The Right Move?

Lisa rubbed her belly, just as the baby kicked.

She pulled back the curtain and watched her husband Leo run towards the front door.

He threw open the door and yelled, “I got it.”

Lisa just gave him the look.

He said, “i got the job, Branch Manager and it's an international company located in North Dakota.”

Lisa frowned, “When do we leave?”

“We leave tomorrow.”

Lisa looked down at her belly and back at Leo, “Where will we live?”

Leo took her hand, “Don’t worry, it’s all worked out. I have the address. Trust me, this is going to be great. Its Happy North Dakota and it is a boom town. We can't go wrong on this move, oil has made this place one of the fastest growing places in America. The only bad thing is, real estate is in short supply, so the company has leased a house for us and it’s move in ready. I already jput down the deposit on the house. All we have to do is hop on a plane and tomorrow night we will be sitting by our cozy fireplace.”

“What about the baby. It could come at any moment?“

“Hey, you’re not due for five more weeks. Stop worrying and relax. This is going to be great. I mean with this pay increase and the possibility of quarterly bonuses what could go wrong. Come on, this is a fantastic deal you won't have to lift a finger.

The next morning when Leo and Lisa got up, he said, “Where did I put the address?” He finally found it, Lisa had used it as a coaster. The moving truck arrived thirty minutes later and Lisa and Leo left for the airport.

Eight hours later they arrived in Happy N.D., greeted by a sharp cold wind. Leo hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address. When they pulled into the driveway Lisa’s heart sank. The front door of the house looked like it was about to fall off and when they went in, it looked like the house had been abandoned and repossessed. Lisa started crying and stomping her feet and yelling at Leo and at that very moment her water broke. Thankfully the cab driver hadn't left yet and rushed Lisa to the hospital. She cried the whole way there. Not because of the pain, but because of the house. Leo kept reassuring her that there had to be some kind of mix up and promised to contact the branch office tomorrow.

The good news is Lisa gave birth to a healthy boy. The bad news is Leo had been scammed. Not only was the job not real, but the two thousand dollars deposit on the house was gone and the furniture moving company was fake and took all their belongings. The police were not very encouraging about them ever seeing their stuff again. The police told Leo he had about a ten percent chance he would get any of his furniture or personal items back.

Leo contacted his old company to try and get his job back, but they had already filled the position. With no job and no place to live, Leo and Lisa moved in with her parents while Leo looked for work.

Everyday at breakfast Leo's father-in-law would stare at him. They had never been close and this just made things worse. Even on the days Leo didn't have interviews he would leave the house just to get away from his father-in-law. It got to the point that Leo was considering suicide because the life insurance policy he had was still active. Right now he was worth more dead than alive and he could tell the strain on Lisa having to deal with her parents, the baby and having no money was getting to her.

One day when Leo was sitting on a bench feeding bread crumbs to the pigeons he got a call on his cell phone. It was from a new start up company that he had sent his resume to a while back. They were very interested and want to schedule a interview with him right away. It was a locally based company. Leo didn't hesitate. he interviewed the next day and everything seemed encouraging, but after the interview he didn't here back from them.

A month later he gets a call from them and they apologized for the delay, but they had lost his contact information due to a security breach. They hired him that very day.

I wish I could say it was a happy ending, but by the time they contacted him, Lisa and Leo had separated. Leo had been sleeping on a friend's couch for the last month.

Leo took the job and in a couple of months Lisa filed for divorce. She had had enough and no longer trusted Leo.

Leo finally accepted that they were not going to get back together, but he never stopped looking for the people responsible for him losing everything and everyone he loved.