“Douglas, where did the other seven thousand dollars go?” His face went from pale to gray. Behind him, the receptionist quietly picked up her purse and slipped into the back room. I took a folded paper from my basket, the sale record that Doris’s nephew at the motor vehicle office had pulled up for me the night before.
“The man from Dubuque paid eleven thousand dollars for my Buick,” I said. “You handed me a check for thirty-eight hundred.” Douglas opened his mouth and closed it again. His hand went to his tie, and it was shaking. “Mom, please, not out here,” he whispered. I kept my thumb on the bell. “Then tell me about the Hendricks account, Douglas, and tell me before I ring it.”
Douglas sank onto the bench beside the window. “It started eighteen months ago,” he said, so quietly that I leaned closer. A loan to a friend’s car lot had failed, and Douglas, who sold insurance to half the town, began borrowing from the premiums that clients like the Hendrickses paid him, meaning to put it back before anyone noticed. He never did. At my birthday supper, Mrs. Hendricks had mentioned that her homeowners policy lapsed even though she had paid every month, and I kept that in my head the way I once kept every voice on the switchboard.
“Lyle Pruitt from Dubuque paid eleven thousand dollars for my Buick,” I said. “You gave me thirty-eight hundred and used the rest to patch the hole you made.” Douglas covered his face. “I thought you would never check,” he said. “You thought an old woman would never check,” I answered. “That was your mistake. Mine was telling you about the mailbox.”
I had not come to ruin him. From my basket I took a stamped envelope addressed to the state insurance department, and a second paper listing every payment the Hendrickses made. “You have until Friday to walk into that office yourself and repay them in full,” I said. “If you do, this envelope goes in my stove. If you don’t, Doris’s nephew mails it Monday.” Douglas nodded again and again, tears running into his collar, while half of Main Street pretended not to watch.
He reported himself Friday morning. He sold his boat and lake cabin, repaid the Hendrickses to the penny, and gave up his license. Because he had confessed first, the judge chose probation and restitution over prison. Mrs. Hendricks wrote a letter on his behalf. Now Douglas drives me to the supper club every Sunday, and I let him. On Thursdays I ride the red bicycle to the diner where he waits, and I ring the bell at him. I never asked for the keys back. I only asked to be treated like the woman who raised him.
