Tweaked by Katherine Holubitsky Page B

five hundred? I thought you owed two thousand.”
    â€œI do. But if I pay some of what I owe to Ratchet at least I can leave the house. I’ll tell him the rest is coming.”
    â€œNo way.” I bend down to pull on my shoes. “When I have it, you’ll pay the whole thing off at once. And I’m going with you. Don’t think I’ll just hand you two thousand dollars and watch you walk out the door. I might as well throw it into a strong wind off the Lion’s Gate Bridge.”
    I step onto the bus. As the doors wheeze shut behind me, I make my way to the back where no one can watch me think. I have to figure out how I can get rid of Chase’s debt and get him out of the house and working. It has become crucial, because something else has happened.Mom has lost her job. They told her at the nursing home that it was because they no longer needed three people in the office. It was more likely because she kept asking for time off. From their point of view, I guess Mom has become about as dependable as Chase.
    Mom is trying to remain positive; she says it couldn’t have come at a better time. She means considering how she is needed at home. But with the debts Chase has built up, the lawyer’s fees, and the house mortgaged for bail money, I know how much they depend on her income. While the bus fills up, I decide I will sell my old Yamaha. I could have traded it in for three hundred dollars when I bought my new bass, but at that time, I’d wanted to keep it. I’m not sure why. I almost never play it now. I guess it was more because it sort of got me started with the band. But now I wonder why I’m hanging on to it. If you get too sentimental about stuff you only end up getting hurt when you eventually lose it. Besides, it wasn’t that good to begin with, and I bought it secondhand. With that, the check from my grandparents and what I have in the bank, I can pay Chase’s debt. Maybe then he can join the real world and contribute for a change.
    Jade is supposed to be at work, but she is already more than an hour late. I am hoping to grab a minute alone with her—I want to run my plan of paying off Chase’s debt by her. I can’t tell Jack. I already know what he’d say. He’d say I’m nuts and that there is noway he’d do it. He’d then quote all the times Chase has ripped me off. I would say the same thing if I was in his position. Jade is more likely to see it from my point of view: to take into consideration the need to get Chase out of the house and doing something, and to do it without Mom and Dad finding out.
    It’s a Thursday night and the store is busy with people picking up what they need for weekend projects. Admittedly it’s not rocket science, but I have become very quick on cash. Ralph prefers me to handle it when there are lineups. He says his patience is wearing too thin to deal with peoples’ tempers. They are always in such a hurry, and they don’t like to wait for an old man fumbling around. The lineup is five people deep when the phone rings. Ralph is in the storeroom. I answer it at the same time as I continue to work the till.
    â€œGordie, I need money.”
    My stomach clenches at the sound of Chase’s voice. Where does he get the nerve to call me at work? “Not now, Chase. I’m busy.”
    â€œBut it’s important.”
    â€œIt’s always important. Does it ever occur to you that what I’m doing might also be important?” I cringe a little. I sound exactly like my dad.
    The lady I am taking money from raises an eyebrow before shifting her attention to the lightbulbs I am stuffing in a bag.
    â€œJust two hundred. That’ll do it for now.”
    â€œThis morning it was five hundred. What is this for, Chase?” For the sake of the customers, and only the customers, I try to keep my rising anger in check. “Something tells me you’re not going to use it to