Chapter 7 - THE CRUMBLED TOWER
The real world has a way of catching up to people who live on borrowed time and borrowed money. For Dana, that moment arrived on July 15th.
It was a scorching Tuesday afternoon. Eleanor was in her garden, trimming the hydrangeas, when her neighbor, Martha, called over the fence.
"Eleanor! Isn't that your daughter's SUV getting hooked up to a tow truck down at the corner?"
Eleanor wiped her hands on her garden apron and walked out to the curb. Down the street, outside the local strip mall where Dana worked as an administrative assistant for an insurance agency, a heavy black flatbed tow truck was hoisting Dana's late-model silver SUV onto its bed.
Dana was standing on the sidewalk in her high heels, waving her arms frantically, shouting at the driver. A small yellow repo notice was clutched in her manicured hand.
Eleanor didn't walk down there. She stood by her mailbox, watching from a distance.
Dana’s payment had bounced. Without Eleanor’s overdraft protection to secretly cover the shortage, the auto lender had executed their repossession clause after forty-five days of delinquency.
Ten minutes later, Dana came walking down the sidewalk. She had no car, her phone was operating only on spotty public Wi-Fi, and her pride was utterly shredded. She stopped ten feet from Eleanor’s driveway.
She looked different. Her expensive hair clip was gone, her clothes were rumpled from the humidity, and for the first time in her life, she looked truly terrified.
"They took my car," Dana whispered, her voice cracking.
"I know," Eleanor said gently, not moving from her place by the mailbox.
"I couldn't pay it," Dana sobbed, dropping her designer handbag onto the grass. "The phone company charged me a huge deposit to set up a new line, and then my rent went up, and... Mom, I don't have any money. I have forty-two dollars in my checking account. How am I supposed to get Tyler to practice? How am I supposed to get to work?"
She fell to her knees in the grass, sobbing uncontrollably. It wasn't the fiery, manipulative anger of three weeks ago. It was the total collapse of a life built on a foundation of cards.
Eleanor walked over to her. She didn't instantly wrap her in a warm hug. She didn't offer to pay the repossession fee. She knelt down so she was at eye level with her daughter.
"You are going to take the bus, Dana," Eleanor said softly.
Dana gasped through her tears. "The bus?!"
"Yes. The line 4 bus stops right outside your apartment and drops off in front of your office. It costs two dollars."
"Mom, please!" Dana begged, reaching for Eleanor’s hands. "Just loan me the money to get the car out! I’ll pay you back, I swear! I can’t live like this!"
"No, Dana," Eleanor said firmly, her voice filled with a deep, sorrowful love. "If I pay to get that car back, you will spend the rest of your life running from reality. You will keep expecting someone else to save you. And one day, I won't be here to do it."
"You hate me," Dana sobbed. "You love Caleb more than me."
"I loved you so much that I ruined you," Eleanor replied, her own eyes misting over. "I gave you everything you wanted so you wouldn't feel pain, and in doing so, I made you weak, selfish, and cruel. Refusing to help you fix this mess is the only true act of love I have left to give you."
May you like
Eleanor stood up.
"If you want to eat, you are welcome at my dinner table every night," Eleanor said. "If Tyler needs clothes or school supplies, I will buy them directly. But I will never give you another dollar of cash, and I will never clear a path you made dirty. You have to walk it yourself now."
