by Dale Mayer
“That’s why we went through the process before, where you put in how much the check was, so that, when the check is taken out on the other side, it can be reconciled to that entry.”
She frowned, and she really hesitated now.
As she stood here, Richie from Rosemoor walked in, saw her over there, and said, “Oh, look at you, using those newfangled machines,” he said. “I can’t get a handle on them. I’m always afraid that somebody will steal my money.” She gasped. He nodded, gave her a sage look, and said, “That’s why I just keep my money under my mattress.”
She turned to look at the bank manager, and he immediately shook his head. “No, no, no,” he said. “Please don’t keep the money under your mattress. What if there’s a house fire?” That made sense to her. Still, she held on to the envelope, but he gently took it from her and said, “I promise it’ll be safe.”
“And you promise that, if it’s not safe, you’ll give me my $600? Actually $607.63.”
“I will. You have my personal guarantee,” he said, with a nod.
Feeling slightly better, yet realizing that she didn’t have his promise in writing, she let him put it into the bank machine. Then she stood there, shifting from side to side. “How long will it take?” she asked.
He looked at her in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“How long until I can take money out?”
“Oh,” he said, “well, it could be a couple days.”
Her eyes widened. “Really? Whereas, if I’d just gone to the teller, I could have taken money out right now?”
“Do you have other money in the bank account?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I think so.”
“If you have other money in the account,” he said, “you can take money out. Regardless it’ll just take a few days for that check to clear,” he said, “unless there’s a problem with it.”
Her heart froze. “What do you mean, a problem?”
“If it comes back without sufficient funds.”
Now she started to wring her hands. “So,” she said, “that check is no good?”
“I’m sure it is,” he said. “This is from the consignment store, so it should be written against monies that she sold from goods of yours.”
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “That’s exactly what she did.”
And then he proceeded to explain to her the way checks worked, in that, if the other account didn’t have enough money to fulfill the amount on the check, then she wouldn’t get her money. By the end of it all, she was supposed to be calm, having further understood everything, but instead she was almost in a full-blown panic. As she stood here, figuring out what to say, she heard a familiar voice behind her. Richie had long gone, and she had obviously attracted attention, with the explanation efforts of the bank manager, who was looking more confused by the minute.
But, as it was, Mack stepped up behind her and placed a hand on her good shoulder. “I’ll take it from here.”
Chapter 15
Tuesday Midmorning …
The bank manager looked at Mack in relief and quickly excused himself. Doreen looked up at Mack and whispered in a hoarse voice, “What if it doesn’t clear?”
“What is it?” he asked, leaning forward. She pulled out her phone and showed him the photos.
“What’s the problem then?” he asked. “You deposited a check from somebody already once, right?”
“But I didn’t understand how it worked,” she said. “The manager just said that, if Wendy doesn’t have the money, I don’t get paid.”
“But she wrote you a check with every good intention that she did have the money, so that she could pay you,” he said, frowning. “It’s a typical business transaction.”
Doreen looked around at everybody else and then leaned forward and said, “But she told me that she cut the check.” He looked at her, saw the dead seriousness in her gaze, and his lips twitched. She watched, narrowed her gaze at him, and said, “Don’t you dare laugh at me.”
“Not at all,” he said, immediately shaking his head. “I’ll never laugh at you,” he said. “So you need to start laughing too.”
She glared at him. He pulled her bank card from the machine, gave it to her, and nudged her out of the bank. “Are you trying to get rid of me?” she muttered, staring around, taking one last look to see several other people watching them as they left. “Why am I always the laughingstock everywhere?” she muttered. As soon as they were outside, she turned on him. “What’s so funny about her cutting my check?”
“Cut a check,” he said. “It’s just a term that means that she wrote you a check.”
She stared at him blankly. “So cut means wrote? Why would she say she cut it then?” she asked, raising her arms in the air. “That’s like threatening to take away my money.”
“But she didn’t mean it that way.”
Doreen took several long slow deep breaths, staring at him and wondering if it was safe to believe him.
“Honest,” he said gently. “When Wendy said she cut you a check, all she meant was that she was sitting down to do the bookkeeping, so she could write you out a check.”
Slowly Doreen’s shoulders sagged, and she nodded. “So, if that’s a stupid question,” she said, “then I guess the next one doesn’t make any difference either then.”
“Remember. There are no stupid questions,” he said. “And I’m laughing with you, not at you.”
She looked at him and said, “Except I’m still not laughing.”
“You should be,” he said. “Look. It was a missing gap in your living-life education, which I thought we went over already, but apparently you didn’t get it.”
She glared at him. “And I also don’t get,” she said, “why that machine isn’t putting the money into my account right now.”
