He just looked tired.
And old.
And afraid.
“Three hundred and forty thousand,” he said.
I didn’t say anything.
“We sold the house to pay it off,” my mother said. “We got almost everything back. Almost. There’s a little left. On a credit card. Forty thousand. We’re working on it.”
Ezoic
Ezoic
“Where were you going to live?”
Ezoic
My mother didn’t answer.
Ezoic
I looked at Melissa.
“And you?” I said. “You said we. You don’t have a house either?”
Melissa’s chin trembled.
She looked at Ben.
Ben stepped out of the doorway.
“I lost my job,” Ben said quietly. “In May. The district cut the chemistry program at my school. Budget. They laid off four teachers.”
He pushed his glasses up.
“Melissa was working part-time,” he said. “At a boutique. In Alpharetta. It closed in July.”
He looked at the floor.
“We were renting,” he said. “We got behind. Three months. The landlord filed. We had to be out by the first.”
