"Home" - Chapter V

V.

I was in a daze as I picked Micah up from daycare.  I called Adam at work.

“Someone put a fraud hold on our mail.”  I said to him.

“What?”

“Someone put some sort of fraud hold on our mail.”  I repeated.

“I don’t understand.”

“The reason we haven’t been getting mail!”  I said, getting frustrated.  “Someone put some sort of fraud hold on our mail and has had it forwarded to some other address! They won’t give it to me; I have to get a hold of someone in freaking D.C. to figure out what the hell is going on!”

Adam was silent.

“I’m going to go.”  I said.  “I need to get home and check our accounts.”

“Ok.  I’ll be home in a little while.”

I hung up.  I felt a heavy weight in my gut.  I thought about all of the things that could be done with the type of information that might have been on some of that mail.  Medical bills, credit card information, insurance, bank statements… I was getting more and more panicked.  How could I possibly think of all of the things to check?

I parked in front of the house and pulled Micah out of his car seat.  On auto-pilot, I checked the mail-box.  Nothing.  I unlocked the front door, and went to the kitchen to get Micah a snack.

After Micah had been situated in his booster seat, I went to the computer and started looking at any account I had access to online.

First, I checked the bank – nothing looked out of place there.  I would have caught anything as soon as it posted, anyway, being overly cautious about our finances as I was.

Then, I checked the credit card accounts.  Nothing unusual there, either.

After some thought, I decided to check some of the other bills.  I pulled the electric bill and pulled up the login screen.  My login information didn’t work, so I called the number on the bill.

“Thanks for calling Dominion Virginia Power, this is Audrey speaking, how can I help you?”

“Hi… I can’t access my account online, and we’re having some problems with our postal service.  I want to make sure nothing is going on with our account.”

“Address please?”

I gave her our address.

“Hm… yes, it looks like this account overdue, and is accruing some significant late fees.  You are scheduled to be disconnected tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry?!”

“Yes, it looks like you had a sharp increase in usage over the last few months, and in addition to that you are now 45 days past due.  Late charges have been accruing on the balance owed for 30 days.  Also, it looks like we called 30 days ago to discuss the past-due payment, and we spoke to Adam Colby.”

“Well, I’m positive we’ve paid a bill in the last 60 days!  I think I would notice if we hadn’t paid an electric bill in 2 months!  Can you please look into where our payments have been posted?”

“Ok, please hold.”

While I waited, I wondered why Adam hadn’t told me about the electric company calling.

“Ma’am?”  The operator came back on the line.

“Mm-hmm?”

“We cannot keep service on at this address.”  She sounded angry.

“I’m sorry?”

“This conversation is being recorded per our policy.  Your account is being audited.  You will have to come by the office and speak to someone in the morning.”

She hung up.

At that moment, I realized that Adam wasn’t home 30 days ago.  There was no way the electric company could have contacted him at that time.