TRANSITIONS

[patience]

This is my most recent story. I worked more on character development and tried to improve with less use of exposition. It's about 120,000 words, IIRC. Hope you can see some improvement. Again, the characters are dealing with the economic challenges I think could come upon us at any time.


TRANSITIONS


Chapter 1 Spring, 2014


The truck at the curb had a sign on the door that read Simmon's Lawn Care. A young man was loading a mower and other equipment as the realtor drove up with her prospective buyers. As they approached the house, she went into her spiel.

"Look at those flowers! The owners always kept the property perfectly groomed, and the inside is just as wonderful."

The well dressed couple followed her up the broad curved sidewalk to the front door, a brilliant red that contrasted beautifully with the timbered fieldstone home.

"It's the perfect time to buy," she went on. "Interest rates are as low as they have ever been and home prices are going up, but they are still very low. This home is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The couple need to sell it due to job opportunities so they might adjust the price for you. But even at this price, it won't last long. The property has over 3 acres, and includes the stream at the back."

At the end of a long tour showing the 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, high vaulted Great Room, and 3 car attached garage, the couple said they would like to make an offer, somewhat lower than the asking price. They sat at the mirror finished mahogany dining table to sign some papers and they were on their way. The realtor was estatic. She hadn't sold a house yet this year, and needed the commission.
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When the closing had been completed at the realtor's office, the sellers got into separate cars and drove away, each with a check in their pockets pursuant to an order of the divorce court. The woman, Sharon, in her sparkling new Volvo sedan turned south. The man, Robert Lee Evans, in his Lexus followed her on the interstate until she took the Jeffersonville exit. He continued on into Louisville straight to the dealership where he'd bought the car 8 months earlier. He left with a check for $22,000 and a well used Ford Focus from a neighboring used car lot, a paper temporary tag taped on the back.

He drove to the QUIK LUBE down the street and got an oil change and chassis lube, then drove back to Indiana. He was in no big hurry. He had a few days before he could get his things from the house and only a couple bank deposits to make, one to his ex-wife's account for the balance the court said he owed her--the reason for selling the Lexus--and another deposit in his new personal account for $12,280, the sum total of his wealth at that time.

At least it would soon be over, he thought. He thought it was time to decompress with a drink at his favorite watering hole, but decided against it. He didn't have anything in common with the crowd there now that he was out of a job. He drove on, back toward Corydon where he had rented a room for the next week at a motel. He had a restraining order against him that forbade him to enter the house again without a law enforcement officer to assure that he complied with the court mandated allocation of the home's contents. That was set for 3 days hence, and he was to remove all his possessions on that day, never to return.
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Just over a month ago, Robert had been the head of accounting for a major corporation in Louisville, with an income well into 6 digits. Corporate headquarters had determined that they would downsize to meet the current slow market conditions and did everything possible to cut costs. One useful move was to fire all the department heads and promote the next in line to those little thrones at a much lower salary. It assured loyalty of the newly promoted, put the fear of God and Corporate Offices into them, and cut each department's cost by half.

A week later, Sharon had filed the divorce papers with her father's lawyer. Robert didn't have a lawyer and the one he chose in haste did not fare very well for Robert's interests in divorce court. He lost about 80% of what they had in joint property. True, his wife had earned at least half the money in her position at the insurance company, but she spent most of it on herself and he had paid the bills, a fact lost on the judge.

Robert drove to the small liqour store just off the courthouse square in Corydon and bought a fifth of Johnny Walker Black Label and then went to the grocery at the edge of town for a small foam cooler and some ice. He planned to get thoroughly snockered tonight. An hour later at the motel watching Dancing With the Stars, he was well on the way to his goal.
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Sunlight from the window hurt his eyes as he woke the next morning with a booming headache and a bad case of cotton mouth. There wasn't even a bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet, only his razor and a can of shaving foam. Robert got a drink of water and immediately felt drunk again, but he knew that would pass. He shaved carefully and put on the work jeans and shirt, the only outfit besides his rumpled suit and dirty dress shirt he had there. He'd had the foresight to keep a few hundred in cash when he'd made the bank deposits, so he pocketted the money, his wallet, handkerchief, penknife and keys, stuck his gold plated pen in his shirt pocket and left.

