The Second Part of Chapter 26: Blandness and Retreat

After being unemployed for four months, Belinda decided that it was time for the last resort: she would be moving in with her mother. The mortgage payments were becoming increasingly unsupportable on her income, which at present consisted of Employment Insurance cheques, received once a week. Her savings were down to the amount it would cost to move her belongings to Toronto, so she did so on that day; Belinda had never been much of a saver, and while it would not be beyond anybody who was good with their money to squirrel enough away to last a year or two on meagre living, Belinda’s finances were a travesty, due to her habit of dining out, preference for all sorts of knickknacks with which her house was tastelessly decorated, and impulse purchases. It wasn’t for lack of trying that she hadn’t found work; word of her being fired from her previous job had got out of her previous employer and had spread around the city, making it that much harder for her to find new employment; managers would not listen to her, and would think that she would simply be eager to dig up some dirt and spread it around. She had packed the things among her belongings that she wanted to keep, got up at five in the morning, and loaded the car, enduring the drizzle that made everything feel colder than it was. By six, she was on the road, and at noon, she had reached Toronto; Pollux spent the trip on the passenger seat of the car, sleeping. How like the old days when I would move home from university for the summer, she thought. Now, on the other hand, there was not the reassuring knowledge that her stay would be limited to four months; it might last a year, given the way her job search was progressing. Perhaps she could get a job in a low-key position in a different industry, she thought; the tech industry wasn’t that big, and word travels fast enough. An industry like banking or retail, on the other hand, was much larger; perhaps she would have better luck there.

She had called Suzanne the previous evening, informing her that she was moving back with her. While Suzanne was also out of work, she had paid off her mortgage years ago, and thus had the opportunity to simply stay at home until her savings dried up, which, given her considerable age, had grown to be ample enough to afford her the dignity of simply giving up the job search and retiring.

She had asked when Belinda had been laid off, and Belinda replied sullenly, “a few days before Christmas,” which led Suzanne to wonder why Belinda hadn’t told her earlier; it was probably shame, she thought.

Upon hearing Belinda’s news, Suzanne had phoned her other children and asked them that they give Belinda their support for the time being, but Melvin, Juliana and their spouses took this in a different direction, as none of them really liked Belinda. Eunice noticed her absence first, when she dialled Belinda’s number, and all she got was an answering machine; that this was on Thursday evening, when one would expect Belinda to be at home, was a little odd, so Eunice called Belinda’s cell phone instead.

“Hello,” came her voice.

“Hi Belinda.”

“Oh, hello Eunice,”

“What’s going on? I haven’t seen you around,”

Belinda did not really know how to deal with the awkwardness of the question; she would have to bite the bullet.

“I moved to Toronto,” she said.

“What about the house?”

“I sold it.” That was not true; she had simply abandoned it, and did not bother to board up the windows.

“It’s a nice house,” Said Eunice. “Who purchased it?”

“Some speculator,” said Belinda. “I don’t remember their names,”

The story was sounding less and less plausible to Eunice.

“So, now I’m moving in with my mother, who decided to stop looking for work and simply retire.”

“I see; well, good luck on finding a job in Toronto,” and then she bade Belinda good-bye. She could tell there was something missing from the story, and that was the name of the purchaser of the house on the corner of Lyon Street; most people would know the name of whoever would be buying the house, and it was a very nice house: there were neatly pruned junipers in the front, and a pretty garden in the back with grapevines supported on a trellis. She realised what else was missing from the story: she had passed that house on the way to Hartman’s just on Wednesday, and there was never any for sale or sold sign in the front; the only thing that had been missing was the car in the driveway. If she had abandoned it, then it was a very unwise move; she would thus miss out on regaining the equity on her home; thus it did not strike her as something Belinda would do; on the other hand, she was not known for good money management, as her house was full of all sorts of junk, and even though she rarely used the car, a big money-sucker in and of itself, there had been hints that Belinda’s finances were not in good shape, and she had heard third-hand from one of her co-workers that she had never made voluntary contributions to the company pension plan, and would thus be unable to rely on that in her retirement. On the other hand, surely she would know enough to sell her house, and that thought made Eunice believe Belinda when she said it had been sold.

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