Debts

Debts by Edi Fine

“I always pay back money I owe and I owe a lot of money to a lot of people”, said Samuel to Daria, a red- headed beautiful woman, who sat across from him with a glass separating them. Samuel was in his thirties, an unemployed thin man, with dark eyes and a constant grim. She was only nineteen, a tall young woman with curly hair. She was a model for a few years, and did it for the money. When they met, he worked as a lighting assistant, for Max Brown, the famous photographer. Everyone seemed such a fake, except Samuel. He was simple and nice. She was tired of “the industry”. The photographer flirted with her. She knew of his reputation – kiss and tell; shoot and seduce. Samuel made her feel safe.

“You know what Max has just told me?” said Samuel to Daria during lunch break, “He said stay away from the model, I need some action and she is mine”. Daria hesitated and Samuel said: “don’t worry I’ll protect you from this narcissist”. He smiled and she smiled back as she saw Max holding a wet piece of cloth on his bruised nose. “What is he still doing here? Get him out, he’s fired,“′ cried Max with rage. Samuel never worked again in the modeling industry but Daria gave her phone number to him, and they became a couple.

Things are different now, with the thick glass separating them. “Don’t wait up for me. You’re so young and beautiful and clever. Don’t waste your youth on a loser like me,” he said to her. She was looking at him, not knowing what to do or say. It was as if acid in her broken heart spread throughout her body and burned her tired green eyes.

She remembered now that on the first date, he proudly shared he was fired from a grocery store. He ‘borrowed’ money. She didn’t like his choice of words. “You stole”′ she tried to correct him, but he explained he gave it all back. He took money without permission, wrote the exact sum he owed, and returned it all down to the last cent, three years later.

“No Interest, I don’t give interest but I pay back, I always do”, he said to the shop owner.

“What a character”, Daria thought, with his own original set of values. It’s not his first time in jail. When he was in the army, he ‘borrowed’ some equipment for a party. He gave it back but was sentenced to a month in jail. Then they discharged him from the military.

“I think we will never meet again”, said Daria with a voice that sounded like every word hurts her irreparably. Samuel nodded. “But”, she continued, “you can write to me, I will not answer but I promise to read...”

She stopped talking and burst into tears, running away from the gray jail.

“Dear beautiful Daria. I don’t want to mess with your life. You are amazing and you deserve an amazing life. I read on the gossip section that you and Max got married. It’s fine with me. In the pictures, you look happy. What do I know? I thought he was a jerk. I’m sure he’s a great guy, and that you made him a better man. The reason I’m writing after so many years is my principle: Always to repay what I owe.

I owe you something. What exactly I don’t know. Maybe in the writing of this letter I’ll find out. You know, once I worked as a waiter in a restaurant. As I usually do, I borrowed some money without telling them about it. Nothing much, twelve dollars here, five dollars there. Of course, I kept track, and wrote down a list of every dollar I borrowed. It added up and I am proud to say that on one sunny day I walked to the grocery store. There he was – the owner, looking at me with surprise. He only knew I took some money. He didn’t know how much. The envelope contained four hundred and thirteen bucks. I always give back. The problem was that most of the money was borrowed from the restaurant.

When I returned to the restaurant they fired me, gave me a week to pay back the money or they’d go to the police. A week passed, I took the watch I got for my bar mitzvah. I sold it. The watch seller only gave me one hundred and fifty dollars, he was stingy and made a profit off me, he said it was used. What do you mean used? I haven’t touched this watch in ten years, there’s not a scratch on it. Well, the truth is, the watch wasn’t mine, it was my girlfriend’s. She loved me, she just didn’t like all the gambling and nonsense. The watch was from her bat mitzvah and actually, there was a scratch on it, but only one. I once sold the gold necklace she got from her grandfather, she almost dumped me over this. I promised it would be the last time. After a year, I thought she’d forgotten about it, but I never forget. It wasn’t nice of me to borrow form her again and again. I also took some money from the wallets of my father, my sister, and my grandmother. I went into the restaurant, gave the boss three hundred and seventy dollars. I asked for juice so that we would end things in on a good note. He didn’t want to give, What a stingy guy. He told me to get out of there. I cursed his mother and his father, but the boss just ignored me.

I’m in prison again. The thick glass is still here, less transparent and with more scratches. I got married then she divorced me. Luckily, we don’t have children. She was O.K. It’s not her fault. Maybe it all started in childhood. Boys in class bullied me. Not anymore, even here in prison everybody knows not to mess with me because I give back, I always give back.

I’ll never know the effect of this letter on you. You were only a kid when we were together, such an angel. I guess some will say I’m chronically ill. But hey, cheer up beautiful Daria. That’s all I can write. I’m not much of a writer, but I hope the letter paid my debt to you.

Daria showed the letter to her husband Max, and he said: “What a character, I tell you those lighting assistants are something else”. Daria nodded her head, her hand trembled. She said: “You know, Max, the way you talked to me when I was a model was like I was a piece of meat”. He was surprised and she continued: Maybe, it’s something to learn from Samuel, I never give back, I always absorb and move on”. Max tried to take things under control: “What are you saying?”

She didn’t know what more to say. She waited for him to apologize, he didn’t.

“Well baby, I have to go off to work, big shoot today”.

He still works as a fashion photographer. She left modeling many years ago and works as a lawyer.

Max gave her a cold kiss on her lips and exited their big and fancy apartment. Daria called her secretary: Good morning, I won’t come to the office today, I have to visit a prisoner in the county jail.