Goodbye Stranger

  With the Mary saga behind us, most of us wanted to move on and never look back We still worked with her, but living a half a block away from the Mall, none of us felt obligated to give her a ride home, so socially, we didn’t have to see her much. There were a few occasions where she conned her way into hanging out with us like when she asked Mac for a ride home. Unbeknownst to him where she actually lived, she jumped into his car and said “Where to?” One thing to her credit, she was crafty. One time, she used the trick on George when she begged for a ride to ‘her doctor’. George flat out told her that he was going to do errands and she can sit in the car like a dog while he went to the post office, grocery store, etc. until she let him drive her home.  Unfortunately, one of the girls named Jennifer that we had been hanging out with felt bad for her. Like a predatory animal, Mary usually sensed the weakest herd member that she can use to latch back onto our group. Luckily, those times we hung out with her socially were limited.

  Because she had no one to hang out with, she would go to a bar near her house and ended up getting a second job there. It was a borderline strip club. They didn’t have a permit for that, so they just had the waitresses wear the shortest black transparent mini-skirts that ever existed. On top of that, they were encouraged to bend over a lot. The owner of this place seemed like a real winner, so naturally after a couple of months, Mary moved into a basement apartment of one of the houses this guy rented out. Now that she lived further away from the mall, she was missing more days from work at J.C. Penney’s. I forget whether she quit or was fired, but either way, her days of her being our co-worker were numbered.

  Although she was gone, she was not forgotten. Often a punchline of a joke between George, Tony, our stock guy, and myself. Bringing her up was always good for a laugh or a threat as needed. At one point, Tony said her name three times and I warned him, like Beetlejuice, there would be consequences. Sure enough, I got a call at work from Mary. She wanted me to stop by her house because she wanted to pay me back some of the money I lent her. I was all for that!

  Needless to say, I showed up at her place and she tells me we had to go to the welfare office, so she could get and cash her check. I didn’t sign up for that. And of course she wasn’t ready.

  “I’ve got to take a shower, first. You’re welcome to join me” As again, she strips in front of me and heads toward the bathroom. This time I was just mad at getting myself in this situation again. Sexy or not, nothing good would come out this situation.

   Finally she was ready, and naturally, she put on a nice pink dress and jewelry and looked totally out of place at the welfare office. She seriously epitomized the “Silver-Spoon, Paper-Plate” mentality. Even though she needed the money, at least everyone else there dressed for the occasion even if they were there committing welfare  fraud or not. I couldn’t bring myself to take her welfare money. She swore that she would pay me back when she could. I dropped her off at home and didn’t see her for a long time. She called me every week for months, usually on a Tuesday, until one day she called and called me her best friend. I felt really bad doing it, but I told her we weren’t friends.

  The next week she called me as if nothing happened. I asked her if she remembered the last conversation we had. She did. I asked her if she remembered how I said I didn’t consider her a friend and asked her to stop calling me ever again. She said she did. I asked her if anything had changed since then. She said no, and hung up. I felt bad again, but it had to be done.

  The next week she called again. I didn’t even fight it, I just pretended to listen. After a few more weeks of one sided phone calls the calls became less frequent until one day she called and asked if I could be a reference for her to take a job as a Live-in Nanny. I told her there was no way in any lifetime I could do that. Every scenario of that situation would end in disaster in my mind. She immediately asked if I thought Erin would be a reference for her. “Oh, sure.  She would see no problem with that!” Give her a call…

  Somehow she got that job.

Around this time Mark and Priscilla had broken up. They fought and argued a lot and it was just not working out. After they were broken up for a few weeks. Mark felt it was his responsibility to confess cheating on her with Maryto clear his conscience. He really just did it to be hurtful. We were all at a party at Dan’s parent’s new home. After the hole in the wall, I’m surprised he’d throw another party, but here we were. The two of them were in the basement, and I do know a chair was thrown. But this whole incident was overshadowed by the fact that one of Matt’s friend’s from high school (the same one that set fire to my garbage can at one of my parties) caused the upstairs toilet to overflow and didn’t tell anyone. That was bad by itself, but we only found out about it because it caused the ceiling fan on the first floor to crash down onto the coffee table later that night.

  I told Mary that Mark had told Priscilla and that she wasn’t really welcome around the group. Mary didn’t call much more after that, but at one point she called me and asked me to come to the house so she could pay me back some of the money she owed me. I agreed, but refused to come into the house. I refused to meet the loving family that she would inevitably lay waste to. We walked around the block and cleared the air a bit. I apologized for being as cruel as I was to her, but she never saw it. And to pay me she handed me a jar full of pennies that she had been saving ever since I lent her the money. It was the thought that count and that $17 dollars and change was more than I ever expected to see.

d for being as cruel as I was to her, but she never saw it. And to pay me she handed me a jar full of pennies that she had been saving ever since I lent her the money. It was the thought that count and that $17 dollars and change was more than I ever expected to see.