Tommy Update, February 2018

Remember our neighbor Tommy? The 58-year-old guy whose mother died, leaving him with no visible means of support, and no transportation? The one Hick and I gave a car? It's time for a little update.

We'd been worried about Tommy. When Hick gave him the car at the end of October,

Tommy was out of work. Oh, he'd gotten a job. Or else Hick wouldn't have given him the car. Their deal was...once Tommy got a job, Hick would drive him for two weeks, and then see about getting him transportation. You can imagine how excited Hick was when Tommy called to say that a lady wanted to interview him. That meant his days of Tommysitting were almost over!

I don't remember how much I told you at the time, or if I just got a post ready and never published it. But Hick took Tommy to that same-day interview, and he was hired on the spot, and started work the next day. At a rat poison factory. Don't you worry about Tommy working in a rat poison factory. He was suited for the job. It required sitting on a stool, pulling a lever to let rat poison pellets drop into a bag going by on a conveyor. I think he might have had to put bags in a cardboard box, too.

Tommy said that the employer bought pizza for everybody's lunch the first two days. Then he rode to a Chinese restaurant with some other employees for couple of days. But he told Hick, "It costs a lot of money to eat lunch." So he started taking a sandwich. Hick dropped him off at 7:30 every morning, and went back to pick him up in the evening. But one day Tommy called in the afternoon, saying he was done and needed a ride home. He said they were out of work. Hick asked if he was supposed to go back the next day, and Tommy said he didn't know. So Hick got up early and took him, but the lady in the office said they would call Tommy if they needed him.

Hick thought this was a nice way of firing Tommy, because maybe he didn't fit in, or work fast enough. When he drove to town subsequent days, he still saw the same cars at the factory, and knew other people were working. Tommy had to sit by the phone and wait on a call, which meant he wasn't asking Hick for a ride to the job service center that never seemed to get him a job (the rat poison factory was one where Hick took him to fill out a paper application).

Anyhoo, while all the waiting was going on, Hick had proceeded to buy the car for Tommy, and get a windshield put in, and buy license for a year and insurance for six months. Hick said that the cost of all that was $1512. He told Tommy that he could pay us back a little at a time, out of his paychecks, whenever he could afford it. That it was fine if he waited until after the first of the year. Neither one of us really expected to be paid back. Which was a good thing, because Tommy only got called back one more day at the rat poison factory. When Hick took him to pick up his check, he figured out that they'd been using Tommy as a day laborer, no withholding, and could only work him a limited number of hours. Like when they had a big order to fill, just to get it done.

That left Tommy with a car, but not a job. Hick emphasized that Tommy should be getting out and putting in applications, but knowing all along that Tommy would be driving himself to that job center to work on a resume that was a never-ending process. He made sure Tommy knew how much gas a trip to town involved, so he wouldn't just waste it going to get a newspaper, and should combine job-seeking and grocery trips and bank visits.

So...we didn't hear from Tommy for the longest time. It's like our little fledgling had flown the nest. I think Hick was truly missing Tommy for a couple weeks. The only time Tommy called was when he had a flat tire, but didn't have a jack. Which Hick knew. Hick went over to look at it, and took his air compressor. I think he also took Tommy a jack.

"I filled that tire up with air. I could see something stuck in the tire. I probably could have brought it over to the BARn and put a plug in it. Then I figured, what's he gonna do if I'm not around to help him? So I told him that it was fine to drive to town, and that the repair shop next to Save A Lot could fix it for him for a couple of dollars."

The next time we heard from Tommy was when he stopped on the gravel road, passing Hick going the other way, and said he was on his way to town TO HIS JOB! He had gone to visit the local Space Museum, and they were hiring, so he applied. He got the job, for which I think he is well-suited. Like Hick says, Tommy is clean. He dresses okay. And this job is showing people around the museum, telling them about each piece of memorabilia. Tommy loves that kind of stuff. And whether he's telling about it the first time, or the 10,001st time, he's equally enthusiastic. Right now he's working 28 hours a week. That must be enough for him, because I see him every week or so, coming or going, in his car.

On Monday, Tommy called our house phone but didn't leave a message. I heard his name announced by the caller ID. I figured if it was important, he would have left a message, because he always did before. Besides, he has Hick's cell phone number, even though Hick told him to quit calling it, because that number is a long distance charge for Tommy. When Hick got home from his storage units that evening, I mentioned the Tommy call.

"Oh, he left me a voice mail on my cell phone. He wants to start making payments on his car. He gets paid every two weeks, and wants to pay us $25 each paycheck."