Water was cutoff on First Day of School

The summer before my son started 4th grade, we were out of town a lot. Soon after we came home, school started and my son was very excited to go back to school and see his best friend. I had arranged with the best friends mom to let him come home with us after the first day of school.

When I picked up my son from school, he was so happy to have spent the day at school with his friends and that his best buddy was coming home with him. I went through the pick up line and could see him beaming with joy from very far distance. Both boys got in the back seats and kept on conversing about school, friends, and what games they will play when they get to our house. I wasn’t able to say much on the way home because the two of them were having a blast planning their afternoon until his friend goes home.

When we got home, I went directly to the kitchen to make a snack for the boys before they can go out and play. I got fruits and vegetables from the fridge, and went to wash them in the sink, turned on the water but nothing came out. I panicked and went around the house to check but there was no water anywhere. I then called my neighbor to ask if there is any problems with their water and that’s when she told me that a couple of men from the water company came to our house and put a lock on it. She saw that because our houses are situated where one has to enter thru their fenced door to get to the back wall of our hose where our water meter is located. I was shocked. I knew the first time my husband did not pay the water bill because we were all out of town, but this time, even though he is out of town, but he knew that we would be home and I cannot pay the bills. I was never added as a co-signer in any of the bank accounts.

I called the water company and asked them what we owed which was two months of water bills plus penalties and the whole amount was less than $50. They would not take checked, it had to be money order or cash. All this was going on at around 4 pm and they close their office by 5 pm. I was panicking, did not have all of the required money, my husband was out of town, and the place was closing. I asked my son to see if he had any birthday money left in his cup, got that and called my brother because his house was the closest to my house. He was very sympathetic and told me that he had the money and will be happy to give to me. I then added all the money we had at home, which was close to $40 but not the full amount, asked the boys to get in the car quickly, went to my brother’s house, got $10 even though he wanted to pay more, and rushed to the water department to pay so they can re-instate the water before 5 pm.

After collecting all the money, and was driving on the highway on our way to the water department, I called my husband to let him know what happened. The two boys were with me in the car so I had to sound as normal as possible, not panicked and about to have a heart attack. When he answered and we said hello, hope all is well, I said to him that the water company cut off our water today. As soon as I said that, he started shouting loud over the phone and told me that I only call him with problems. I wasn’t in the mood to hear and of his deflections stories at that time, so I just gave the phone to our son who was seated in the back seat. My son heard his shout but when he said “Hi dad” my husband immediately changed his tone, lowered his voice and started with “Hi Honey, how was the first day of school, etc etc.”

I was so disgusted and livid with my husband that even when our son gave the phone back to me, I just hung up. Hanging up on my husband means he wins at the end. He does not have to get in an argument where he knows he’ll lose, and does not have to come up with excuses to shout and yell at me to divert from the reason why I called, and at the end he does not have to pay for his mistakes or aggressions. By the time he comes home from his trip 5 days later, this will be forgotten and he’ll have time to do another act that shows how much he hates me.

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