Chapter 48
Me and Mom
Jet lag got me again that night. Early to bed, far too early to rise. I slept until four, tossed and turned until five, and then gave up. Time for some coffee. I found my mother already in the kitchen. We had to laugh. We were wearing matching robes. Huge cream-colored terrycloth robes that wrapped across our chests and hung down to our ankles. They covered our feet once we sat. Cold Wisconsin winters, cold Wisconsin floors.
I poured myself a mug of coffee and sat next to my mother.
“Can’t sleep?”
“I have a daughter who lives in China. Lots to think about.”
“What did Lori tell you about China?”
“You were safe, you were successful, you were doing important things.”
I took my mother’s hand.
“You are helping too. Forwarding my emails matters.”
“So Lori said. She also said I get to keep the money the Chinese deposited in my account. But I don’t know why they did it.”
“Trust. They think money buys them some trust. They don’t really know us, but they think money is important.”
“Should I trust them?”
“Trust Lori.”
We sipped our coffee. I tried to remember the last time I had just sat at the table with my mother. Too long. Her hair was grayer. She had picked up a few pounds. But she was attentive. She studied me. And I knew she worried about me.
“I knew you would leave Montello. Most of the kids do. I didn’t expect China.”
“Me neither. But Lori asked me to do her a favor. And I met a man.”
“The one you married?”
“No, he dumped me. I ended up with the film director. We are unofficially married.”
“Children?”
“Maybe. He’s in his forties thinking maybe it’s too late.”
“If you have any, I will be on the next plane to help you.”
“Thanks.”
We were quiet for a while, looking at our coffee, looking out the windows still dark, noticing the faint noises from the refrigerator.
“I was thinking… The Chinese gave me a hundred thousand dollars. I was thinking about renovating this kitchen.”
“Yes. The house is what – sixty years old? The kitchen is due for some work, most of the carpeting needs replacing, and the roof has to be due for new shingles. The money is yours – use it.”
She looked around the room.
“I’ve been thinking about counter tops.”
For the next twenty minutes I heard about counter tops, cabinets, new sinks and faucets … Obviously, she had been thinking about her kitchen for years. Women do. I nodded and listened and made an occasional suggestion on back splashes and ovens. It became a shared project. Her project, but one she had shared with me. That felt good.
She was determined to go to the bank when it opened. Said she wanted some cash, but I think she wanted to see if the money was real. I needed to check too. Tiny Lady or someone else had transferred a million dollars from my Shanghai account to the local bank. They had bought me. They could trust me. Fine. I felt I had earned the money. I had worked hard on those films. Now I would do something with the money.
We got there soon after the bank opened. Most people used the drive-through windows. We parked and walked in. Both of us were dressed like we were going to church – skirts, heels, light sweaters. The moment felt special, so we were dressed for it.
My mother went straight to a teller. Big smile, lots of talk, a two-hundred-dollar withdrawal, and could she see her current account statement? She had cash in hand, and a statement that promised her the Chinese money was real. She stood and talked to the teller about a common friend. In a town of fifteen hundred, everyone really does know everyone.
I knew the woman sitting at a small desk to one side. Robin something. One year behind me in high school. Now her sign said, “senior teller.” She recognized me and was all smiles as I took a seat opposite her. Like my mother, I asked for a current account statement. Robin brought it up and printed a copy for me. I managed not to laugh. I had opened the account in high school. Part-time jobs. College money. A couple thousand dollars saved over years, then quickly gone for tuition and fees. Then came Navy money. Several thousand carefully saved. Then Wisconsin Dells money. Job money carefully saved. I noticed a final payment from the water park. My balance on my last day? Just over four thousand dollars.
Mary Motor Pool video money quickly pushed my balance to nearly a hundred thousand. Not bad. And then… Suddenly my balance jumped by one million dollars. China.
Robin was patient while I read through my statement, but it was clear she wanted to talk. Finally, she couldn’t help herself.
“I understand you have been working in China?”
“I produced some videos to promote tourism, and then I began doing some acting.”
I looked at my statement, Robin looked at me.
“Do you have investment plans for your money?”
There was a million new dollars sitting in her bank, all of which could be transferred anywhere in the world before lunch.
“What if I left it here in your bank?”
Robin immediately put on her sales face.
“We have great rates on CDs. We have a three-year certificate that pays three-point five percent. For a large deposit like yours, I am entitled to go a tenth of a percent higher.”
She lowered her voice for the last comment, like she was giving me a special deal, one not to be shared by all. Could I get a better deal elsewhere? I was certain of it. But. If I parked the money in Montello, they could finance eight or ten mortgages or finance a prospective company. It seemed the right thing to do. It took twenty minutes to fill out the paperwork. Robin tried to be professional throughout, but I could see she wanted to jump, scream, and yell. In the end I got a very professional handshake, then she was off to the manager’s office to brag. She had just done something important for her bank. And maybe I had helped my hometown.
Mom drove us back home. Back to our kitchen. Back to plans and possibilities. Out came websites, out came contractor reviews, out came styles, colors, and textures. We stood together and planned. We stood together. At one point we even held hands. It had been far too many years since we had last shared that simple gesture.
