Make a call to mom

Dan left work as fast as he could. He got caught up listening to Kristy complain about her terrible day. It was yet another reminder to try and stay as far away from Customer Service as he could. As he got into his car, he called Laura. "Hey, sorry, ran a little later than I expected. Got caught up talking to a coworker. You said you had some news?" he asked as he adjusted his seat and tried to roll up his broken window that had slipped down some.

"Hey, honey," Laura greeted. "I called around. Mack's offer really is the best option available to us at the moment. I've already gone over and talked to him. We'll need to get a few things though... like a bed. Once we pay him, we'll have a month to try and figure things out."

Dan sighed, it was about what he'd expected. "Alright, are you already over there?" he asked.

"Yeah, I have everything ready... I know you... well, sorry to ask this, but I don't have enough to cover what he's asking for."

"Cash, right?" Dan asked, trying to remember what the older man had told them.

"Yes, sorry," she repeated.

"It's no trouble. I know we need it," Dan answered with a smile, even though his mother couldn't see it. "I'm headed that way now."

It took a while to get across town during peak traffic hours, but he managed to the apartment in one piece. He spotted his mother's car at the end of the row. "Hey," he greeted as he knocked on the glass.

Laura jumped and let out a little squeak as she swung her head to stare at him. "Oh, you!" she gasped, her hand over her chest. "You scared me," she greeted as she got out of the car. "I've got everything ready and filled out. We just need to get him the money and we can... move in," she finished as her voice trailed off.

"We got this," Dan consoled as he hugged his mother.

Twenty minutes later, Dan stepped into their new apartment and looked around with a critical eye. "It... looks good," Dan had to admit after looking over the place. It wasn't what he'd call comfortable, but it wasn't absolute squalor either.

"I'll just be for a month," Laura said as she rubbed his back. She put the shopping bags with all of their possessions in them down on the counter by the fridge.

Dan was reminded once again that his entire worldly possessions could be fit into five plastic bags. Some of which weren't even his. "We'll need a bed," he echoed his mother's words after looking around the empty room.

"Mack is getting in touch with someone he knows about a mattress. Maybe we should stop by Big Bucks on this side of town to get an air mattress for now," Laura suggested. "We'll stop by the second-hand shops in the area to see if we can't get things like pots and pans. Plastic plates and bowls," she continued as if making a list in her mind of everything they'd need to restart their lives.