February, 27th

Edith:

My cousin is taking a crash course in finances and is very involved in managing her new fortune. She has the help of a manager and advisor, which is wise, but what frustrates me to no end is that she doesn't behave like the rich girl she is now.

What's the point of having so much money if you don't spend it?

Margaret doesn't seem to care a lot... well, she hasn't changed much, has she? But she has purchased a very pretty apartment. It's a three bedroom penthouse with half its surface as open terraces and rooftop gardens. It's really cute, I think, and thank God she let me and my aunt help with the decoration.

With our help her house is going to look like a home in no time. Fancy Margaret in a house of her own! She has this very pretty painting of two girls in blue swimsuits and we used it for a mood board for decorating her main room. It has touches of summer and water and youth... very fresh. With a state of the art kitchen, sleek modern furniture, and a few classic designs I scooped at antiques stores, it's all coming together wonderfully.

Margaret is impressed and says I should think about working in interiors decoration. I know my home and Margaret's turned out well, if I say so myself, but I'm not sure my heart is in getting a job. I'd rather have more children, to be honest.


April, 2nd

John:

Like a belated April Fool's Day joke, today arrives a notice from the HM Revenue and Customs stating that not only are we not eligible for tax exemptions but we're behind payments and there is a debt and interests to be collected. I call our accountant and try to make sense of that mess; this is not the first time we find ourselves in financial difficulties and I try to stay calm.

By noon my reserves of calmness are empty. Business is at an all time low, demand for repairs gets smaller every day and there are sophisticated new machines we simply don't have the technology to repair.

I try not to panic but God, what are we going to do?

Bessy Higgins stops me on my way from lunch and asks me. I don't have the heart to tell her the truth but she doesn't take any crap from me, and I sow the seeds of my previous vow of confidence in her. She comes at mid afternoon with a plan to refinance the Mills with the employees' help, which has a few faults but is quite good in essence.

Still, I don't know what we're going to get over this one. By my estimation we can run for a few months, we're lucky if we're alive by July, and then... I think I'll have to start looking at the jobs listings on the Sunday paper.

Back to square one twenty years later.

Damn.


A/N: People, my knowledge of finances is very small so this is fluff. Financial fluff... sounds sexy, doesn't it?