Morning all. I hope you are set for a fabulous Friday. Mine actually looks like it is going to shape up into a good one. So let’s kick the day off with the last prompt of the week. Timers set for fifteen minutes and off we go.
I do love a story where the downtrodden have finally reached their breaking point and see what they can do when they let go of what is holding them back. And there is the comeuppance for those left behind. And you know I love a good comeuppance. I condensed a lot because of the timer, but I think this could be pulled apart like taffy and expended into a good story idea.
Friday, July 18th: Mary scowled.
Mary scowled. The numbers weren’t adding up. Again. She had always been a meticulous record keeper. She had to be. Anything she wanted she had to pay for, her family made it clear that anything beyond the basics was her responsibility if she wanted it. They paid for the roof over her head and the food on the table. She was given hand me downs from her two older brothers to wear and they considered that her clothing. They added a plastic pack of underwear and a few bras from Walmart once a year, usually as her Christmas present and that was considered sufficient.
Mary took a deep breath feeling the general resentment that money was doled out easily for her brothers. Their clothes were new, their after school activities encouraged and paid for while she had to work part time jobs while still in school. She started with under the table work that paid cash when she was too young to actually get a job and then worked part time and summer jobs when she was old enough.
When younger she kept her cash squirreled away and noticed periodically some of it would go missing. When she was old enough for a job she was old enough for direct deposit and opened a bank account. She got her grandfather to go with her, not wanting her parents involved any more than they had to be. He didn’t ask questions, just helped her open the account and told her she could talk to him if she needed to.
Lately she noticed money was missing from her checking account. A few times it was just a twenty. But the amounts had been increasing lately. She suspected that someone was getting bolder when the first smaller thefts were not called out. Luckily no one found her savings account, where she transferred the bulk of her cash.
‘Yet,’ she thought darkly. She signed out of her account and closed the laptop. She knew something had to be done. She had been saving for a while now. Living at home had meant she could save on rent. She knew the others thought that she had just a lowly part time job, and she did do part time work at the animal shelter. She always enjoyed the job and when her on-line remote work started taking off, she kspt it. She started the savings fund as a place to put the money from the remote work in case anyone did look into her checking account.
While she liked saving on rent, Mary had reached the point where paying rent might seem to be the less expensive option. She took a small notebook out of her desk drawer and flipped to the page where she was recording the transfers. She added the new amount to the total and realized that what was being taken would have more than covered her rent for the month. She sighed and looked to the clock.
There was still time to get to the bank. She put her laptop in its bag and slung the strap over her shoulder. After the bank she would swing by Seans and make certain there was no spyware on the computer. Then, she would work on moving out.
Ten til Midnight 