Corners to corners then halves.
A towel folded wrong in my chop stays folded wrong in somebody’s closet for 10 years.
Nobody ever cared how I folded anything, Mrs.
Lowry.
3 weeks ago, nobody cared whether I ate.
Well, somebody cares now.
Fold it again.
And this time, look up when I tell you it’s right.
That’s perfect.
See there?
You were listening the whole time.
You just didn’t believe me.
Mr.
Sutton’s last offer, Mrs.
Lowry.
$20,000 to walk away from your lease by Friday.
Tell Grant Sutton my lease has six years left on it, and I plan to use every single day of them.
He figured you’d say that.
He says by Friday you’ll be gone one way or the other, and this way pays better.
Six months in county and she’s got you handling decent people’s clothes.
This town has a long memory, son.
I did my time, sir.
I’m folding towel fair wage and that’s all I’m doing here.
That’s what they all say.
Right up until something in the place goes missing.
Afternoon.
That sounded like a lot of shouting for a laundromat.
Is there a problem with somebody’s wash?
No problem.
Just delivering a message to the tenant.
And who might you two?
Family, your message sounds delivered.
The door’s right behind you and and it’s a beautiful day for a walk.
Well, I’ll be the Dun twins all grown up.
Mr.
Sutter is going to love hearing you two crawled back.
Tell him we said hello and tell him we’re staying a while.
Abel Isaac, you told me on the phone you couldn’t get away until Christmas.
You two liars.
We lied, Mama Hahiti.
You only turned 67 once, and we weren’t missing it over a few trucks.
Careful, that’s a lemon cake.
Abel held it on his lap for 200 miles.
Lemon, you remembered.
Now step back back and let me look you both before you start lying again.
You look like a bear that learned to drive.
And you, Isaac, you look like a man who owns a bank.
Close.
I run the money side of our trucking company, and Abel runs the trucks.
The bank does let me in the front door.
$20,000 to leave by Friday.
Mama Heidi, how long has Grant Set been doing this to you?
Since he bought this block in the spring.
It’s nothing.
It’s paper and a big man with a loud voice.
Since the spring.
We talk up every Sunday.
You never said one word about any of it.
You two spent your whole child childhood being somebody’s problem.
I promised myself you’d never have to carry mine.
That promise ends today.
We’re staying the week and we’re not asking your permission.
Who’s the young man that big fellow was barking at?
Jesse Hollis.
Out of county jail three weeks and nobody in this town would give him work.
So I did.
Nobody in town wanted him, so Hatty Lori took him in.
That sounds awful familiar.
Fine, you can stay.
But if you’re staying in my shop, you’re folding in my shop.
[music] The Dun twins.
I told that judge to ship those two out of this county 25 years ago.
They’re grown now and big.
The one with the beard looked at me like he wanted to put me through the window.
Let him try it.
Then I’d have him arrested and her shop closed in the same week.
Listen to me.
The Atlanta buyers want this whole block empty by the end of the month.
$3 million.
Rudy, her lease is the only thing standing between me and that money.
She won’t take the offer.
I’ve put it in front of her three times now.
Then we stop offering.
Her lease says damage done by her or her employees ends it on the spot.
So, we give her some damage.
The kid she hired fresh out of county and the whole town already expects the worst from him.
And I’ve got something on him.
I saw him step off the making bus two Saturdays ago and I took a picture.
A man on probation out of the county without permission.
That picture could send him straight back to jail.
Then he’ll do whatever you tell him and nobody will believe a word he says afterward.
But we start small.
Shut our water off tonight and let people talk.
25 years and the water has never once gone out.
I’ve got eight loads halfwashed and customers coming at noon.
25 years and it picks the morning after Sutter’s man comes calling.
Where’s the main water valve for the building, Mama Hattie?
Out in the alley in the metal box by the drain.
Rudy’s men check it for Mr.
Sutter every month.
Then let’s go see what Rudy’s men were checking.
Brand new chain, brand new lock.
Somebody shut off her water.
Made sure she couldn’t turn it back on.
Then we turn it back on.
There’s a pair of bolt cutters in the truck.
That’s not a broken pipe.
That’s a mess of message.
Keep coming until she gives up.
Then somebody keeps an eye on this box until Friday.
We take turns just like we did with the dishes.
[sighs] You never once did the dishes on your turn.
You paid me in baseball cards to do them for you.
And you never once complained, so I’d call that good business.
