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#Post#: 41--------------------------------------------------
Neutral
DIR By: StoryGod
Date: December 12, 2019, 9:32 am
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The journey out into the streets outside Kotiah-Yovanovitch
began back in 11-B Al-Sigh. Albina, the mora, who called herself
Suite Advisor, gathered the girls around a the big, tall girl
who had taken out her laptop. "It's a lot easier to bank online
than to wait for shopping day and visit an ATM. If you bank
online, you can transfer money to your checking account. That's
your debit card account. Then you can buy things online."
"I'm going to be all over the internet and..." Tikvah told
herself. Even Mom who was "liberated" from her past life didn't
like the internet and didn't want Tikvah all over it. Albina,
mora that she was, did not care.
"Now what happens if you pay for something with your debit card
and you don't have money on it?" Albina asked. She sounded like
a secular school teacher now. Tikvah has very little against her
teachers who usually had answers and solutions to problems that
did not have to do with being modern or giving up religion.
Religion simply didn't matter to them. "I disagree," was as
close to an argument as they got.
"You get in trouble?" Tikvah piped up.
"What kind of trouble?"
"You're stealing."
"If you walk into a store, get in the check out line and don't
have the money are you stealing?" Tikvah had not expected this
response.
"Not if you don't walk out of the store," answered the African
American girl with copper colored hair.
"You just have to put the item back," Corianne said, "but you
can't put something back online."
"No, but you don't get the item either. What you get is card
denied. No purchase. This may make you feel stupid so if you
want to buy something online, transfer money first. That means
take money in your savings account and put it in the debit card
account. Can you do that?" Albina addressed Jupita the big girl
who pushed tables and lent her laptop.
The girls looked at each other. Jupita could not even log into
her bank account. "Who here has online banking set up?" asked
Albina. Corianne was the only girl to raise her hand. Corianne
dug her laptop out of her desk in the bedroom. Its battery was
low so she had to plug it in. Still she keyed in her bank which
was Wells Fargo and logged into her online account.
"OK, have you ever transferred money?"
"It says payments and transfers," Corianne spoke up.
"OK, that's what you click. Now you see your balances. There's
fifty dollars in Corianne's debit account. Wells Fargo calls it
a checking account. Most banks still do that, but checks are
very old fashioned."
"My mother used to write checks," Tikvah remembered. She used
them to pay bills.
"OK, how much do you want to transfer?" Albina asked Corianne.
"Nothing... I already have money to buy stuff."
"Can you pretend to do a transfer?"
"How do I do that?"
"I'll show you. First pick an amount."
Corianne chose ten dollars and then canceled the transaction.
"If you really want to transfer the money, hit submit. Now how
many of you need to set up online banking?"
Only Corianne and the copper headed African American girl had
online banking set up. Everyone else had to fetch their laptop,
plug it in, if the battery was dead. There was a surge protector
with lots of plugs in the lounge for this purpose. The girls sat
on the floor surrounding the coffee table.
Tikvah and the Jupita had Key Bank. Two girls had Chase, and one
had Wells Fargo like Corianne.
"Key Bank is down in White Plains. You'll have to go all the way
there to get cash," Albina explained.
"When do we go to White Plains?" the copper haired girl asked.
"Every week or so. Just speak up, and we'll make a banking stop.
You get all your food here free, and don't have any bills like
an adult. And you have to go off campus with an adult."
Translated from grownup-talk, Albina was telling both girls
getting to Key Bank was not easy but doable. Tikvah liked the
word doable. Setting up online banking was NOT being all over
the internet, or at least not in a bad way. It was not even like
swimming that threatened to wipe away memories. It was a bank.
Banks were not bad places. Banks were not good. What was that
word? The word was "neutral."
Neutral was not Cinnamon Apple Captain Crunch because that was
good. Netural was not the fuzzy, frog pajama holder. Neutral was
not other people eating bacon. Bacon was still gross, and gross
was bad. Trying to get a frum girl to eat bacon, was mean!
"That's what you were Grandpa," Tikvah told her mother's father.
Tikvah glanced at her bank account balances. A balance was a
fancy, adult word for the amount of money in a bank account.
Tikvah had $230.00 in savings. She was supposed to get $35.00 a
week, and September only had four weeks. Tikvah was a decent
math student. The $90.00 must have been a Hanukkah present from
her father. She had no money in the debit card account.
"How much should I transfer?" Tikvah asked. "I don't want to buy
anything online."
"You don't want to buy anything online today," Albina was good
at trickery adult argument.
"Are you saying I'll change my mind?"
"At some point, you may find something you want...say a book."
"Art Scroll?" Tikvah wasn't sure Albina knew what Art Scroll
was. She said it just to get in a private needle.
"Why not... if they'll take your debit card."
"Will they refuse it cause I'm a kid?"
"No. They'll probably take it."
"What's Art Scroll?" asked the big girl.
"They publish religious, Jewish books," Albina answered.
Albina's words were wonderfully neutral.
"So do you still want me to transfer money?"
"Why not?"
"How much?"
"How much do you think you'll need."
Tikvah decided to transfer thirty dollars, filled out the form,
and clicked submit. "Can you also transfer money at an ATM
machine?" one of the girls.
Albina said yes. It was well after two pm by the time all the
girls had their bank accounts in order. They still had no cash
except what they brought to school. Tikvah thought about that.
Albina like most grownups liked to think about the future.
Thinking about the near future was not neutral. It was good.
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