Read Online A Tale of Two Trucks by Thea Nishimori - Free Book Online Page B

demons might be haunting him.
    “Yeah,” he answered in a somber tone. “I was just wondering….” Then he held the ring up between two fingers and squinted at me through the hole. “Wonder how much I can get for this gold?”
    I thwacked him for making me worry and then took him downtown to the old jeweler’s Gramma had trusted with her things. I couldn’t help window-shopping while he made his transaction, and I fell in love with a pair of trillium-shaped earrings in a sleek silver design with tiny black stones in the center.
    “May I help you, sir?” another attendant asked, eagerly coming over.
    “Um… I’m sorry, I’m just looking,” I replied.
    “I can always pull something out for you.”
    “Well, just out of curiosity, how much is that pair?”
    The price tag she showed me made me gasp. What I’d taken to be silver was actually platinum, and the tiny stones were black diamonds. I swallowed hard as Joe came over, already finished with his business, and peered over my shoulder. He saw the price tag too, and was stunned into silence.
    “What can I say? I have expensive taste,” I told him dryly.
    “You’d have to paint a lot of trucks for that,” he pointed out, and I thanked the girl before we hastily slipped out of the store.
     
     
    O NCE he’d gotten rid of the ring, Joe felt it was time to officially end his marriage. He contacted Cindy’s mother again to sound out the waters. She offered to be the buffer between them and came back with the message that Cindy was ready to go through with the divorce as well. He had to take some time off work to see an attorney about it, but since she’d left of her own volition and had never asked him for alimony, the only question was what to do with the house. She’d been working before they’d had Dana and had paid a good portion of the mortgage.
    “I wish I could sell it for what it’s worth,” he vented to me one evening. “I really don’t want to do a short sale, but otherwise I can’t give her back her share in a lump sum.”
    “Well, does she mind getting it in installments? I mean, it’s not like she’s hurting for money right now, is it?”
    “No, she’s doin’ all right. Her boyfriend must be takin’ good care of her,” he replied with an edge to his voice.
    “So why the rush to pay her back?” I pressed.
    “’Cuz I don’t want to be reminded of her every time I look at my bank statement,” he admitted. “If we’re done, I wanna be totally done!”
    “Well, how much do you owe her?” I asked. “I have some savings from what Gramma left me that I put in an IRA—”
    “ No !” Joe interrupted, so loudly that it made me jump. “I mean… thanks, but no—I can’t ask you to do that! It’s never good to borrow money from a friend. If I decide to get a loan, I’ll do it through the bank.”
    “Okay…,” I answered, feeling somewhat hurt even though I understood his reasons.
    “Look, Mike,” he started over, “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but… you’ve already done so much for me! I couldn’t possibly ask you to do any more. Besides, that’s your retirement—if you loan it to me, hoping the real estate market picks up soon, and it doesn’t, I’d feel horrible! Plus my dad always said that money matters can ruin a friendship.”
    “Well, we wouldn’t want that ,” I responded, trying to sound lighthearted. And I did feel better after hearing his explanation.
    “No, we wouldn’t,” Joe agreed seriously, which made my heart stop for a moment. “I’ll just bite the bullet,” he continued, closing his eyes and leaning back on the couch, “and wait for the market to pick up. Who knows? Maybe it’ll get better to where I can sell it in a couple of years, and I’ll be able to finish my payments sooner than I expect.”
    “I hope so too,” I said, moving behind him to rub his neck. He tends to get stiff in his neck when he’s stressed, and even though my hands are small, they know the