Tino - A Matter of Fifty Dollars Part I - Untamed Hearts Memories

My ma used to tell us we were never really poor as long as we had someone who cared enough to lend us fifty bucks. When I was a kid, it seemed like were always in one of two positions, just ahead enough to lend fifty bucks, or desperate enough to ask someone for a loan. 

 She was constantly buying extra groceries for whatever family in the building was down on their luck. Like the door went both ways, and being able to lend it to someone else, to make them feel not poor for a day or two, made my ma the richest woman in the world.

 But here’s the thing, she never borrowed from the people she loaned to. Usually, she was borrowing from male friends outside the building, and buying food for families inside the building. None of it was really loans, even if that’s what she called it. 

 There was no paying back, not with cash, it was other things. Mr. Mac fixed the hole in our ceiling when a pipe broke. And the Silva’s upstairs used to watch me and Nova if Romeo couldn’t. That same two-way door, which was why it didn’t seem weird that she never worried about paying back the money she was borrowing. I remember when I finally understood why she never had to pay back all those fifty-dollar loans.  She was dead by the time I figured it out and I never talked about it with Romeo or Nova.

I’m sure they knew way before I did.