It had been raining off and on most of the day, and it was pretty windy and chilly when I left the store. The excitement of gazing at them dollar bills before I left my office had wore off. Now my mood was almost as gloomy as the weather. The next thing I knew, I was so mad I was about to bust open because I had agreed to give Joyce money to take to them greedy pigs next door, this evening.

When I arrived at my in-laws’ house to drop off the week’s profits, Mac and Millie was sitting on the living-room couch listening to the radio when I walked in. “Evening, y’all. This was another good week.” I grinned as I waved the bag in front of them.

“Good! I know so long as we got you running the show, we’ll always have a good week—even when we have a bad week!” my father-in-law yelled, laughing and clapping his hands like a seal. It wasn’t even dark yet and he was already in his pajamas. There was a stocking cap on his head to keep the pomade he slathered onto his scalp from messing up Millie’s pillowcases.

“Odell, you know where to put it,” Millie piped in. “Put this week’s profits in one of them bags that ain’t too full. It’s getting pretty crowded in that pantry.” She gave me a warm smile. “Son, you such a godsend. I don’t know what we’d do if you was to up and quit.”

I done a double take. “Me quit? Only a crazy man would leave a job like mine. God knows I ain’t even half crazy!” I insisted.

“I’m glad to hear that. Listen here, me and Mac been thinking about one change we’d like to make. And I hope you’ll be willing to go along with it.”

Millie’s words made me nervous right away. I could already feel my blood pressure rising. I held my breath and watched her face. She was still smiling, so it didn’t seem like she was leading up to something that would disrupt the good thing I had going. “I . . . I hope it ain’t too big of a change. I am so happy with everything the way it is.”

“Oh, it ain’t no big deal,” she assured me. “What we might do in the very near future is have you take the profits home every Friday, or every day if you’d prefer. You and Joyce can store the money in your pantry, or the attic. That is, if you don’t mind being responsible for it. If we do that, you won’t have to worry about coming over here every Friday. That way, you can leave straight from the store to go visit your daddy.”