"MELANIE!" Jackson roared.
His voice was so loud, his yell so unanticipated, that Melanie jumped, nearly dropping the full catheterization bag she had just removed. Odelia wasn't sure whether she should feel grateful or disappointed: grateful because the room and its contents, which mostly consisted of herself, had not been splattered with urine, or disappointed because Melanie didn't have a mess to clean up.
"MELANIE! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"
As Melanie scurried from the room, shouting back, "DON'T YOU SCREAM AT ME! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, ANYWAY?", Odelia's mouth slowly curled into a huge, toothy smile.
Unless she was very much mistaken, Jackson had just logged on to pay the monthly Visa bill... or MasterCard. It could be either, because they both came due at the same time. And, as it happened, both accounts had been maxed out. Since the limit on each card was in excess of fifty thousand dollars, Jackson had good reason to be shrieking like a schoolgirl with a tarantula crawling up her neck.
Despite the constant hunger clawing away at her insides, Odelia was happier than she had been in months. Once he discovered that the contents of his and Melanie's bank accounts, both checking and saving, had disappeared, he would really lose control.
At the thought, a giggle shook its way through her, loosening a by now rare bubble of gas. Instantly, the smell of fresh strawberries filled the room and her stomach clenched, squeezing fountains of saliva into her mouth and tears from both eyes. A long and painful spate of wheezing and compulsive swallowing had to be endured before she regained enough control to effectively eavesdrop.
The commingled bellowing of Jackson and Melanie's conversation rendered only isolated phrases intelligible.
"—NOT AS IF I DID THIS, IT'S OBVIOUSLY A MISTAKE—"
mumblebellow yell yell yell
"—ISN'T THERE A NUMBER? INSTEAD OF SCREAMING AT ME, YOU SHOULD BE CALLING CUSTOMER SERVICE—"
mumblebellowscream scream scream
"—IF YOU HAD LET ME SIGN US UP FOR LIFE LOCK, THIS WOULD NEVER HAVE—"
mumblebellowshriek shriek shriek
Odelia had maxed out every last one of their accounts. First she had deposited cash advances from each credit card into their bank accounts, then transferred that cash out again, percolating the funds through six off-shore banks before sending it to its final home.
Odelia had given the money to 'Feeding America.' It had seemed fitting.
No credit card company would agree to write off as fraud a payment that had been made directly into the card owner's bank account, plus the full route the money had traveled after that was untraceable, so the funds could never be recovered from their ultimate recipient. Franklin and Melanie were looking at months of investigation and legal wrangling before they recovered one thin dime. If they ever did. Their financial goose was well and truly cooked.
Ohhhhh... goose... roasted, stuffed with onions and celery and dripping with port wine gravy...
STOP IT...
STOP IT STOP IT STOP
As she struggled to swallow the ocean of saliva brought forth by the image of roast goose, Odelia dragged her thoughts back onto her tormentor's misfortunes.
Yup. All things considered, Odelia felt mighty good.
Her troubles would lessen considerably as soon as she was free of Melanie's reign of terror. Enough money to wait me out for two years... Ha! Now she didn't have enough to wait out the next two days.
YOU ARE READING
Tipping the Scales
ChickLitOdelia has spent most of her life so firmly under her brother's thumb that she might as well have been an insect trapped in a chunk of amber, but now, at long last, something is happening to her. Too bad it's not a nice, normal, something, like a '...
