How It Rolls Read Free

door.
                  “Because there’s work to be done.”
                  “It’s Saturday night Falcon, go home or go out or something.  That stuff can wait. Come up and watch some movies with us.”
                  “Nah, I’m good. But thank you.  And you hired someone and didn’t tell me.”
                  “Oh, crap—I meant to tell you yesterday but I forgot.  They don’t start until Monday anyway.”
                  “Well, I’ll go ahead and get them into the system now so we won’t have an issue come payday.” I heard some fumbling on the other line and then Owen clearing his throat.
                  “Falcon, come up and stay with us tonight.”
                  “I’m just gonna finish up here and then go see Mom, okay?”
                  “Yeah, ok.  Meet me at the diner tomorrow for breakfast.”
                  “Ok. Bye.”
                  I hung up and entered the new payroll information for Nellie’s new employee Reed Wolfe.  He sounded like a dork to me, but I really didn’t have room to talk.  But if Nellie hired him, then he must be ok. 
                  I closed out, set the alarm and went to see my mom.  My mom was the absolute best.  I didn’t know what I’d ever do if some girl I dated didn’t like my mom.  Bullshit, I know what I’d do; the girl would be gone in a tenth of a heartbeat.
                  I walked into the restaurant through the back, into the kitchen.  Everything had been cleaned up and my mom sat on her barstool near the prep counter, showing bunches and bunches of basil who was boss.
                  I pulled up my own stool across from her and grabbed a knife and a cutting board and put it on the counter.  I rolled up my sleeves and washed my hands and started in on my own pile of basil.  She didn’t look at me or even acknowledge that I was there.  That was the thing about my mom.  She let us come to her, waited for us to talk.  She never pried or accused, and there had been a time or two that just being in the same room with her had cured my ails. 
                  “I work too much,” I said never looking up from my chiffonade.
                  “You do.”  She cleared off her board, scraping the green ribbons into a metal bowl. 
                  “But I don’t want to quit. Everyone I work for is someone I love.”
                  “True.” She switched to chives and got up to get a different knife.
                  “I’m lonely Mom—even sitting in a room full of people. But I don’t want to be one of those guys who scours college parties and malls looking for a date.  I’m not that guy.”
                  “No, you’re not.  Owen wasn’t looking either when Nellie walked into his life.  It just happens.  How’re the stocks or day trading or whatever going?”
                  “It’s good.  I put it all in savings, high interest accounts.  I’m upwards of two hundred thousand dollars.” 
                  That made her stop cutting.
                  “I’m so proud of you Falcon, I am.  But what good is money if there’s no one to spend it on?”
                  “Tell me about it.” We continued to chop until she shooed me out at midnight.  I felt better, just talking to her about it.  Nothing was solved but my chest didn’t feel as tight anymore.
                  I got home and decided to go over Dr. Glusman’s notes before heading to bed.  He was a tricksy little snitch and he loved to give pop quizzes.  Plus, I had nothing better to do. I lay in bed thinking of a legitimate way to spend my money and came up short.  I was a runaway train.  On a track to nowhere, no destination, no purpose.  And wasn’t that just