He drove to the nearest place that he thought would offer orange juice and coffee, a Waffle Stop restaurant a few blocks away. He chose a table at the end farthest from the juke box, in case some idiot thought he had to have music with breakfast. But the breakfast crowd was gone. His Rolex said it was 9:35 AM. The waitress took his order, speaking a bit louder than his throbbing head liked, but she was prompt to bring it. He got half the OJ down without feeling too bad, and most of the cup of coffee. When the girl returned to refill his cup he decided he was hungry and ordered eggs and sausage. By 10:15, he was feeling halfway human and left her a tip after he paid his tab.

Next door was a Goodwill Store. On impulse, he walked over to it and idly looked over the clothing. He found 2 decent shirts and another pair of jeans that fit, grabbed a cheap Chinese made belt and paid a grand total of $12.88 for it all. His dress shoes looked very much out of keeping with his outfit, so he drove across the street to the Wal Mart and bought a pair of sneakers and 6 each of underwear, t-shirts and socks. On the way to check out he picked up some Tylenol in the pharmacy section then got a local newspaper.

Thankful that the little Ford got good fuel economy, he filled the tank and went back to his room. He looked for some place to rent, but they all cost more than he thought he could afford with no income. The TV news at noon was dull and told him nothing he didn't already know. His normally well ordered thinking was shot to hell. He tried to concentrate on what he had to do next and made some notes with the pad of paper in the motel room. Keeping that handy in a pocket, he drove to a storage rental business across the highway and rented a single car garage size space for a month. Hungry again, he realized he hadn't eaten much of anything yesterday, so he went back to the Waffle Stop for lunch.

The waitress recognized him. He looked a lot better now than he had this morning she thought, handsome, even. She asked what he wanted to drink?

"I'll have some your good coffee," he said, and managed a brief smile. She was a petite brunette, probably a few years years younger than him, and more cheerful than he felt.

She came back with the coffee and asked if he was ready to order?

"Yes, I'll have the steak plate."

"What kind of dressing on your salad?"

"Thousand Island would be good," not knowing what was available. He hadn't ever been in one of these restaurants before. But he was used to making it up as he went along. That had been part of his climb up the professional and social ladder. He thought bitterly that it should work the other direction as well.

The steak smelled wonderful on the griddle. His mouth was watering when she brought it.

"Need anything else?"

"Not now, thanks." He ate slowly, savoring the steak even though it was not quite what he had been used to for many years. I guess I was really hungry, he thought. As the girl refilled his coffee, he had a thought.

"I'm sort of new here. Do you know where I could find a reasonable place to rent? I'm on a budget."

"You mean an apartment? There's the place down the street. I think they have some openings."

"Those are nice, but I'm looking for something as cheap as I can find."

"There's the trailer park where I live, over on old highway 64. They have one empty. Had to kick the guy out because he hadn't paid his rent."

"You have any idea what it would cost?"

"About $295 a month, but you pay for the lights and gas. It's furnished, though."

"I can do that. How do I find it?"

She gave him directions and the owner's name. "Tell him Erin told you about it. Maybe I'll get a break on my rent."
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Chapter 2



He gave the man a $300 damage deposit and another $100 for the electric company deposit. He would have to go downtown to the gas company to sign up there. He did and was moved in that evening. The electric company truck had just left after putting the fuses back in his meter. He saw Erin drive in a few minutes later. She recognized his car and knocked on his door.

"Hi neighbor! I'm right next door. Glad you found the place."

"I appreciate the tip on finding it. I'd ask you in for coffee, but I don't have anything at all."

"Come over to my place. I'll put some coffee on."

While Mr. Coffee gurgled and dribbled in the background, they sat at her table to wait.
He said, "I am recently divorced and things aren't quite settled yet, so I don't have a thing but my clothes. I'll go back to the house and get my stuff this week, though."

"Oh, wow. That's a bummer. I remember my divorce like a bad dream. It's a real downer. Don't let yourself get depressed. Find something to do and get busy is the best. Lucky I had a girlfriend who got me going again."

"I'm still in shock. A month ago I was the head of accounting at a big company and had a fine home and a beautiful wife. I got downsized out of my job, and she filed for divorce. We sold the house yesterday and the divorce will be final as soon as the money is all settled."

"Oh, that sucks. I had to find a place real quick, too. I had no place to go when I left him and I had to live with Cindy for three months before I could afford a place."

