The Lockdown had everyone struggling but it hit my family especially hard. My father had always liked to present an image of success to the world, and kept my mother and I living in relative comfort and ease. He'd always led us to believe that it was through "hustling" and smart investments that he was able to provide for us despite not having consistent employment for several years, but the lockdown brought everything to a head and we found out that he had been wracking up debt for years, and before the virus hit he was barely able to keep up with the interest payments month to month.
I think he believed that if he didn't keep up this image that Mom would leave him for someone better, and it wasn't difficult to see why. My mother is outrageously attractive, she easily could have left our small town for New York and made it as a model, traveled the world, slept with other beautiful people and married rich. As for my father... Well, let's just say you don't dress like Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems because you're secure in your identity. Fortunately for him, Mom's also a bit of a ditz, and fiercely loyal. Once he had her love, it was his to lose, but he never respected her (or himself) enough to realize this.
Of course, desperate men make easy marks and before he came clean to us, my father had been convinced by someone much smarter than him that the best way out of his predicament was personal 'entrepreneurship' through marketing. Multi Level Marketing to be exact. In other words, a pyramid scheme. And that's how we found ourselves here, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, a house too big for our needs, and a garage full of nutrient bars. My mother was of course quick to forgive (although she wouldn't let him forget it anytime soon), and my father was unwilling to admit defeat (his term for bankruptcy), so we convened a family meeting to get on the same page and figure a way out of this mess.
Dad, even after accepting that it was a pyramid scheme, believed that he could somehow make this MLM work for him, so while he was on his laptop "gathering leads", Mom and I left him to his devices (he already bought the product, what more damage could he do?) and started brainstorming some reasonable money making options, although it quickly became clear that our options were very limited.
"We could open a restaurant!"
"Mom, nobody can even go to restaurants right now, and besides that we don't know the first thing about running a restaurant."
"Right..."
"And besides, we don't have the money to open a brick and mortar store, or the time to wait for it to become profitable, and even if we could, this would be the worst possible time to open one."
She nodded solemnly.
"Whatever we do has to be something we can do from home..."
Mom was deep in thought.
"Like sell drugs..."
She slapped me on the arm, playfully. "Oh get real."
"Honestly though, I don't think there's anything else that will get us out of-"
"What about social media!"
"What about it?"
"I read this article about how all these young people are making millions of dollars just posting about their lives! And you're so good with instagram and stuff like that, we could totally do this!"
"Mom, that's... that's actually a pretty good idea."
"Right?"
She definitely had the goods to pull it off. She looked like Vera Farmiga and with her warm personality and kind demeanor, she'd be a hit... there was just one problem.
"It usually takes people years to build themselves up to that level. We could start one but we wouldn't start seeing dividends for at least a year."
"But what about Sarah?"
"That's different..."
"You said she started a, what was it, a fans account?"
"TrulyFans."
"You said she started it after the lockdown, and she's already paying her rent with it."
"Mom, she's making more uh... adult themed content."
"Like nude-modeling?"
"Uh, sure. Among other things..."
Mom was always too open about sex and the last thing I wanted was to have a chat with her about my ex-girlfriend and her new porn career.
"Well why can't we do one of those?"
"MOM!"
"You said there wasn't any other way."
"I-You didn't let me finish my thought!"
"Well, can you think of another way?"
I had already thought it over moments earlier. There are only two non-essential services people will pay for no matter what, sex and drugs, and we're not the breaking bad type.
"Don't I get a say in this?" Dad said, peering at us over his laptop.
"Are you still doing your pyramid scheme thing?" Mom said, waving her hand dismissively.
"It is a multi-level marketing opportunity, and it is going to save this family!"
"Well when that happens, you can weigh in, but as long as we're cleaning up your mess, I don't want to hear anything from you except support!"
Dad was clearly angry, but he knew better than to say anything other than 'Yes honey' when she was this mad.
"Yes, honey"
"But, Mom-"
"Listen, if all I have to do to save this family is show some skin and maybe get a little dirty, I'm okay with that."
I stared at her, in shock.
"My family is more important to me than a little modesty." she added, shrugging her shoulders casually.
I rubbed my temples, completely overwhelmed.
"Mom, we can find another way."
"I'll tell you what, I'll start making dinner and if you two can come up with something before it's ready, we'll try it. But if you don't, we go ahead with the newly fans account."
"TrulyFans."
"Right. Deal?"
"Uh...Deal."
Dad pretended not to hear her.
"Well alright then. Dinner's in an hour. Good luck boys."
———-
The time flew by. I knew she was right but I still went through the motions. I thought of maybe selling masks but we didn't have fabric or sewing knowledge and that wouldn't work well in the long term anyway. That was my best idea, the rest I would be too embarrassed to even put into writing.
"Dinner's ready. Did you come up with anything?"
I shook my head as I walked past her.
"Smells good." Dad said, staring at his laptop as he brought it over to the table.
"Well that's settled then. Dig in."
After everyone was served she jumped right into it, much to my dismay.
"So what do we need to get started?"
I moved some food across my plate, not ready
"Well... we need to come up with a name..."
"I was thinking of something like MILFNextDoor."
I instantly turned beet red. Mom sighed.
"Look sweetie, I know it's hard to think of your mother this way, but we've always been an open household, and we're doing this to save the family."
"I understand, Mom."
"I'm the one putting myself out there, so I need you to-"
"Mom, I understand."
"Okay. We have a name, what else do we need?"
I cleared my throat. "Well, we'll need a profile pic and some photos for the actual page."
"Can we knock that stuff out after dinner?"
"We?"
"Yes, we. You expect your father to take the pictures? He doesn't know the first thing about photography, and I can't take them myself."
