Fan Favorite - "The Receipt"

[gentle music] On the evening of Thursday, March ninth, 2006, a fifty-year-old woman named Karen DivalBliss sat in the passenger seat of her car.

Her husband, seventy-one-year-old Jim DivalBliss, was behind the wheel, driving them through downtown Lancaster, Ohio.

Karen looked out the window and watched as they passed historic buildings, shops, and restaurants.

Every once in a while, Jim slowed down and waved at people on the sidewalk because he and Karen knew practically everybody in town.

So Lancaster was a small suburb of about thirty-six thousand people, and it was generally a friendly blue collar place.

Karen and Jim had lived there for over a decade, and they were well-known in the community, mostly because of their business ventures.

They owned multiple rental properties around town and also a store where they sold electronics, toys, and hobby supplies.

The properties and the store had not only made Karen and Jim a lot of friends, but also a lot of money.

They had a reputation for being very wealthy, but also very generous.

They went out of their way to help people who were down on their luck, especially friends and family.

Karen's former sister-in-law, whose name was Deanna Smith, had actually been living in one of their rental properties for a long time now.

And Karen's son was an employee at their store.

But even now, with all of their success and their kindness, Karen knew that a lot of people in town viewed her and Jim as kind of an odd couple.

They'd both been married before and had kids from their first marriages.

And on paper, they didn't seem like obvious partners.

Jim was twenty-one years older than Karen, and he also tended to be pretty quiet and reserved.

Karen, on the other hand, was usually the loudest person in the room.

But despite their differences, they just worked.

And really, that was all that mattered to them.

Just then, Karen felt the car slow to a stop.

She looked out the window and saw that they were at their first stop of the evening, the hobby store that they owned.

There was a big sign outside that said the store's name, D&D Sales.

The sign looked exceptionally bright and clean, which should have made Karen happy.

But in reality, it actually made her feel kind of annoyed.

The sign had recently been repainted by Karen and Jim's regular handyman, and he'd done a great job with it, and Karen had paid him what she owed him for the work.