Chapter 2
“State your full name for the records.” Trin told the man her full name and waited for his next set of instructions.
This was her third time being in the welfare office, and she didn’t like it any more than she did the first time.
It was long hours and waiting on things that just seemed to be out of place with everything else.
She decided that she was going to give them what they wanted and not have opinions on what she thought about their way of doing things.
“Ms. Trinity Layton, what is your relationship with Mrs. Doris Layton?” She thought that was obvious, but told him that she was her mother. “And why are you here instead of Mrs. Layton?”
“She died seven months ago. I’ve been trying to get her Social Security checks to stop coming along with her monthly food card.
” He said that they shouldn’t be coming to her if she was indeed dead.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you guys.
That her check, along with her food card, is still coming to the address that you have on file.
I have a copy of her death certificate here, as well as the funeral home bills.
There is also a copy of her opening and closing costs at the cemetery where she is buried. ”
“I’ll have to look into this. We don’t usually make mistakes when it comes to having checks coming to the deceased.
” She thought that it happened more often than not, but didn’t say anything.
She just wanted it to stop before someone thought that she was cashing them.
Trin was also happy that her mom never got around to having direct deposit, so that the checks would be hitting the bank.
Handing him what she had, he looked at each check like he was looking at some kind of divine clue that was going to tell him the meaning of life.
“There are eight checks here. You said she died seven months ago.” Mentally rolling her eyes at the man, she smiled at him.
“The last one there is for this month. Last month I was here, and they assured me that she’d get no more checks.
That was told to me the month before that and the one before that.
She keeps getting these checks and the food card every month like clockwork.
” He said they prided themselves on getting checks out on time.
“But you see, she is deceased and cannot cash them. Nor will I. I want you to do something there that will stop them from coming.”
He got onto his computer and started punching keys. She knew just how he felt. She was getting frustrated with the whole thing herself. But she couldn’t just let it go. It would be fraud for her if she were to keep getting them. When he seemed to finish whatever he was doing, he looked at her.
“It says here that you have been coming in here for the past several months because you’re getting checks for a Doris Layton and you shouldn’t be.” She told him that was right. “We don’t make mistakes like that, Ms. Layton. I’m going to have to take this up with my supervisor.”
“That’s just what the other woman did.” He stood up and left her sitting there with his over stacked desk and her paperwork that she’d brought in again.
She figured that he’d be gone about twenty minutes, they’d tell her things were taken care of, and that she’d get no more checks.
Well, until the next month came around. Her cell phone rang, and she cursed under her breath because it was her aunt, Tilly.
“I’m at the Social Security office right now. They’re working on it.”
“I don’t know why you’re bothering. It’s only about six thousand a month.
Just pocket it and be done with it. I would.
” She would too and then blame the system for her doing just that if she were caught.
“Why don’t you cash one of those checks and give me the money?
Or just give me the checks, and I’ll pay my bills with them? I could use a windfall about now.”
“It’s against the law to cash government checks when they’re made out to someone else.
Besides, you’d have to have identification to cash them, and the last time I looked, you didn’t have anything with mom’s name on it.
” She told her that she’d be surprised at what she could do.
“I don’t want to know. You just keep away from the checks and the food card, and everything will be all right. ”
“You’re getting her food card, too? You didn’t tell me that.
” She said that it had been coming with the check each month and that it was up to about thirty-five hundred dollars now.
They just keep adding on the five hundred dollars she gets monthly, like she’s using the money.
” Again, her aunt told her to hand it over to her, and she’d make short work of the balance.
“Like the checks, it’s not made out to you.
I can’t even cash them if that was going to be something I’d do. ”
She would never do anything like that. It was why she was here at the offices each month, trying to get them to stop coming.
Trin was afraid that someone was going to steal the checks and cash them—her aunt mostly she was afraid of—and have a good time with them.
Mom was getting six grand a month in Social Security, and she had eight checks now.
That was a great deal of money just lying around waiting for someone to steal it.
Her aunt was going on about how she could use the money when the man came back into the offices.
“I have to go. I’m talking to someone about them now.
” He sat down and glared. She supposed being on the phone was a no-no, but she’d been polite enough not to be on it when he’d been in the room.
Hanging up on her aunt while she was still going on about the amount of money she could use, she smiled at the man.
If he’d given her his name, she couldn’t remember it for the life of her.
“You’re not going to get checks anymore.” She asked him what she was to do with the checks she’d already gotten. “I don’t know about that. I wouldn’t say to cash them because we don’t have a way for them to be refunded from you, but that’s against the law.”
“I know that. And I’m not going to cash them. They don’t belong to me.” He said that was quite right. “Can’t you take them? Maybe put them into a shredder or something you have in this office?”
“Those are government forms. You can’t just shred them like they’re nothing.
What a thing to say to me.” He looked as offended as she felt about him telling her to cash them.
“I don’t want them either. As I said, we have no way of taking them back in this office.
You’ll just have to hold onto them until such time as they are needed. ”
She decided to put them in the bank safety deposit box and be done with them.
And if any more came in, she was just going to put them in the same box and pray that someday they’d get their heads out of their asses and figure this out.
She got his name and badge number so that she’d have some kind of record that she’d been to the office.
Just like she’d done before and the time before that.
She wasn’t going to be caught with these checks ten years from now and have someone tell her that she was stealing them.
On her way home from the bank, deciding to put them into their own box, she felt better.
She was making some progress, even if it was only in her head.
She told herself while she was at the bank that she was just going to take care that the checks were put in the deposit box and not bother with the office again but she knew that if she were to get any more, she’d be right there in the office again bothering them, because that’s the way they made her feel, with her getting the checks that belonged to her mother.
She was just getting home when her aunt pulled into the driveway.
“Do you have those checks still?” She told her that she had shredded them.
“Why would you do something like that? I told you to just cash them, then give the money to me. Why are you so stubborn all the time? No one is going to care, especially not the Social Security office, whether or not they’re cashed. I could have used that money.”
“It’s not ours to spend. Mom worked very hard for that money, and it should be going to her. But she’s not alive anymore, and I miss her every day.” Aunt Tilly just huffed at her and went back to her car. “You’re not coming in?”
“No. I don’t like you anymore. I don’t know that I ever did.
” She wanted to say that the feeling was mutual, but didn’t.
She didn’t like her aunt at all. And hated her on other days.
“I’ll not be back here. If you’re stupid enough to just shred that kind of money, I have no use for you.
If you get a check next month, I demand that you hold onto it until I get it.
I need that money, and I’m not going to be broke simply because you have a burr up your ass about them not belonging to me.
I worked hard for money, too, and you don’t see me bitching about it if I get a little extra.
How about the food card? I suppose you did away with it as well. ”
“I did.” She was suddenly afraid of her aunt.
She’d always been bossy, but today she was pissed off enough to harm her.
She was glad that she’d put the checks out of her house.
It would be a fight if she had them on herself.
“I told you that it didn’t belong to us.
I don’t want to get into trouble if they suddenly decide that I shouldn’t have them. I don’t want to go to prison for you.”
“You’ll turn them over to me when you get any more, or you’ll regret it.” She backed away from her aunt, suddenly worried about what she might do. “You’d better be afraid, Trinity. I’m not shitting you when I tell you that I need that money.”