An unexpected plea

In the last half of October 1996, I wound up working a lot of overtime. My boss didn't like it very much, but there really wasn't much he could do about it. We were down a few employees at work and I had to pick up the slack while we trained new people.

This meant that for the first time since Kelz moved back in, I would have about $200 extra cash on me. I cashed my paycheck on 11/10/17 and came home. Kelz and I were discussing what we would spend the money on when the phone suddenly rang. It was Chez.

Chez and Joad were living in Virginia at the time with Jyd and her daughter. She had just gotten word that her great-aunt in Clovis had passed away. (I had met her great-aunt a couple of times before.) Chez wanted to know if I could send her money so she could come back to Clovis and go to the funeral.

My first thought was, "How the heck did she know that I would have some extra money right now?" I never did get an answer to that question (because I'm pretty certain she didn't). I started by chastising her for not keeping in contact with me for the last three months (even though she promised she would) and for only calling me when she needed money. However, I was aware of how much her great-aunt meant to her. I asked her how much she needed. "$200." NO WAY! I was not going to give her all my extra money. "Can you get to Clovis on $100?" "Yes, $100 will work." (THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU ASK FOR $100?)

I told her I would give her the money, but she had to again promise me that she would stay in touch a lot more frequently. She said she would and we made the arrangements to have the money wired over. She did receive it and was able to get to Clovis in time for the funeral. As it turned out, she did not return to Virginia, but I did hear from her again.

Kelz didn't say anything at the time, but I know she was really angry. Even though we still had $100 extra, it really wasn't enough for everything that we had originally discussed before the phone rang. While Kelz and I were not boyfriend/girlfriend, she definitely didn't like that I was willing to help my previous ex-girlfriend out like that. (But she seemed to forget how much I had been helping her the last three months.)

I don't remember anything special that we did with the money. I probably bought Kelz some quality cigarettes. But it would be a very long time before I got extra money again.