Finally, we went to Small Claims Court to obtain the deposit money back. We had left the car at the dealership although they said they wouldn’t be responsible if it got stolen. The judge ruled in our favor. Still, the dealership did not return the money. We had to hire a Marshall to go there to get money from their register.
After that, my mother decided that I was too stupid to be left to my own devices and she went with me to buy another car. I was completely passive. I let her pick up the car she wanted. And she bought it in her name although she never learned to drive a car. I tried to teach her but she was too afraid and was pressing on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. This car was an older model Dodge Colt. It was OK. Still, there were a few things wrong with it that needed to be fixed. The dealership promised to fix it and deliver it to our home.
I was at work when they delivered it. When I got home, I didn’t see it in the parking lot. I went up and asked my mother and she said it was there. But it wasn’t. What happened is that the dealers delivered it and left it parked in front of the big outdoor trashcan. Then they left without letting anyone know. My mother discovered it was there some time later. She went to our building manager to tell him whether he could move the car for her because she didn’t drive. But the key couldn’t be found. So my mother decided to wait for me to come home from work. In the meantime, our darling apartment manager had the car towed. When I asked him if he knew anything about our car, he told me. I felt I was on the verge on a heart attack. I was choking with fury. I remember calling him the worst names I could think off. He made a fist and raised it to hit me. I told him to go ahead because I would be happy to report him for assault too. I reported him to the police and I also requested that my car be released to me without cost. But they said they couldn’t do anything and they charged me some î70 to release the car. It was very late at night when we went to get the car. I cried all the way. I felt like I could kill the building manager. For this, I took him to Small Claims Court and won a judgement against him. Our relationship with this man, already strained, did not improve. Still, we did not want to leave the building because it was cheap and comfortable. The rent had been increased a few times but it was still affordable. It was in the vein of my approach to jobs. Do not quit until you are pushed out.
After my return from Romania, my employers, the husband and wife team gave me more and more to do. They seemed impressed that I was going to graduate school at night. I had started my MBA courses. However, they seemed to do everything in their power to prevent me from attending the classes. They asked me to go work for one of the clinics that had evening hours and generally asked me to stay later and later, especially when they knew it was a class night. My relationship with them deteriorated very much. There were bad words that they used and this time they were starting to hurt. One morning, after a particularly nasty episode, I asked the lady to fire me if she had a problem because I wouldn’t be pushed to quit. I knew that if I quit, I would have no chance to get unemployment. But, if I got fired I would get to explain why. So, the lady uttered the words: “You are fired.” So I took all my things and left right then and there.
I already mentioned that I had been to Court a few times: with the Refugee Job Center a few times, with the dealership that sold me the Pontiac, with the apartment building manager. But that was not all. I mentioned that my mother and I liked to take day trips to distant malls. One day, in a mall parking lot, we had an incident with another car. I was driving slowly, looking for a way out of the parking lot. I saw an aisle that seemed to be leading outside. I made a right turn into that aisle. Suddenly, we heard a horrible screech of tires. Another car, coming at great speed had to brake violently in order to avoid hitting us. They hit the curb quite hard. Tire marks could be seen on the pavement. In the car, there were 4 young men. They were extremely furious and my mother and I were afraid of their reaction. We called the police. The policeman asked everybody what happened. He looked underneath the men’s car because they said they thought something underneath was broken. Still, the car worked fine. The police could not determine any damage at the time. The hard moment came when the police asked us about the insurance. We didn’t carry any insurance. We didn’t have enough money for that.
The driver of the other car told me that I would have to suffer the consequences of the law. He made remarks about “stupid immigrants that don’t carry insurance.” He called me a few times on the phone and told me that a mechanic had assessed the damage to his car at î1400. I thought this was rigged. It couldn’t have been. He asked me to pay him î800 and he would “forget about it”. I refused. So, he took me to Small Claims Court. The judge was extremely unfavorably impressed that I didn’t have insurance. He didn’t even want to listen to my explanations that I wasn’t at fault, that it was the great speed of the other vehicle that was to blame. I lost the case. I appealed and another judge thought the same. So, I ended having to pay him the full î1400. I thought it was extremely unfair but I couldn’t do anything.
(va urma)