“It has to clear first. Remember? They have to put the money into your account, and then they check to make sure the other account—Wendy’s—has the money to cover this check to you. Only then does the bank take it out of Wendy’s consignment shop account and then put it into your personal bank account. That’s the process, and, because you put it in through the ATM, it’ll take a bit longer.”
“But I need it now,” she wailed, “and they wouldn’t let me go to the teller.”
“Why not?”
She muttered in a slightly lower voice. “Because of the animals.”
He looked around and started to laugh.
“There you go again,” she said, glaring at him.
“And there you go too,” he said, tapping her gently on the cheek. “Most banks won’t allow one animal, let alone three of them.”
“What difference does it matter how many I have?” she asked.
“It’s all about the disturbance to everyone else. A bank is a place of business, where they try to quickly get people through the lines. If there are issues, and the animals become a problem in any way, then it slows down business. Then there is also the hygiene issue.”
“My animals are clean,” she said in astonishment.
“Sure, but if you’re allowed to bring in your animals, the next person must be allowed to as well, and what if they aren’t quite so clean?”
She glared at him. “You can’t blame me for somebody else.”
He groaned. “Okay, this is going sideways already. You did get the check in, and you do have money still in your account, right?”
“There is some. I just don’t know how much.”
“You didn’t get a balance?”
She shook her head. “No, and I don’t have any money on me to get groceries.”
He walked her back inside the foyer to the ATMs, all not in use at this time, and went through it again with her card. “Now there’s your balance,” he said, pointing at the ATM screen. “See? You still have lots in there.”
She stared at the amount. “So does that include the money with the check or not?”
“It will include the money with the check, but see whe
re it says Pending? That means it’s not cleared yet.” She frowned, but she was starting to get an idea of how this worked. “So I can take out money, as long as I don’t touch the money that they haven’t secured yet.”
“Exactly,” he said. “So how much do you want to take out?”
She thought about it and said, “I do need to get quite a few groceries.”
“What do you want, one hundred or two?”
“I don’t want to walk around with a couple hundred dollars,” she said. “So maybe one hundred, though two sounds good as well.”
He said, “Let’s compromise and split the difference.”
So she punched in the numbers with his reassurance, then watched in fascination as the machine spat out money at her. When she picked it up, she chuckled. “Does it ever make a mistake?” she asked. “Wow, this is a great way to get money.”
“But it only takes it out of your account, and you need your card and your password,” he said. “So how great is it really?”
“Ah, so I can’t use it to get into your account,” she asked, looking up at him.
He immediately shook his head. “No, ma’am, because I have my own card, and I have my own set of numbers.”
“So how does somebody break in and steal something like that?”
At that, his grin flashed. “We’ve had cases where they came with a forklift and smashed through the front door and took away the entire machine.”
She gasped and stared at him, her eyes opening wider and wider as she thought about it. “And what do they do then? Just run down the highway, with this thing in front of them?”
“I believe they tried to dump it into a pickup truck,” he said, “but it was too heavy for the truck, and it caused significant damage.”
“Oh my.” She started to laugh. “That is pretty funny.”
“I thought so, but I don’t think anybody at the bank really saw the humor of it.”
“They should have,” she said. “That’s hilarious. I really like to hear that.”
“Why is that?”
“Because it makes me smile, thinking about the ingenuity of some people.”
“Definitely ingenuity was involved,” he said. “I only wish people would use that ingenuity while working their job and making money on their own, instead of stealing it.”
“Yeah, but you know what people are like,” she said. “They’re all about making sure they don’t have to do much for what they want.”
“Very true,” he said.
“And, besides, you can’t really judge them for that,” she muttered, “because I don’t have a job yet myself.”
“Have you had any breakfast this morning?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. I should have brought something with me.”
He hooked his arm through hers and said, “Come on. Let me take you out for a bite.”
She looked up, smiled, and said, “Are you just trying to be nice to me?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “Let’s not analyze everything,” he said. “I want to take you out for lunch. Is that a crime?”
“Nope,” she said. “It sounds like a great idea.”
And together they walked up toward the mall. He said, “A couple restaurants are around here that we can walk to, if you want.”
“Sure,” she said. “I’d love to try something different.”
“You haven’t tried very many of the restaurants in town, have you?”
She shook her head. “No, and every time I get out and walk around, I see something that looks interesting, but then I …” And she just shrugged and held off explaining what he knew already.
He nodded. “A couple are up here. One that serves soups and sandwiches and things like that.”
She wrinkled her nose up at him. “Can I get breakfast?”
He stopped and glared at her. “You really had nothing to eat yet?”
She shrugged. “I was thinking about the check.”
“Ah,” he said. “The check that’s now sitting in that machine.”
She turned and glared at the bank behind them. “Yes, that check,” she snapped. “I feel like the manager tricked me into putting it in there.”
“It’s his job to try to get more people to use the self-serve machines and to decrease teller hours,” he said. “It keeps the budget trimmed.”
