A HAPPY HOMEOWNER... maybe, maybe not (Part 114e)

A HAPPY HOMEOWNER... maybe, maybe not (Part 114e)

The first thing I did was to turn off the motor. Amy had been pretty much thrown under the dash board with her head over on the passenger side. Her hips were on the hump in the middle and as I climbed on the seat and over towards her I could smell alcohol. I remember calling her name and not getting a response. I put my hand on her back and could feel that she was breathing, My first reaction was to get her up from the floor but, in a flashback, I remembered that one of my college roommates had been in a serious car crash and some good samaritans pulled him from the car and totally messed up his back.  Not wanting to take a chance I backed out of the car and ran home to call the police. Elle was waiting at the back door waiting for me wanting to know what happened. I pretty much ignored her as I made the phone call for help. On my way back out I remembered a flashlight. By the time I returned a car had shown up and a man was looking in the drivers side of the car. I went to the other side and could see the whole side was bashed in from just behind the front wheel all the way back past the rear wheel. I shone the light in on Amy and could see broken glass all over the seat. The guy yelled over to me to help pull her up but I told him to wait for the police. It didn’t take long.

Being new in town I didn’t know any members of the police but the other guy recognized the cop and called him by name, Eric, as he walked up. I told him what I’d heard and then seen after getting to the car. By then Amy was moving and trying to get herself off the floor. We were able to get her to sit up but it was obvious that she was really out of it. The cop wanted to get her out of the car and into his vehicle so we assisted him. She was so drunk that she couldn’t even begin to stand on her own. Another patrol car came and as soon as he did the first cop took off with Amy. We all chatted for a bit while waiting for a wrecker to come get the damaged car. The stranger who’d come to the car after I’d left to call for help was commenting on how drunk Amy was and, in passing, made the statement that she’d even ”pissed herself“. That caught me by surprise but I didn’t want to potentially embarrass myself by asking how he knew. Later on, in bed and reflecting on the whole incident, I was somewhat amazed that I’d somehow missed that. Now without the pressure of the moment I was able to recreate (in my mind) just what I’d seen and I wasn’t sure if I hadn’t seen Amy’s panties while she was stuffed on the floor and partially under the dash.

The next morning I went out to look at the skid marks and debris. She’d hit the telephone pole right in front of my house but it had been a glancing blow so the pole was still intact. However, the car had left a good deal of cream colored paint on the pole and there were shards of glass all over the shoulder. There were some skid marks leading up to the pole but none after it. On the way to work I wondered if Amy hadn’t fallen asleep and then woken up to see the car headed for the pole and hit her brakes. I also wondered how she was.

I got the answer when I got home. Kathleen, (John the farmer’s wife from next door) had called Elle to ask how she survived all the ”excitement“ the night before. In the course of the conversation she mentioned that her brother in law (Eric) had been the one to respond to the call and went on to say that Amy wasn’t hurt but had been arrested for DWI.
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OK... at this point I’m going to ”fast forward“ a bit.  Less than a week later it was announced that Amy’s father had sold their advertising business to two men from the city and they were coming in to take it over immediately. One of the men had also bought their house. I never saw Amy of her father again. They, supposedly, had moved to Florida. I remember it was a topic of conversation at the Post Office for about a week. Moving even further on... there was a rumor during the Summer that Amy had given birth to a baby boy.
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It was one happy day when the employees received their first paycheck with the adjustment reflected in it. I’d been getting subtle comments from some of them about how thankful they were and how much they wanted to thank me for my efforts. I’d been there almost a year and for some of them it was the first effort they’d made to talk to me at all. Bret was still a bit miffed that he hadn’t been included because he was still, technically, an ”employee“. Hobie had spoken to him and told him to have patience. Even with all the work I’d done on salaries I still had no idea what he or any of the bank officers were making. My anniversary was coming up as well and I had no idea what to expect. I just knew that I needed to be making more money than I was. After writing the check to pay my second month's mortgage payment I had less than $20 to buy food for the next two weeks. I’d tallied up just what I owed to various local merchants and it was way more than the net pay of my next paycheck and we would still have to buy food. Even though I professed to not run up debt it had been impossible not to do so. The Spring ”wish books“ from both Sears and Montgomery Wards had come and in perusing them I saw one item that absolutely had to go in the ”need“ column of our want/need list and that was a power lawn mower. The cheapest one was right around $90. On top of that were some of the mundane yard tools like a rake, spade and trowel. The joys of home ownership were quickly eroding.

To be continued...