THE SECOND LEDGER

Synopsis

In Brawley Falls, population four thousand, the man who keeps the books at the savings and loan is trusted somewhat more than the minister and paid a good deal less. Harold Vandeveer has held the job twenty-two years. He has also, for eleven of them, kept a second set for three men draining the same institution at a rate he privately considers unimaginative. They found a gap he had already repaid, and he has been paying it since. A state examiner comes Monday. The three men want their reconciliation Friday. Harold has never once been late with a figure, and this week he will have to be wrong on purpose for somebody.

Who this is about

Harold Vandeveer keeps the books at the Brawley Falls Savings and Loan, a position that in a town of four thousand carries more moral authority than the pulpit and pays considerably less.

What goes wrong

Eleven years ago he borrowed from the drawer to pay a surgeon and put it back. Three men found the gap anyway, and he has been keeping their accounts ever since.

What's at stake

A state examiner arrives Monday. The three men want their own reconciliation Friday. Both sets of figures have to be true, and only one of them can be.

Why it keeps going

Each episode Harold buys another week with an entry nobody will read, and each week the number of people in Brawley Falls whose savings depend on his arithmetic gets harder to ignore.

Takeaway

A small theft repaid in full still buys somebody else a very long lease on your life.

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