Doing Unto Tommy

You may recall that Hick and I have a neighbor, Tommy, whose elderly mother passed away earlier this year. Tommy has no means of support. No job. No transportation. He has questionable social skills. The more we have interacted with Tommy, the more his abilities remain a mystery. He seems to have had some college courses, and long ago worked at a fast food restaurant. He spent his time taking care of his elderly mother, and now has nothing but the mobile home and 10 acres it sits on.

Hick has been taking Tommy to town every week for shopping and banking, to save him the $35 cab fee. Tommy can also call the local transport system once a week for free. He has been looking for a job, because his money is running out. If I recall correctly, he told Hick a few months ago that he only had $2000 left.

Thursday, Tommy called to ask for a ride to the local job center run by a state agency. He said he'd call when he was ready to leave. Hick was surprisingly agreeable, and said he could fit it into his plans. He left around 11:00. When he got home from dropping off Tommy, Hick of course had a story to tell.

"I told Tommy that I heard a place over in Bill-Paying Town is hiring telemarketers. Tommy said he knew, and that they said they could give him a job, but he didn't have transportation. I told him, 'Tommy, you're wasting your time looking for work if you don't have a way to get there.' Then he got real quiet."

"You didn't hurt his feelings, did you?"

"No. He was thinking. I guess he thinks that someone is going to drive him to work and pick him up every day. I'm not going to do that. I said, 'What you need to do is get you a $500 car so you can get back and forth, and get a job, and then you can look for something better. I guess he thinks somebody is going to buy him a car."

I paused. I looked at Hick. I was not sure how he was going to take what I was about to say.

"Just yesterday, on the way to town, I was thinking about Tommy. About how it wouldn't kill us to help him get a car. We could get it and let him pay us back $20 a week once he gets a job. Would it really hurt us to spend $1000 for a car? We gave that Caravan to your guy at work, and let him pay us back. If I have to, I can use some of my gambling stash."

"Yeah. I could go buy a car and give it to him. But nothing over $1000!"

"And it will be in HIS name! I don't want to deal with it. It's on him."

"Yeah. I'll put it in his name. He'll have to buy his own gas and insurance."

"Does he even have his driver's license?"

"I think he does. He used to. I told him, 'Tommy, you could even get your CDL license, and drive a truck. They pay insurance, too.' But he said, 'I don't HAVE a CDL!' And I told him, 'That's why I said you could get it.'"

I can't really imagine the conversations between these two!

Anyhoo...Hick went out to watch his concrete crew work on his new garage, with a plan of going back to pick up Tommy at 1:30. I headed off to town for some errands and my 44 oz Diet Coke. When I got back, there was a message on the phone from Tommy. "Hick...this is Tommy. I'm ready to leave now." The time of the call was 12:45. The time I saw it was 1:25. I figured Hick was already there to pick up Tommy, but probably hadn't known to go earlier, because the phone had showed a NEW message, that hadn't been listened to, and if Hick had been in the house, he would have picked up.

When Hick got back, he had more stories. "Tommy asked me to take him to the Catholic Church tomorrow morning to get some food. The people where he was working on his resume told him they have a food pantry. And the place here in town in the old bowling alley, too. I told him, 'Tommy, I can't tomorrow. I've got an appointment at 9:30. But I can take you on Monday. Do you have food?' Tommy said oh, yes, he had food. But he was out of milk and juice, but he guessed he could drink water until then. I told him I'd take him on Monday, and also to the bowling alley place, which is right by the mushroom factory. I said, 'Tommy, you can go in and put in an application. The radio says they're hiring.' And he said, 'Will they let me do that?' So I told him, 'All you can do is try. The worst they can do is tell you no.' And I also told him I'll take him by Hardee's to fill out an application, since he worked there before, he says. I told him he should take any job he can get, to bring in some money, and he can still keep looking for a better one."

"Did you mention the car idea? Did he think he could do that?"

"I told him that if they asked if he had transportation, he should say yes. I told him that I'll drive him to work and pick him up for two weeks, and that we'll get him a car that he can pay us for out of his earnings."

"Did he say that was okay?"

"Well, he ducked his head and kind of cried a little."

"Oh, no! Did he not want to do it?"

"It was about the same time I told him I couldn't take him to the Catholic Church on Friday. So I don't know if it was about that, or about the car. I think the whole situation is getting real now that he's out of money, and he's just overwhelmed. But when I dropped him off, he said, "Thank you for trying to help me."

"I think he just doesn't know how to plan ahead for anything. Like when he calls, he always wants to go right then."

"Yeah, and I've told him to call my cell phone number, because I'm not in the house. But he always calls the house. I guess I just assumed he had caller ID, but he probably doesn't. I don't know if I ever gave him my cell number. I need to write it down for him."

We'll see what happens tomorrow on their job search trip. I don't know if Hick is going to let Tommy look at cars with him, or just get the best one he can for the money. He already asked Tommy if he could drive a stick, and Tommy said no.

Hick is really good at telling lemons from reasonable used cars. And pretty good at helping people, too.