“That’s another thing that makes no sense,” she said, groaning. “You don’t trim a budget. You trim a piece of meat, or you trim the lawn. You don’t trim the budget!”
“Of course you do,” he said. “If it’s bloated and costing too much, you must trim it down. Just like cutting off the fat.”
She considered that and then said, “Oh. It’s not language that my ex ever used.”
“Let’s keep the day pleasant and not mention him again. How about that?”
“And here I was going to ask if you’d heard anything from him.”
“Any reason why I would?”
“No, maybe not,” she said thoughtfully. “I’m just not sure what he’s up to.”
“No good, I’m sure.”
“That may well be, and I haven’t heard from Nick either.”
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Remember that.”
“As long as you’ve heard from him,” she said, looking up at him, slightly worried.
He frowned and said, “So are you worried because you haven’t heard from Nick, and you’re afraid that he’s not doing something for you, or are you afraid that something has happened to him?”
“You can’t trust my ex,” she said, “and we know the people around him are pretty scary, so I just want to make sure nothing has happened to Nick.”
“That makes me feel better.”
She frowned. “You weren’t really thinking that I was worried Nick would cheat me, were you? Though it’s not like I’m paying him. However, I did give him the change from my purse.”
He groaned. “Forget the change,” he said. “Come on. Let’s try this one over here. It has outdoor seating, so we should be allowed to take the animals in, or we can try at least.”
She looked up and said, “Oh, it’s Indian.”
“Yes,” he said, “it’s fairly new. I haven’t tried it yet.”
She nodded and said, “I’m more than happy to try it, especially if you’re paying.”
“That’s what it means when I invite you for lunch,” he said.
“So is this like a date?”
He stopped, looked at her, and asked, “Does it matter?”
She frowned, shook her head, and said, “Well, no, I guess I was wondering.”
“And I guess I’m wondering if it matters,” he said quietly.
She smiled up at him. “Only in that I would tell Nan that I went on a date with you.”
“Do you tell Nan things like that?” he asked curiously.
“It would help get her off my back,” she muttered.
He started laughing. “So is she for or against us having a date?”
“For, definitely for. She says that I should have been pushing you a long time ago.” She shook her head, her palms up. “I’ve told her at least one hundred times that I’m not ready, and she told me that I’m just making excuses.”
They continued to walk, until they reached the patio area. As they walked in, he asked, “And are you?”
“Am I what?” she asked, already having moved on in the conversation.
“Making excuses?”
She frowned at him. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Seeing my ex just brought back a lot of unpleasant memories that I don’t really want to recall.”
“But you wouldn’t have to,” he said. “It’s a whole new ball game.”
“I guess,” she said, and obviously something shifted, as she smiled. “Because you’re taking me out for lunch.” And, with that, she turned and smiled at the waitress coming toward them. “This is lovely here,” she said to her. “Are we okay with the animals?”
“Sure.”
Chapter 16
The waitress dropped off the menus and took off again.
“She looked fairly distracted,” Mack noted.
“I wonder if there is something in the water,” Doreen said, “because Wendy looked upset too.”
“Wendy?”
“Yeah, Wendy, who gave me the check.”
“Hmm, did she say why?”
“No, but every time she went back into the store and came back out again, she looked a little more disturbed.”
He stopped and looked at her. “That doesn’t make any sense. Tell me again from the beginning what you saw.” And she did. He frowned and said, “As long as she is okay, and nobody was inside.”
“She came out every time, quite willingly.”
“Maybe I’ll stop by this afternoon,” he said. “No, let’s nip this in the bud now.”
She frowned. “I guess I should have asked her more.”
“You had something else on your mind.” He pulled out his phone and placed a call but put it on speaker so she could hear Wendy’s voice on the other end. She seemed to be fine and answered his questions without hesitation. “I’m just checking that all is okay,” he said smiling at Doreen. “Doreen was worried about you.”
After several assurances he ended the call.
“Oh dear,” she said. “Am I a terrible person?”
He looked at her, smiled, and grabbed her fingers. “No, you are not a terrible person.”
He said it so firmly that she relaxed slightly. “I mean, it was obvious she was upset, but I couldn’t really tell why,” she muttered to herself, trying to think back. “When she came out with the check and handed it to me, she looked the most visibly upset then. You know what? It never even occurred to me, but maybe she didn’t have the money to give me.” And then she glared. “And maybe that check will bounce. See? She shouldn’t have cut it, if it would bounce.”
“That’s good advice for anybody,” he said. “But you don’t know what’s going on, so let’s not jump to conclusions.”
But it was hard not to. But the phone call convinced her to ease off and to relax about it. She shrugged and sank back into her chair, and then Mugs started to bark. She immediately tried to shush him, but he wasn’t having anything to do with it. She looked around to see what the problem was and saw another big dog coming toward them at full speed.