High Interest Rates
“Hey Juan, thanks for coming over,” Juan’s neighbor, Rob Lewis, opened the gate to his backyard, and the two men sat in their regular chairs. “You want a beer?” Rob asked.
“Sure,” Juan answered, accepting the ice-cold can of Coors Light. “How come you’re asking me in English? Have you stopped practicing your Spanish? You’re never gonna get better if you don’t practice,” Juan gently scolded.
A strange look washed over Rob’s face. He blushed and looked down, “Lo siento, señor. I will try harder to practice.”
Juan laughed and leaned back in his chair. “What’s going on? Why’d you call me over here today? Is something broken? You sounded kind of serious on the phone.”
Rob kept looking down at his feet. He didn’t answer.
The unexpected silence from his close friend alarmed Juan, “What’s wrong?”
Rob sniffed and pinched his nose. He looked up at Juan with red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes, “I’m in trouble, buddy.”
“What’s going on?” Juan leaned forward. “Are you sick?” Juan knew that Rob had suffered for years from a work-related disability.
“No,” Rob shook his head. “Nothing like that.”
Juan waited.
“It’s just that…” Rob was blushing again. His face was beet red. “It’s just that I live on a fixed income, you know?”
Juan nodded.
“Yeah, well, anyway,” Rob struggled to come to the point. “Well, it’s like this. I’ve been living on my credit cards for the last couple of months.”
“Oh no,” Juan shook his head rapidly. “You can’t do that, Rob! You only use your credit card to purchase things you need, not to pay bills. Never use them to pay your bills. The interest rates will kill you. You gotta pay those off every month!”
Rob let out a frustrated sigh and looked away, up and to the right. “I know, I know, OK?” He sighed again, “But I did it anyway. Now I’m in trouble.”
“What you gonna do now, Rob?” Juan asked, his brow furrowed. “You need some money?”
Rob shook his head, “Thank you, brother.” He took a long pull from his beer and tossed the empty can into a sack overflowing with cans. “Thank you so much, but I’m in too deep for that now.”
Juan scratched his chin. “You talkin’ about bankruptcy? I wouldn’t do that either. It will stay on your credit report for ten years.”
“Naw,” Rob popped the top on his next can. “I’m not gonna go bankrupt. I just need to refi my house. Take out a loan to pay off my high-interest credit cards.”
Juan considered this. “Well, that’s better than bankruptcy. But the interest rates on houses are pretty high right now, too. You sure this is a good idea?”
“What other choice do I have, amigo?” Rob did his best to flash a brave grin. “Like you said, it’s better than bankruptcy.”
“Could you get a job? Go back to work again?” Juan tried to sort through some other options.
Rob shook his head again. He looked much older now. “I’m too broken to work again.”
Juan put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “It’s gonna be OK. How can I help?”
“Maria! Calm down!” Juan shouted. It didn’t do any good. His wife was furious. She was shaking her hands at him. Her cell phone was in one hand, and their checkbook was in the other.
“Ay cabrón,” she swore, staring like a rabid dog into Juan’s eyes. “I told you not to help that…” Maria cursed like a Mexican cowboy. Her use of foul language shocked Juan to the core.
“There’s got to be some mistake,” Juan began to stammer, unable to resist the tidal wave of his wife’s wrath. “Rob is our friend. He wouldn’t do something like that to us.”
“He was your friend!” Maria pointed an accusing finger at Juan’s face. “And you co-signed for him. Now he’s used that information to clean out our accounts. Ay, Madre de Dios! That was more than fifty thousand dollars! Our life savings!”
Maria turned away and held her hands to her face as she burst into hot tears, “All those years working the night shift… gone.”
“I can’t believe this,” Juan grabbed his hat and strode angrily towards the door. “He wouldn’t do this to me.”
But Rob had done it. Juan arrived to find his neighbor’s house abandoned. Later, the police said that they could find no trace. They promised, however, to keep looking.