We're a Wonderful Wife
Chapter 11
The Grim Christmas
When Karole's ex-fiancé lied to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Gendarmerie Royale du Canada GRC) and claimed that he got his meth from a lab in Karole's garage in Greeley, the Mounties contacted the DEA who launched a full-scale investigation. Although they found nothing the investigation put Karole in a bad light and her employer fired her. Unable to get a job in the medical career that she excelled at and burdened with student and medical debt Karole lost everything, her job, her truck, and now it looks like she will lose her house. She was only able to find a job working for a bill collector and she absolutely hates her job, she hates her situation, she's even beginning to hate her daughter. The only thing left in her life that she truly loves is Lanh whom she loves like a sister, and Don whom she loves like a potential lover, and she hates herself even more for that.
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It was difficult for Don to adjust to not being the bread winner. Academically he remains busy submitting papers and articles on his "Return to the Three Rs" mantra that earned him his degree. He also gets the occasional speaking engagement, but after farming and a decade of military service, it feels like a hobby to him, and it pays about the same as a hobby. Most of his time is spent babysitting Karole's daughter Krissy, which he and Lanh love doing. As for Lanh, her two jobs are demanding, exciting, fulfilling, and everything she could have dreamed of when she decided on a career in speech therapy, but since both jobs are part time jobs she receives no medical coverage nor any other benefits.
Ever since Karole lost her job, life for the four of them had become incredibly difficult. Emotionally Karole was shattered, and that was making it difficult for her to get close as she wanted to get to Krissy. Don and Lanh were there for her at every turn, but ever since the DEA and FBI poked and prodded, her employer Mountain Sports Medicine laid her off "For Cause" and with a black mark like that on her record there was no one in Colorado that would hire her.
Karole fought to keep her head above water financially, but the hits kept coming. First her pickup truck was repossessed, then Krissy got sick and medical bills kept pouring in. Don wanted to hold her and comfort her, but that wasn't his place, so he watched Krissy like a doting stepfather, and he left it up to Lanh and her sisters to cheer Karole. Money was getting tight for Lanh and Don too. Don's disability pay was based on last year's cost of living index, not this year's, and his military retirement isn't what a civilian would make in the same position, not by a longshot. Then, like all disabled veterans, to maintain his social security disability income he was forced onto Medicare which added a monthly bill they didn't need and could barely afford because Lanh's hours at the clinic were cut which hurt immensely.
Karole finally got a job at Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting, which sounded impressive, but in reality it was merely a bill collection agency. Her job entailed calling people and harassing them to pay up immediately. She hated her job, she hated herself, sometimes she even hated Krissy, and to make matters worse the only person she truly loved was married to her best friend, which made her hate herself even more.
They only got to go to Minnesota once this year, for the Independence Day weekend and Karole spent every moment she could working at Nguyen Pho. Rosa, the manager, finally demanded, "You drove all the way up here from Colorado to wait tables?"
"Hell yeah, I make some pretty good tips here," she took Rosa aside and said, "I'm goin' broke down there, I need every dime I can get."
"Why don't you just move here? We have room for you here, and there's plenty of room out at the farm." Rosa held Karole's hands and said, "Mai and Duong are moving out, Bao and I are going to move into the main bedroom, you can have our room."
"That sounds awesome but right now I can't, I can't just pack up and abandon my house," but it wasn't her house that she couldn't bear parting with.
Later that day she and Kim-ly had a spat over some dumb thing, neither can remember what it was that set off the squabble, but it was getting pretty heated. Don and Lanh scooped up the babies, Krissy and Dahn, and vacated the area because their mothers' anger was making them upset. Sandy, Don's stepmother, stepped out of the farmhouse and said, "That's it, I'm tired of it. I've had it with you two children. Both of you get in the truck... NOW LADIES!"
Sandy was a firm believer in settling arguments before they became a habit, and she had a sure-fire way to solve the problem, a stretch of the leg. She drove them five miles out on county highway 10, then kicked them out of the truck. "Walk home!" she demanded and sped off. So, while Don and Lanh watched Danh and Krissy, Kim-ly and Karole walked home while Sandy monitored their progress at a distance in airconditioned comfort.
The first mile was walked in sullen silence, the second mile was filled with anger and accusations, Kim-ly had seen Karole mooning over Don, and Karole had seen the same in Kim-ly and it almost came to blows when Kim-ly shouted, "You can't steal Don from my sister!"
"Why? Because you're going to get him first?"
"I'm not after Don! He is Lanh's husband!"
"YOU HAD HIS BABY! WHAT'S NEXT?" shrieked Karole.
"You BITCH! What the hell happened to you? We were so close!"
"Oh, I don't know, lost my job, lost my truck, up to my eyeballs in debt, and the only job I can get is a fuckin bill collector."
The third mile was filled with questions and memories, the fourth mile was all apologies and tears, and the last mile was full of friendship and the kind of secrets that husbands, boyfriends, brothers, and others wouldn't believe that the woman in their life would share with other women. It was when Sandy saw the transformation from anger to laughter that she pulled up close and said, "Ok you two, hop in," then drove into town for ice cream. "That was a cool trick mom," said Kim-ly between licks of her ice cream. "Did you learn that from your mom?"
"Actually, I learned it from Don's grandmother," said Sandy as she licked her own cone.
"Hilde?!?" gasped Kim-ly.
Completely out of the loop Karole asked, "Who's Hilde?"
"You may have seen her in a movie," said Kim-ly, she screwed up her voice to sound like a crone and said, "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!"
"Don't let your sister hear you say that about her favorite grandmother-in-law," scolded Sandy. After Lanh learned more about Don's Grandma Hilde, they became close and spent a lot of time together when Don was in Germany, and she was waiting for her flight over. Sandy continued, "My mother wasn't interested in raising me... my upbringing was a bit like Karole's. I found myself stuck in a house with four girls ripping each other's hair out and Tom was down in Mankato for work, Don's mom came over and helped me. While she helped me around the house, she told me how her mom handled problems with her seven kids."
"You made your girls walk five miles like you did us?" said Kim-ly. She was teasing of course.
Sandy just looked at her and smiled, "You may notice that three of my girls held state track records."
"Damn!" gasped Kim-ly, "you are hard core!" causing Karole to snicker.
Sandy raised four rambunctious daughters; she knows how to handle two more, a five mile stretch of the leg works wonders. And it was then that Kim-ly and Karole became telling-secrets-at-the-table close once again, and it helped a lot in other ways. Karole fell in love with Krissy again, now that she faced her jealousy that Kim-ly had Don's baby, a jealousy she didn't realize that she had.
One afternoon Kim-ly and Karole ended up at the campsite overlooking the pond, sunning themselves and letting the babies roll around on the blanket. In the pond Don was swimming while Lanh stood in the rowboat coaching him in her squeaky little voice. "You're jealous of her, aren't you?" asked Kim-ly.
Karole raised up on her elbows and looked at the two splashing in the pond. Now Lanh tried to dive on to Don but as she leapt the boat slid out from under her and she smacked down flat on the water. "Not after that dive," said Karole.
