Dumb Luck by Lesley Choyce Read Free Book Online

what?”
    â€œYep. I’m meeting with the bank in the morning.”
    â€œWhy the bank?”
    â€œCan’t really get this going with just your money. I’ll need a loan. Gotta do this right. Gotta spend money to make money.”
    â€œSo you take my fifty and ...”
    â€œI’m gonna need a little more. Now that I’ve done the math. If I can put down sixty-five, I can negotiate a better rate from the bank. The bastards’ll try to squeeze every penny out of you.”
    â€œSixty-five thousand.”
    â€œYou’re okay with that, right?”
    â€œSure,” I said. “I’m okay with that.” But I don’t know if I was really okay or not. Everything was so confusing. I swallowed hard. “Dad,” I said. “What was Mom really crying about tonight.”
    He just shook his head. “Well, like I said, I quit my job today.”
    â€œOh,” I said, “and she didn’t think that was a good idea?”
    â€œNope.”
    There was a long pause just then, and he shrugged. “Don’t worry. I know how to make her feel better. Ever since we’ve been married, she’s been wanting nicer things than we could afford. Now we can afford them. Now I can make her happy.” And he closed the lid on the laptop, walked into the living room, and switched on the TV to the nightly news.

chapter eleven
    I didn’t want to argue with my father on this, but my gut instinct told me he should not have quit his job. That really pissed me off. Maybe this time my mother had a good reason to cry.
    I knocked on her bedroom door.
    â€œGo away,” she said. I was guessing she thought it was my dad.
    â€œIt’s me,” I said.
    I heard her blow her nose. “What is it, Brandon?”
    â€œCan I come in?”
    â€œSure.”
    I opened the door and walked in. The room was a bit of a mess and so was my mom. “He shouldn’t have quit his job like that,” I said. “Not right away.”
    She shook her head. “There’s no changing that now.” She didn’t look up at me.
    â€œI know,” I said. “I feel like this is all my fault.”
    Now the floodgates opened more and she started crying again. “No, Brandon.” The arms were out. I walked toward her. She stood up and hugged me. “No, it isn’t your fault. You didn’t tell him to quit his job.”
    â€œI kinda wish he had discussed all this with me before moving ahead.”
    She released me and blew her nose. “You know your father.” I looked at my mom as she sat back down on the bed and tried to pull herself together. She didn’t look too good tonight but I knew that usually she was a really good-looking woman. There was a picture on the dresser of her and my dad when they were, like, twenty-one. They both looked so young, so happy, and she was a knockout. My father had always been ambitious, had talked about making it big. For him, that had always meant money. He worked hard at what he did but, like me, he’d always said he didn’t have any luck. We’d both been unlucky bastards. Up until now.
    But why all the unhappiness then?
    I knew I couldn’t own up to the true way I was feeling about my father’s stupid decision and the way he was treating me. So I decided to suck it up and try to put a good face on it. “Mom,” I said, “this is going to work out. I promise.”
    â€œYou know your father’s tried his hand at owning his own business before.”
    â€œYeah, I remember.” My father had once saved $10,000 and bought a truck and equipment for steam cleaning carpets in people’s houses. He couldn’t make a go of it. And the second time he started a business, it was landscaping. That one went even worse.
    â€œWell,” I said, “at least this time he’s doing something he understands. Selling cars. Apparently, I own half the business.” I tried to