a ‘loan’ earlier the following month.
John turned away, taking what little George had given him. The fact that this was becoming routine and that George was already calculating ways to avoid John the first half of the following month were not good signs. George knew something would have to change.
As it was, the amount he gave John was only a small portion of what he had. He made a show of spending it on necessities and in fact let everyone in the house believe that his salary was far less. Each month he had his paycheck deposited in an account he hadn’t told anyone except his employer about and he kept all those records in a safety deposit box and made sure everything else was paperless. After his check was deposited, he transferred the funds from his account into the account that the family knew about. As they occasionally pilfered his account when he didn’t come up with at least a little cash for extras, he made sure to transfer the same amount each month.
He recently found that someone logged into his computer a couple of times and he suspected his bank account was checked. It was the best explanation as to why John took what he was given without too much of a fuss even though it was less than he wanted.
George knew it was time to leave. He had known it was time to leave for a while. His family was bleeding him dry. They each had jobs at the moment and each made a decent enough wage, but they seemed to feel that their money was to be spent on things they wanted while his was for the essentials. Finding a place to go had been hard. There was a housing shortage. All around apartment buildings were being erected in an attempt to combat this, but thus far it was a slow process.
In no mood to deal with the others, George went to his room, put his laptop in the bag in case he had to check anything and then left the house. Soon he was on his way across town to a coffee shop he liked. He parked and went in, ordering a cappuccino.
When his name was called, he took his drink to an out of the way table. He placed his pap top bag between his feet as he sat. He thought about taking it out but left it where it was at the moment. The need for a change was becoming somewhat dire. His company was offering incentives for people to work from home. The option was one he wanted but he knew that as things stood, he couldn’t work from home. It would be a nightmare. He sat pondering his options. When his cell phone dinged, he read the message thinking his prayers might finally be answered.
Ten til Midnight 