Then I got laid off for the second time in three years. I watched my savings swirl down the drain as I made the monthly payments to Placid Harbor.
The economy being what it’s been, getting rehired was tough. I’d used up my unemployment from the previous downturn. I took odd jobs, temp jobs, and night jobs to try to keep my days free for job-hunting.
I sold practically everything in my apartment that wasn’t nailed down. I watched my account bottom out to where I no longer had the money to make the next payment to Mom’s residence. I was looking at the prospects of going homeless myself and watching Mom get evicted. The latter was the far worse prospect to contemplate.
I sat with her until a half-hour before her scheduled supper in the dining hall. That coincided with the start of rush hou
