My father worked a lot of jobs. He changes jobs often and easily if he doesn’t like something. At his last job he worked for two weeks and quit. Quickly found a new job. He got a job as a salesman in a butcher store. It paid a lot, and the job was easy. A nice bonus, twenty-five percent discounts on products for employees.
My father often offered to bring the chicken at a discount, but we refused. We have the money. Let my father and mother buy for themselves, they need it more.
My wife and I have been married for five years. We have a daughter. She was about to turn three. We had a celebration at my parents’ house. We cooked a lot of meals and every other one was meat. It felt like the father had robbed his store for his beloved granddaughter. Once again we began to be offered something to bring from my father’s store. I declined, but my wife was interested in the offer.
The next day, she brought a bag of meat. She said my father gave it to us. Not for free, of course. My wife paid, but with a discount of twenty-five percent.
Meat dishes were often on our table now. My wife always came up with something new. I felt like a rich man.
Friends would come to visit and wonder.
– Where did so much meat come from? – A friend asked.
– We take it from my father, – I answered.
Then I told him where to go. I did not say anything about the prices, because I do not know. In addition, they give us a discount. I told him about the quality of the products and the next day my father called me.
– Thank you, son. I brought me customers! Here will be the proceeds this month! – he rejoiced.
My father helped us for three months, and then we learned some unpleasant news.
Another time some friends came to see us. We put my wife’s meat masterpieces on the table again. The evening was going well. The men talked about their stuff and the women talked about their stuff. The plates were half-empty. I was talking to friends about work when I overheard my wife talking to her girlfriend.
– So he’s selling you even more expensive!
I did not know the nature of the conversation, but decided to ask.
– Girls, what do you mean?
Women timidly looked at me.
– Come into the kitchen, I will tell you something, – said his wife.
We left them alone and went away to talk.
My friend told me that my father sold us meat for much more than it was worth. It doesn’t smell like a discount. He pocketed the difference. I did not believe this talk. Not to quarrel with his wife, suggested tomorrow to go and see for themselves the prices. So we did.
In the morning we got ready and ran to my father’s office. It was his day off. We were met by a friendly woman. Immediately she started to advertise products, but we were not interested. We looked at the price tags. My friend was right. My father was deceiving us.
Shocked, we left the store. My wife was holding her heart and I was holding my head. My own father was making money off his son. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true.
When I got home, I called my father right away. He wanted to speak with restraint, but quickly broke into a shout. I said everything I thought about him. He tried to defend himself. He made excuses, but I wouldn’t listen. How do you explain something like that? We argued, and I hung up on him. I didn’t want to talk to him after that.
My mother called me. She apologized for my father. Asked me not to be angry with him. Justified what he did. Didn’t listen to her either.
It’s been a month since we talked to my family. They try to contact us, but I don’t want to hear anything. What my father did was shameful. Who in their right mind would cheat on their son’s family and make money off of them? We didn’t take the meat for nothing, it was like we were getting a discount. We paid for every bite, and he was making money off us.
If he didn’t care about us, he couldn’t profit from his granddaughter. How does it occur to my mother, after all this scam, to defend my father and justify him?
