Hey, That Wasn't My Decision

"And I can see through you...inside you're ugly, ugly like me...see to the real you..."

--Staind, "Outside"

I paid off one of grandma's credit cards because she had a little over eleven thousand dollars in one of her checking accounts, no doubt an amount that had been building for months due to the fact that she doesn't pay her bills anymore. It was Discover, and the balance was around six hundred dollars.

I was on phone with American Express (according to my research, grandma has three credit card bills). The customer service representative first offered to let grandma make payments on only 30% of the balance, which was twelve hundred dollars. It was a payment plan for a year, and then the balance would be gone. I asked Grandma if she just wanted to pay it off in one, lump sum. She said no. Then the manager comes onto the line, and offers to reduce the balance by another three hundred dollars if I paid it off in full on that day.

"Do you want to pay it off? It's only nine hundred dollars."

"No."

At this point, my uncle is talking to me, but I can't hear him because I'm paying attention to the conversation on the phone.

I say, holding my hand over the microphone, "What the fuck does it matter? She has the money in her account."

My uncle looks at me sternly, "She doesn't want to. No."