ON THE PHONE Dad Lewis told Rudy and Bob to bring him the sales numbers in the morning this time since in the afternoons he wasn’t much good anymore, then he hung up and turned to Lorraine. Don’t you want to sit in with us so you can see for yourself what these store accounts look like?
Daddy, they don’t want me there.
How do you know that? It doesn’t matter what they want. If I tell them you’re sitting in, that’s what will happen.
I’m still trying to decide if I want to at all.
You have to make up your mind pretty soon. This isn’t going to go on forever, you know that. You can’t put it off much longer. If you don’t want to, I’ve got to do something else.
I know, Daddy.
So at midmorning the clerks came up on the porch and Rudy knocked quietly on the door. They removed their caps and Mary ushered them into the living room and served them coffee, and again they sat side by side on the couch as they had each time, as if they were attending a funeral service, and Dad was in his chair as always with a blanket over his knees and with his wood cane laid on the floor beside him.
Rudy was a little quick voluble middle-aged man, with a balding head, and Bob was tall and skinny and slow, with thick graying hair combed straight back. Rudy held the store accounts in a file on his lap.
You boys doing any good today? Dad said.
We’re doing pretty good, Rudy said. How about you, Dad? It seems like you’re looking a lot better.
Dad looked at him. Now that is bullshit and you know it.
Well, you don’t look too much on the worse side, Bob said.
Yeah. All right. He looked out the window and looked back. You want something to go with that coffee, you boys?
No thanks, Rudy said.
You, Bob?
No thank you, I don’t think so. It’s still pretty early in the morning.
All right then. Let’s see what you got there.
Rudy stood up and set the file in Dad’s lap and sat back down. Dad took out the reading glasses from his shirt pocket and fit the thin bows over his ears and studied the pages. The two men bent forward and sipped their coffee, watching him.
After a while Dad looked up. Any problem with any of this? he said.
No. Not to speak of.
Anything we do need to speak of, then?
No. Don’t believe so, Dad.
How many lawn mowers we sold this summer by now?
Ten, Rudy said. He looked at Bob. Wasn’t it?
That sounds about right.
Last summer we sold fifteen, Dad said.
Things have been slower this year, Rudy said.
Why’s that now?
They’re not building no new houses in town. That’s mainly it. That’s how I account for it.
What do you say, Bob?
It’s like what he said. And it’s this new mower we ordered in. It costs more.
It’s a better machine, Dad said.
Yeah. But it costs more.
Well yeah, it costs more, Bob. Goddamn it, it’s got to cost more.
Bob inspected his hands. People don’t like to spend too much money on a lawn mower.
All right, Bob. I take your point. Dad opened the file again. He found the line he was looking for. What about this accounts receivable? How come that’s still so high?
That’s old Miss Sprague, Rudy said.
What about her?
She bought that freezer.
I remember she bought it. She bought it before I got sick.
Well. She stopped paying anything on it.
Did you call her?
Yes sir. I called her. Called her two times.
Then did you go to see her?
I went.
Well. Why don’t you just go ahead and tell me, Rudy. This ain’t some kind of mystery, is it?
No, but it’s a bad mess, Dad. He stared across the room for a moment. I figure I can go over to her house and get it back if that’s what you want.
You mean repossess it.
Yes sir. Repossess it.
How come?
You ever been in her house?