Help from a Friend

“I’ll give you $100 if you lick the toilet brush,” he said.

“What?”

“I’ll give you $100 if you lick the toilet brush.”

“Man, I hate that I ever told you I am poor. You are taking advantage of my situation.”

“Is that a yes or no?”

“I really need some groceries, man.” I slowly raised the toilet brush and licked it, immediately retching.

“Oh, by the way,” Dee said. “That is a brand-new toilet brush. Here is your $100. I hope you guys have something good to eat for a while.”

Dee’s family had always had money. Recently, my family seemed to be going the wrong direction. Mom and Dad had bought some cheap properties, fixed them up, and rented them out. One situation or another popped up, and the renters started missing rent. Dee felt bad but knew we didn’t really want handouts either. Dee’s family didn’t just own the small houses like us. They had the big apartment buildings. The one over on Fourth is supposedly Dee’s college savings account. He doesn’t really need college, but his mom and dad told him a business or law degree would really help the family business. He could do all the closings on the properties for them, and they would have even more money.

Graduation day came and went quickly. What do you do when you owe your childhood friend this much? Mom and Dad ended up selling their properties to Dee’s family. We moved over to Dee’s building on Fourth. He asked me to become the building manager instead of paying rent. We have been eating at the shelter over on Sixth. I used to volunteer there when I was a kid. I always wondered how the people got there.

Why did they need meals there and I didn’t? It turns out it really can be just bad luck. Mom and Dad didn’t do anything overly reckless. Sure, they borrowed some money to buy these rentals, but the background checks on the tenants were good. The tenants had the income to back it up, but for some reason, a few of the tenants couldn’t make rent at the same time.

Then a funny thing happened. I really got to know the neighborhood. I met all the people in the building I am managing. I sat with different people each time at the shelter. Money is no longer what makes me happy. This community is all I need. Dee’s family has been more than generous, covering our rent, but they gave me this community, which is all I need.

Then, Dee came back and made it better. He sold my parents’ rentals to them back on contract. We are making money again, getting ahead. I still eat at the shelter, sneaking $5 bills into the ticket bucket by the door. I am thinking about running for council or mayor. The area between Second and Sixth is all I care for these days. I might as well represent them to the city as I do to their apartment building owners.

“I’ll give you $100 to do this constitutional law paper for me,” Dee said. He has finished school and started his law degree online. It’s funny how the required classes of high school can’t catch our interest but take a class you chose and suddenly it’s the best thing to sit and take notes and write a research paper. As a result, Dee has become quite the student. He jokes that I can have his spot in the family business so he can go to a big-name law firm downtown. I think he is starting to be serious about it too. The most important thing is I don’t have the blood, but it certainly does feel like the family business in this community.