The Dot-Com Boom
Point and Shoot, Florida (YU)--Brenda was out of work at the same time Heap was.
She taught school for a year, was out of work again.
Finally, she got a job
at the new prison in Wewa, maintaining the computers and installing the phone system.
It didn't pay much, but it was steady work. She car-pooled with a neighbor.
Heap was at the house, fixing gourmet meals.
He would drive around and publish
pamphlets.
They were living in the trailer behind Uncle Wayne and Granny
Brown.
They could live on Brenda's salary. The bankruptcy wiped out their
debts, and their expenses were low.
Brenda wanted a place of their own, a
little further away from Granny Brown and Uncle Wayne. They made being a boomerang
family unpleasant.
And when the boys came home on a visit they were crowded,
in the trailer.
So Heap was looking for a job.
* * *
He got a temporary job, out of town. Eight months work in Atlanta, at $25
an hour. With a chance of permanent employment later on.
Come to Atlanta
for the 1996 Olympics.
He had a secured bank credit card with a $300 line
of credit. He paid the balance off every month.
He had a $1,000 tax refund
check in savings.
He could afford to rent an apartment until his paycheck
started.
At the end of eight months he was hired permanent.
He was
a senior information development specialist in a fiber-optic cable factory.
* * *
His truck gave up the ghost and he bought a mountain bike to ride to work,
a Raleigh M20.
He rode that bike to work in any weather, and every day.
He especially liked to ride it in bad weather, when he would ride by the cars, stalled
in gridlock.
In snow or sleet or freezing rain.
He was the only person at the factory who rode a bike to work.