He didn’t want it for himself, though better clothes and new toys would have been nice. He wanted the money for his mother. His father died in a car accident three days after he was born. Since the day Prendick learned to crawl he’d listened to his mother talk about making ends meet and pinching pennies and buying happiness and the root of all evil. Money made the world go around, and the Prendicks never seemed to have any. Mom worked in a snack cake factory. She made barely enough to get by, so when Prendick was old enough he helped supplement her income by taking whatever work he could get. Supermarkets, fast food, construction, retail, delivery, landscaping—Prendick had done it all. Most of the money went to Mom. The rest went into a savings account. When he was in his thirties, he had enough for a down payment on a boat. Finally self-employed after a lifetime of working for others, he was able to earn enough to help Mom even more, and she retired to Social Security, a decent pension, and regular checks from her son.
