A Flawed Legacy - 17

Yes, I was wrong.  Dreams, expectations can fade, suddenly, without notice.

I no longer remember how I first heard of the money missing from a rent deposit made by one of the tenants we were supposed to accommodate.  All I can remember is that something like $400 was missing and Janice claimed to have no knowledge of it.  As it turned out, the tenants insisted they had paid her we did not have the cash on hand to make up for it.  Finally, I would learn that she did know more than she was admitting and I had but one thought.  Vividly, I recalled the Judge's warning during her sentencing for the first offense and all I could think of was her serving ten years in prison.

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to go through the landlord's books regarding deposits with an Asst. District Attorney investigating the case and his first impression was that his boss would not go ahead with prosecution.  I was wrong again.  I got a loan and tried to repay the landlord and they refused.  So - for some reason, still unknown to me, I acknowledged my responsibility and the DA filed charges.  I was headed for court for a crime I did not commit.  I thought it was better than having my wife in prison.   And I had seen the books, there were other mistakes and I sensed that possibly, they were wrong and my wife was not guilty - even though she had admitted to me that she was.

Going into court with the thought I might end up in prison was a scary experience.  My lawyer accepted my desire to leave it in the hands of the judge and not have a jury hear the claims and counter-claims.  I heard the testimony of the landlord's employee and for the first time, I took heart.  I was next on the witness stand and told the judge my understanding as to what had happened, including my thoughts on the way the landlord kept books, and stepped down.  No sooner had I sat down and the judge made his decision - I was not guilty, of poor judgement perhaps, but not guilty of a crime.

Shortly thereafter, for no other apparent reason than my employer assuming I had been guilty, I was fired.   But not through with that employer.  They claimed that I had taken money from the amounts that I had been responsible for and it did not take long before I was arrested.  Fortunately, the same Assistant DA was assigned this case and it didn't take him long to convince the DA, there was no case.  I was freed of all charges, but un-employed, again.

The friend who had offered me that job was now working for another company and they approached me to see if I was interested in getting even.  That was an interesting thought, but as I considered that we could compete with those who had filed fraudulent charges against me, I decided to join them.

We opened an office away from the previous one I had started, so there would be nothing for anyone to claim I was competing with them, and the fact was, we opened our office to compete with a major nationally known temporary help firm and within weeks, they had closed their office and left the area. Now we had employees from that firm and from the previous employer as well and were well on our way to even greater success.  We would open two others offices in short order, but I had nothing to do with them.  In the meantime, however, I had found a large company in need of females to work on an assembly line and used my contacts in the "gay" community to recruit new employees.  Within a month, we had more females working out of that office than we ever had numbers of men.

With that, the management bought another agency located on "skid row" in downtown Los Angeles and I became their manager.  We did very well from the outset as I fashioned an environment where most of the potential workers were comfortable as they waited on the possibilities they might obtain work and more importantly, money for a "cot, some hots and a drink or two" - which was life in the streets.

By now, our company seemed to me prospering, but one day I had a visit from the IRS.  They wanted to know of my relationship with the company, an employee or a corporate officer?  I was still an employee as I really was not interested in a title, I thought I had earned a secure position in the company and was more content, dealing with the employees.  At least, they seemed to be more honest with me than some of the actions in our home office.  The visit with the IRA was not just the first one.  I would discover that rather than depositing the monies we had collected for income taxes, they had ignored their responsibilities and within weeks, our doors were padlocked.  Gone was the possibility I would ever see the wages I had earned as bonuses, but were not paid because of "temporary" problems.  Well, we were in the temporary help business, so promises were temporary as well.

A Flawed Legacy - 15

Melinda - now my Susie, would be in the hospital several days.  I would be there every night after work, still praying, still wondering, why?  I know, I left Janice at home taking care of Mary Kathryn, but none of that seemed to concern me.  What had begun to trouble me more than anything was the fact we did not have the resources to pay the hospital bills.  Soon, we did not have enough to pay the owner of our house and we would be evicted.

I had hoped my employer - especially my friend, my boss, would offer something.  Not money out of his pocket as he was always whining about the cost of supporting his wife's spending tendencies, but a word to the management of how dedicated I was to my responsibilities.  Nothing was ever said, that I knew of, at least.  I began to think of a change.  But we needed  the security.

We moved into an apartment complex where there were four units on one side of a sidewalk and four on the other side.  It was nice, but we were pregnant again.  Soon, our first son came along.

The more I thought of my responsibilities and the less I thought about the possibilities at my job, the more I was tempted to go back to drinking.  I will never forget an incident before William, our first son was born.  Our children were all born by caesarean section and we knew exactly when the delivery would be scheduled, so I boasted that "my wife was going to have a baby at 7:30 the following morning" and offered to bet on it.  To my surprise, three or four fellows took the bet, so that when it happened, I collected a couple of hundred dollars, that we needed at home.  Instead, I bought the "house" a couple of rounds of drinks and tipped the waitress generously.  Stupid, I know, but with all that seemed to be going on in my mind, it was true to form for me to disregard my real responsibility.

I don't know if that is what caused it, but I would soon be shocked to discover that my wife had been stealing mail from our neighbors' mail boxes and was caught and jailed.  I had wondered where she got all of the gifts the children had at Christmas, but she claimed that her mother had paid for them.

There was a trial, she plead guilty and to our amazement, the judge sentenced her to ten years in prison, but let her go on probation because of our children, warning her that if she continued to violate the law, he would assure her that she would serve every day of that sentence.

It wasn't long before I was sickened by everything that was happening - to me (I thought) and finally I had enough of my job, my bosses, my opportunities there and quit my job.

But an amazing thing happened.  I had made friends with a temporary help supplier who had been calling on our company and when he heard that I had left, he called to see if I would be interested in working for him.  It involved a better salary, the potential for commissions and a company car.  It was like "manna" from heaven as far as I was concerned.  We moved back to Los Angeles and it looked like our future had really improved.