The coffee machine quit dribbling so she got up to fill their cups. When she turned back to the table he was rubbing his eyes. She poured with no comment except, "Just sugar, right? It's in the bowl there."

She got a couple spoons and sat back down.

Robert said, "There's a restraining order against me to keep me out of the house. She told them I would probably steal her stuff. I have to get the Sheriff to go with me to get my stuff so he can check it off the list and make sure it isn't hers. That happens day after tomorrow. I have to get a trailer hitch put on this car so I can pull my utility trailer back with my stuff on it."

Erin perked up a little and said, "There's a place on out the highway here that does that. I hear he's supposed to be all right. It's the auto repair shop just past the John Deere place."

"I can probably find that. I hate to have to call my Dad for help. I'm just not ready to tell him about this yet. Oh crap! I'll have to call him. I can't haul the lawn mower on that trailer, it's too big. I'll have to get him to come get it. I hope he can come tomorrow. I don't have anywhere to put it. It's one thing worth some money I have left."

"How big is this mower?"

"It's a small tractor, a Kubota. We had a 3 acre lawn."

"Three acres?! Where did you live?"

"In Forest View Estates, up close to Georgetown.'

"Ew! That's the high rent district."

"Yeah. We were doing all right for a while. I've got nothing now."

"That has to be tough. I thought I lost a lot, but that is outrageous."

"At least we didn't have any kids. That would have made me crazy. Stuff I can get again if I think I need it. But I worked pretty hard for what we had. I paid for it all and she got most of it because she made a little more money than I did. The hell of it is, she spent all her money on herself. Clothes and jewelry, facelift, Botox, dental work, spas, all five courses and desert for her. She didn't want any kids, because she was afraid it would spoil her looks. She actually said that."

"Honey, I hate to tell you this, but you didn't lose much when you lost her."

"You're probably right. I'd better go see if I can make a bed over there. No. Crap. There's no bedclothes. I'll run back to the Goodwill and see what they have."

"Go to the Salvation Army down by the bridge, They're cheaper and they've got more of that kinda thing. It's right on this old highway. Just drive down the hill and it's on the right just before the bridge."

"Got it. I better run before they close. Thanks for everything!"

'You're welcome. You take care of yourself."

When he had gone, Erin thought she wanted to get to know this guy a lot better. He was nice and he was a looker, for sure. Then she remembered what her Mom used to say, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Erin decided she would wait and see how things went. She'd been fooled before.
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"Hello?"

"Dad. This is Robert. I have a problem."

"What's goin' on? Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. But Sharon and I got divorced."

"That's a bad deal. I hope you're going to make it through this okay."

"'Oh, I will somehow. It's just that I have to pick up all my stuff from the house tomorrow, and I can't haul the Kubota. I've got no place to keep it either. Could you come get it and take it to your place?"

"Hey, I'm retired. I can do what I damn please! Don't you worry about it. I'll bring my trailer down and get it."

"I'd sure appreciate it Dad. Otherwise I'd have to drive it somewhere."

"Does it have to be tomorrow?"

"Yes, it's a court order. The Sheriff has to be there to make sure I don't take any of HER stuff!"

"That's bull! You wouldn't take anything that wasn't yours!"

"She just did that for spite. She knows better. Or maybe she doesn't. I don't know how her mind works now."

"Okay. What time?"

"The Sheriff is supposed to meet me there at 9:00 in the morning. I've got my small trailer to get out of the garage and then I have to load it, but the Sheriff will want to hurry and get back to his donuts and coffee. We'd better plan to be out of there pretty fast."

"I'll be there. You need more people to help?"

"No, the rest is all little stuff. I can get it myself."

"Okay. Call me if anything changes."

"Will do. Thanks a lot Dad. I owe you."

"You don't owe me nothin'. See you in the morning."
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Chapter 3


The tractor was firmly lashed down with ratchet straps and ready to go. Robert and his father carried out the last of the items from the garage under the bored gaze of the Sheriff's deputy. His toolbox was the last thing after a number of plastic cases. Robert lowered the tailgate ramp of the little trailer. It took both of them to push the heavy toolbox up the ramp. His Dad said, "This thing must be full of bricks. It's heavy!"

Robert gave him a look and the older man shut up. When the top tool chests were carried out, they tied it down with straps on the small trailer and packed camping gear and boxes of clothing around it and the lawn and garden tools. They spread a cheap blue tarp over it all and tied it down with bungee cords.

