Apr 23, 2010
Being poor… once upon a time
Here’s a piece of story that I wrote while thinking about my life. It’s not absolutely true but it’s not absolutely fictitious either.
The man comes home everyday to see his family. His hands are worn from the wear and tear of being a plumber. His face is tired but he still wears a worn out smile. He picks up his kids and gives them piggy back rides even though his back aches from crawling under a house to fix a broken pipe. He walks up to his wife and tells here that he loves her, despite the fight that they had earlier.
He knows he doesn’t have the strength or energy to continue with his profession for much longer. Lifting heavy objects, driving around all day, crawling under houses never suited him at all but it’s taken more toll now in his middle ages. He feels stressed and burnt while trying to find a job more suitable for his condition while not taking a cut in his pay. He looks at his kids while they sleeps every night and wonder if he’ll have the strength to provide for them and be able to put food on the table.
He sits with his wife while she figures out their finances. They have 30 dollars in the bank. Still have to pay PG&E and water. The refrigerator has nothing in it. The bread ran out while packing the kid’s lunch for tomorrow. Their car is low on fuel. She talks to him about how they need to start saving money. Maybe they can each take a second job, she suggests. She tells him about how she got mad at their son because he wanted to eat all the cereal and she knew that it had to last until the end of the week. She felt terrible.
He walks out into the living room, feeling worn out and tired, knowing that he needs to find something to bring in more income. He doesn’t know if he has the strength to do what is needed but he is determined to try. After a while of listening to his wife, who is sitting in the kitchen, make suggestions on how they can make things better, he returns to her. He gives her a hug. The more she tries to find another penny that they can add to their budget, the more irritable she becomes. She opens another bill and it has a 95 dollar late fee. Another envelope is a notice to cut off their energy service.
He is fed up. He brings in the majority of their money but feels like it all goes down the drain sometimes. He knows his wife tries but trying to raise two kids doesn’t really allow her to take a second job. She picks up the kids from school after long day of work. She settles them down to watch a movie or to play with their toys while she cooks them dinner. She has to deal with all the fights, the quarrels, the crying. He doesn’t expect anymore of her. He knows that she is as worn as him, that she’s burnt out from not having money and while her taking a second job will help, he doesn’t allow her to because he wants his children to have a parent to tuck them in every night. It’s bad enough that he can’t do it himself. He doesn’t want the extra cost of hiring a babysitter. He’s already working weekends and nights and days. It’s amazing that he still sees his family at all.
He walks outside and lights a cigarette while grinding through his frustrations. Buying 300 bucks worth of groceries every paycheck does not even last long enough till his next. There’s a few days, perhaps a week in between, where you need to tell the kids, “Don’t eat everything. It needs to last.” Between two full-time workers, 2 kids and him working nights, days and weekends, he doesn’t understand how they could be in such financial trouble. His mind wanders to where they could make cuts but then he remembers, no, we’ve made all the budget cuts that we can. We’re down to the bare minimum.
