Chapter 4
When Brenda got home that evening the first thing she saw was Jesus sitting in his truck.
"Oh, no," she grumbled. "Am I gonna have to shoot this guy to get him to leave me alone?" No, she wouldn't do that. She felt bad for the guy. After all, like most everybody else he was just a working stiff. Bad choice of words! she groaned to herself.
Brenda got out of her car and approached his truck. "Jesus, you cain't camp out on my front lawn like this."
"I need my money, Miss."
"I know you do, Jesus. I didn't know Ms. Petrovna still owed you money. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know Ms. Petrovna. She was dead before I moved in. But, because I feel it's the decent thing to do, I'm going to see that you get your money. You just got to be patient for a couple of days. Okay?"
"Okay," he said, attempting to get out of the truck but Brenda blocked the door with her small body.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I finish up work now and in few days you finish paying me."
Brenda shook her head. "No, let me get the money first."
"It's okay. I wanna do good job for you. You nice lady."
Brenda was touched. Jesus was such a nice man. "Jesus, I appreciate you being so kind but no. Come back in a couple of days and I promise I'll have your money. Okay?"
"Okay, miss. If you say so."
Brenda let out a big sigh as she watched him drive off. She fumbled in her bag for her phone. She needed to call her parents right now and Fritz needed to come up with his share.
Brenda waited until after she had eaten dinner, dry tuna on crackers, before calling her parents. Explaining to her father why she needed thirty five hundred dollars wasn't as difficult as explaining it to her mother. After all the pleasantries were dispensed with, it only took less than sixty seconds to tell him why she needed the money. She had now been on the phone for thirty minutes with her mother who insisted on grilling her about every detail. It was all Brenda could do to keep from telling her what had really happened in the house. But she would never do that. Right after ordering her to return to Atlanta her mother would drop dead from shock. "It's just to pay off some renovations in the house," Brenda said for what she believed was the fifth time.
"I cain't believe you bought a house without us looking at it first, Brenda Lee."
"There wasn't any time. I'd been told that if I saw something I liked I should jump on it because it would go fast. So that's what I did . . . jumped on it." She smiled, wondering if she had jumped too fast.
"I'm going to come out and get you settled in."
"No, mama—"
"I insist. I'll be there tomorrow and I'll bring the money with me. Bye now. Gotta go pack!"
"Mama, no," but her mother had already hung up.