"That's it, I guess. I'll be over to see you soon Dad. Maybe Sunday afternoon. I'll call you."

"That's fine. I better get on the road."

Robert told the deputy he was finished. He nodded and replied, "Yeah, that's everything on the list. I'll lock it up and you can go. Thanks for not being a problem about this. I had one guy who tried to sneak out all kinds of things that wasn't his. This went smooth. Sign here saying that you got everything on the list and that's it."

Robert signed the paper on the clipboard, then smiled at him and shook his hand. "Thank you sir. I'll be going."

He was halfway to Corydon when he let out a sigh of relief after the deputy passed him. He well under the speed limit with the heavily loaded trailer and began to relax. He'd been terrified that the deputy would ask him to open and look through the plastic cases and the toolbox, but he didn't. Laziness was a virtue sometimes.
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Robert waited until after dark to unload the toolbox. It was too heavy to move safely by himself loaded, so he'd gotten some cardboard boxes at the grocery dumpster and emptied the drawers into them. He carried them into the house trailer one at a time and spent some time putting things away in the smaller bedroom. Erin had been working the evening shift, so she wasn't there to see what he was doing. He noticed when she drove in after 11:00 that night. The whole load was inside by then. The trailer was unhitched and padlocked with it's chain to a utility pole. They had been known to run away in places like this trailer park.

The next morning, he spent some time getting his good clothes hung up to get some wrinkles out of them. The rest he stuffed wherever there was room. It was a fairly small 2 bedroom trailer, but there was enough storage space. Still, the living room floor was stacked with boxes and the car was still full. He made a couple trips to the storage unit with extra things to stow away. It was less than a mile from the trailer park.

He trusted the locked storage unit more than the mobile home door locks. They showed evidence of being jimmied before, and two of those plastic cases from the garage held Charles Daly shotguns that were worth more than that deputy would likely make this year. They were both Empire grade, heavily engraved pre-war guns, one a 12 gauge and the other a 20 gauge. They had a lot of gold inlay and had last been appraised at over $14,000 each due to their rarity and near perfect condition.

He still could not believe the guy had not looked in the cases. But they intentionally looked like the rest of the packed camping gear, and he'd made a show of looking in the ones that had his tent and camp gear. It had worked, but he'd been sweating bullets the whole time. Sharon had no idea what his guns were worth or even how many he had, and in fact she had only seen the shotgun and the .22 he used for hunting. Had she known, she'd have done her best to get them away from him.

The tool box had a lot in it besides tools. There was a small plastic tube in the bottom drawer wrapped in shop towels. The tube contained 18 gold Krugerrands. That's where his Christmas bonuses had gone for the past 7 years. Since he began buying them the price had gone up a lot then down again, but overall he was still ahead on the investment. Robert expected the price of gold to go higher again and he wasn't in any hurry to sell them.

The bottom drawer was full of ammunition for several of his guns, and the bottom section with the drop door had the reloading press, dies, and a store of components. The powder was in one pound cans stashed in the various camping gear. He had never used any of those things, but had bought them with the guns since it seemed like the logical thing to do. Sharon had never gone camping in her life and had no interest in the accoutrements thereof. Robert remembered that he'd never got to do as much of it as he would have liked, just a few hunting and fishing trips.

They had always had separate bank accounts so she'd had no idea how much money he made until it came out in court. She was furious then because she instantly knew he'd held back a lot of it. Robert had felt a bit guilty at first for that sort of thing, but as the years went by, he saw that she would spend all he'd give her and more. He'd started by just putting some cash back, then decided it would be better if he invested it somehow, thus the guns and silver. He wished now that he'd done more of that. No. He wished he'd never married her. He was beginning to wish he'd done a lot of things differently.
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Chapter 4


On the way to his parents' on Sunday, Robert thought back about how badly he'd wanted to escape the small town as a kid. Actually, they had lived on a small farm a quarter mile outside of Greenville. He'd attended the small elementary school there with kids much like himself, not wealthy, but not poor either. Upon starting at the big consolidated high school he met a lot of upper middle class kids from the city suburbs who had made fun of the 'hicks' from the countryside. They had more money to spend and when they were old enough they got nice cars to drive. They made it clear that he didn't belong with their crowd.

