“Looks like it might rain,” said Cliff Murray as he gazed at the dark clouds hanging over the outdoor patio at Mabel’s Grill, where the guys gathered for the other day.
    “Well I did my best to tempt it,” said Dave Winston. “I left the truck windows down.”
    “I left 15 acres of hay in the swath for later today,” said George Mackenzie. “I don’t know what more you can do to make it rain than having hay unbaled. Shows how much I’m willing to do to get some rain for the crops.”
    “Oh please, don’t make it rain,” said Molly Whiteside as she delivered their orders. “We just got this patio open. We don’t need rain keeping customers away.”
    “Sorry, Molly,” Dave said, “but with the price of soybeans the way it is, I want every bushel a good rain will bring me.”
    “Yeah, well,” Molly sighed, “you’ll probably get rain. Mabel said just the other day that now that we’re finally allowed to have customers on the patio we’ll probably have the wettest summer in years.”
    “Well that might be pushing it a bit far,” said George. “A good couple of inches overnight every week or so might work for both of us.”
    “How are you enjoying being back at work?” Cliff asked Molly.
    “I never thought I’d miss adult company so much,” grinned Molly, “even if it’s a bunch of unjuvenile delinquents like you guys.”
    “We missed you too,” smirked George. “Breakfast without insults got to seem a little boring.”
    “I think my kids like me working again even more than I do,” said Molly. “I was getting pretty grumpy, especially before school broke for the summer and I was supposed to be supervising their learning. I mean they pay teachers good money for teaching kids and we parents are supposed to do it for free!”
    “Ha!” snorted George, “I thought the government was paying so much on these handouts that people weren’t going to want to go back to work.”
    “Yeah right!,” scoffed Molly. “Anybody who thinks that never had to pay the rent, keep two kids in food and clothes and keep up car payments. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, my income was so complicated I had to pay somebody to do my income tax!”
    “And did you owe any tax?” Dave wondered.
    “Yes!” grumbled Molly.
    “Too bad you couldn’t get the people who do Jeff Bezos’s taxes,” chuckled Cliff. 
    “I saw that,” said Dave. “He didn’t pay income tax in 2007, 2011 and 2018 and he’s a  billionaire!”
    “Make that a billionaire 193 times over,” said Cliff.
    “Probably more than that from the way my kids have been buying stuff from Amazon during the lockdown,” grumbled Dave.
    “How’d he get away with that?” wondered Molly.
    “They don’t have a wealth tax in the U.S., just income tax,” said Cliff.
    “That’s what I want,” said Molly, “to be wealthy without having any income. It’s so much more efficient.”
    “Well he’s not alone,” said Dave. “Other billionaires like Warren Buffet and Elon Musk had years when they paid no income tax, too.”
    “Not to mention Donald Trump,” said Cliff.
    “Please!” Molly said, “Mabel doesn’t even want that name spoken around here – it starts too many arguments.”
    “Well I mean, these guys weren’t actually breaking any laws,” said George.
    “No, it’s the guys who leaked the information about how much tax these billionaires aren’t paying that are being hunted down by the FBI,” said Cliff.
    “Just for telling us how much money people are paying in taxes?” Molly wondered.
    “Well, I suppose you wouldn’t like somebody reporting how much you made,” said George.
    “Hey, I’d just like to earn enough that anybody would be interested,” laughed Molly.◊