A Mile Down by David Vann

Author:David Vann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Literary travel
ISBN: 9781925095081
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2014-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

MY SIX DAYS in California were extremely rushed. The first night back, I met with Amber and Heather.

Our office was just one room in a two-storey building in Menlo Park, but it was big enough, and it was clean. Heather had done a lot of filing. She and Amber showed me what she had done, and it became clear that all she had done was filing, and I saw that she had filed documents related to my pickup truck in four different folders. “Nissan,” “Truck,” “David,” and “Insurance.” I had paid a thousand dollars or so over the past month for unnecessary and poorly executed filing.

Amber and Heather were both young. Amber about twenty-three, maybe, and Heather probably a year younger. They were acting like schoolgirls caught not having done their homework. It was odd. I was running a business. This was my life. It wasn’t an amusement. But I could tell that less than complimentary comments about me had been the staple in this office for some time.

I was going through bills with Amber when we came across one small one, for only $700, that had been paid late, after three written notices.

“I asked to have the small bills paid on time,” I said. “Especially ones like this related to marketing materials.”

“I know,” Amber said. “I meant to pay this one, and he called several times. But I just forgot.” Then she giggled. She actually giggled, and Heather, who was standing in the doorway, had to suppress a giggle. I learned a couple of years later that Amber was a stoner, so I have to assume now that this giggling was marijuana.

“Well it says here he’s going to report me to credit agencies if it’s not paid by September 1. But it looks like it wasn’t paid until late October.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s what happened.” And she smiled.

I looked at her, and I couldn’t figure out how things had gotten this bad between us. “This is my credit,” I said. “It’s not funny.”

“Look, David. You weren’t here. I’m always having to juggle bills because you don’t have enough money. I’m tired of it. Now you get to do the juggling.”

“You mispaid bills by $48,000 in one month,” I said. “And you let me be reported to credit agencies for small bills that we could have paid.”

“Yeah, well, it’s all done now. And it’s late. We’re outta here.” She and Heather left.

I sat in my office under the fluorescent lights that night and finally just put my forehead down on the desk. I had been out of the country most of the time, but Amber was a smart, educated person, a Stanford graduate who had needed a job after her marriage engagement was broken off, and I was a reasonable and obviously trusting employer. I just didn’t understand.

I spent every waking hour that week in the office. I went through all of our records and updated QuickBooks, having to call Amber several times a day because records were missing or entered incorrectly.

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