Bitter about that, he vowed he would have money one day and began planning for it. His family could not afford for him to go to college, so he worked at whatever menial jobs he could get and paid his way through a 2 year accounting program. His first real job was for an accounting firm in New Albany, then he soon found a better one at the hospital there. He read the employment ads in the Sunday paper religiously and tried to have at least a couple good job interviews a year. He learned how to conduct himself in an interivew, being quick to read people's reactions. The position in Louisville came from an acquaintance who knew someone there. Robert had immediately taken his latest refined resume' to their human resources department and had an interview within days. He was offered and accepted an entry level accounting position a few days later, after negotiating the best salary he could.

His ambition had left little time for a social life. He spent nights taking management courses at the university extension campus, turning that into a degree by the time he was 24. A title change promotion followed and 5 years later when the department head retired, he was promoted to be department manager. He was 31 when he was made Chief Financial Officer for the facility making more money than he had ever dreamed he could.

The next year he'd met Sharon when she pitched an insurance plan to his company. She had wined and dined him a couple times during the course of business, then he'd asked her out privately. Sharon was a beautiful woman and had the social graces he had learned the hard way. A romance developed and they were married a year later. He'd reached a milestone in his own mind with his new trophy wife. It took a couple years to understand that she had the same thing in mind. He was presentable in her world of ambition where she put him through social occasions designed to increase her status.

Being on the receiving end of that didn't sit well with him, but he understood that what was good for her could be good for him, also. He assisted her program that kept her climbing the corporate ladder. He realized later that she was undoubtedly using all her considerable assets to get the promotions that followed. He resented that she was sleeping with some old geezers at the insurance company, but he didn't mention it, because they had just bought the McMansion in the Georgetown suburbs, the right place to live for their social status. Robert remembered how he'd told himself when they moved in that he had finally arrived. He even had the satisfaction of meeting two of his old classmates who lived in the same subdivision in somewhat lesser homes than his. He'd made sure they recognized him then he ignored them as he felt they deserved.

Reliving all that wouldn't change anything he realized. With some effort he got his mind back on matters at hand. The traffic was heavy on the state highway. It was a relief to turn off onto the county road and drive slowly the last quarter mile to his parents' small farm.
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"Come in, son. Mary Ann has a fine meal waiting on us."

"Hi Dad. Good to see you. Thanks again for helping with the tractor. I was up against a wall."

"Anytime."

"Mom! Something smells good in here."

"It's just some fried chicken. How are you Robert?"

"I'm fine."

"Don't lie to your mother, Robert Lee Evans! Your eyes are dark and you look skinny."

"Yeah, I haven't got much rest lately."

"Well don't lose any sleep over that woman. Any woman who would leave at the first rough spot isn't worth worrying over."

"You're right about that. I haven't had time to think about it much. Today is the first day I didn't have to be somewhere or do something."

His mother said, "You found a place to live in Corydon? You could stay here you know."

"I found a cheap place to rent until I get a job. It's a mobile home and just right for one person."

Robert dug into the mashed potatoes and gravy, then helped himself to a chicken thigh. Conversation stopped as they all ate for a while, then Robert began to explain.

"She took me pretty good in the divorce. She had a better lawyer and got most of everything, so I don't have much left. We were in debt pretty far on the house and my car, so I didn't come out with a lot of cash, but there is enough. I'm fine for now, and Sharon knew almost nothing about the value of my things. I'll be okay for money."

His Dad said, "Jobs are hard to come by these days. Have you started looking yet?"

"No. I have to update my resume' and I just got my computer home. I still have my old printer, so I can get something put together this week."

"Bill, now don't you pester him about that. He's got enough on his mind. Let's talk about something else. I made a peach pie for desert. I'll go get it."

The pie was delicious. Robert was very full after the meal. He loosened his belt a notch, something he had probably not done since he left home. It was a peaceful place, and he was almost feeling drowsy. He refilled his coffee cup and sat back down at the table.

His Dad said, "I put your little tractor in the barn. We only have 6 calves out there now so there is plenty of room. It can stay here as long as you want."

"Thanks Dad. I'll probably buy another place when I get settled down. There are some other things I have to take care of right now, filing for unemployment and getting a license on that car. It still has the paper tag on it. And Sharon took all the kitchen things, so I need to buy some so I can cook."

"Don't go buying anything," his mother said. "I've got all that stuff we inherited from our parents in the upstairs and you just as well use that. We'll go look through it after while and see what you want. We'll fix you right up."
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