She stood and pulled a hair tie out of her pocket, then grabbed her hair and twisted and turned until she formed a messy bun on the back of her head. “Do I need the hat again?”
Mouth dry, heart pounding, he stood and shook his head. “It’s mostly woods.”
As she turned away, he put a hand on her shoulder, and she stopped moving. She turned to look at him, and he cupped her cheek with his hand. Without a word, he kissed her, wanting to convey what he thought and felt without having to formulate the words. Why did he always have to talk? He felt like he had talked all day, and it made him feel tired. Finally, he said, “Daisy, I’m really glad you’re here.”
He could see the emotions in her eyes when she said, “Me, too.”
Daisyfielded a call from the bank that worked with her clients. The bank president sat on her Board of Directors. They had a deal that the bank would underwrite the loan for the land for the houses they would build regardless of the potential homeowners’ credit scores, provided the homeowners had no current outstanding debts.
“Good morning, Nigel. How are you?”
“Great. We have a problem with the upcoming closing.”
She frowned as she opened her desk drawer and pulled out the thick file for the Osborne family. “Oh? What’s the problem?”
“Credit report shows an outstanding debt to Atlanta Memorial. It’s small, but it needs to be resolved before we can finalize everything.”
She grabbed the sticky note and wrote Atlanta Memorial on it. “How much?”
“Ninety-eight dollars. It is three years in arrears and is currently in collections.”
“Okay. We’ll take care of it.”
She hung up the phone and looked up the number for Natalie Osborne. She answered on the second ring. “Hi, Natalie. Daisy Ruiz, here.”
After a brief pause, Natalie said, “Ms. Ruiz. Hi.”
“I got a call from the bank.”
“Oh no, we’re not to get the house, are we?”
The panic in the woman’s voice was the kind fueled by the desperation of living a life where nothing ever turned out the way it ought to. She had worked with this family several times. The place where they lived had two bedrooms, and they had four children. Her husband worked as a laborer for a construction company and barely made a living wage. Natalie worked as a server in a diner but had to juggle shifts with available childcare. Their oldest son had special needs.
“The bank can’t do the mortgage for the land if you have any outstanding debt.”
Natalie paused and said, “We paid everything. Remember? It took us two years.”
“Except for ninety-eight dollars to Atlanta Memorial.”
She heard Natalie’s intake of breath before she said, with a forceful voice that Daisy had never heard from her before, “No. We’re not paying that bill.”
“Natalie, you understand that if you don’t pay this bill, you don’t have land, so we can’t build a house? You get that, right?”
“We contested that bill. We shouldn’t have to pay it. It’s wrong.”
“What is a ninety-eight-dollar bill from the hospital for three years ago? That seems like a small amount.”
“That was the last of the bill, from when Sissy was born. We were paying regular like we said we would, and then someone told us to get a list. What do they call it? With all the charges on it?”
“Itemization?”
“Yes! We requested an itemized bill and found out they charged us for circumcision.”
It took a moment for Daisy to understand what Natalie said. “Circumcision on your daughter?”
“Yes! We wrote the hospital a note and said we wasn’t paying anymore. And they told us we shoulda contested it sooner and that we had to pay it. So, we just quit paying.”
Daisy nodded as if Natalie could see her. “Okay. I’ll take care of it.”