I’m taking my wash to the new place out on the highway.
Hattie, I’m sorry, but I can’t bring it here anymore.
Dot, you’ve brought me your wash every Tuesday for 20 years.
What on earth did I do to you?
People are saying your machines are ruining clothes and everybody knows who you’ve got folding back there.
People are saying it or Grant Sutter is saying it because those are two very different things.
Dot.
Lord have mercy.
You’re one of the Dun twins.
I’d know that Dun Chin anywhere.
Isaac, ma’am, I remember you, too.
You told the county nobody in this town should take us in.
[sighs] Well, you were trouble, the both of you.
Everybody said so at the time.
We were 9 years old and we were hungry.
You have a good day, Mrs.
Keer.
That’s the fourth one today.
If they all stop coming, it won’t matter what my lease says.
Then we don’t wait for them to come.
Give me your customer list, Mama Hadtie.
Every name and every address.
41 names.
If they won’t come to the laundromat, then the laundroat comes to them.
Half these people crossed the street when we were kids.
Now we’re knocking on their doors asking for their dirty laundry.
Then we ask politely and we fold it better than anybody in this town has ever seen.
If you two are selling something, I’m not buying it.
Lor’s Laundromat delivers now, ma’am.
Free pickup today, folded, and back on your porch tomorrow.
Same price as always.
Hades place?
Well, why didn’t you say so?
She does my late husband’s work shirts better than anybody.
[sighs and gasps] That’s 19 bags.
That’s bags.
My back says I’m 34 years old, but but my prides keep going.
Your pride is right.
Look who’s watching us.
Gentlemen, Grant Sutter.
I own this building and most of this street.
I hear you two have taken up laundry.
We know exactly who you are, Mr.
Sutter.
Somebody chained her water valve shut last night.
That’s a serious thing to say with no proof, son.
Lots of people have keys to that alley.
Let me make this simple.
Talk her into taking my offer and I’ll add $10,000 for each of you.
25 years ago, you stood on the courthouse steps and told the county too done noise would grow up to rob your store.
And I’d say it again.
Trash raised by a laundry woman is still trash.
It just smells cleaner.
Keep your money, Mr.
Sutter.
She’s not selling and we’re not for sale either.
But you can sell us the building.
Name your price and we’ll beat whatever Atlanta is paying you.
I signed with Atlanta in June, son.
Nobody can buy what’s already sold.
All I owe them now is an empty building.
Then you’ll both get a front row seat when she’s carried out on Friday.
Enjoy the rest of your visit.
Can I ask you something?
Why did you two come back here?
Rudy says this town ran you off.
Nobody ran us off.
We left at 18 to go make something of ourselves because she told us to.
Mrs.
Keer said, “Nobody wanted you.”
What did she mean by that?
Our father left before we could walk.
Our mother went wherever the next bottle was.
One morning, she just didn’t come back.
A case worker sat us on the courthouse steps all afternoon while she called every family in town.
Every one of them said no.
So, how did you two end up here with her?
Patty Lowry walked by with two baskets of laundry.
She set them down, looked at us, and said, “Those two are mine now.”
Just like that, she didn’t even know who you were.
She didn’t know you either, Jesse.
She doesn’t take people in because she knows them.
She does it because nobody else will.
[music] Eat, Jesse.
You fold like a grown man, but you eat like a bird, and I won’t have it.
Yes, ma’am.
I can’t remember the last time I ate at a real table with people talking.
Get used to it.
In this house, if you don’t talk at the table, she asks you what’s wrong until you do.
And if you talk with your mouth full, I take your bowl.
That rule hasn’t changed either.
Abel, tomorrow’s Thursday, so I’ll be at the bank at noon, same as every week.
You mind the shop for me while I’m gone?
You’d leave me alone in the shop?
With the register and everything.
I trust you with the register and everything.
Now eat your dumplings before they get cold.
That’s you stepping off the making bus two Saturdays ago.
Your probation says you don’t leave this county without permission.
I went to a job interview before she ever hired me.
Nobody in this town would give me work.
Nobody cares why, son.
One phone call to your probation officer and you finish your eight months behind bars.
What do you want from me?
Tomorrow at noon, while she’s at the bank, you loosen a pipe fitting and swing a wrench at a couple of machines.
She’s the only person in this town who gave me a chance.
I can’t do that to her.
Then you can tell her goodbye from a jail cell.
Your choice.
Mr.
Sutter doesn’t care which one you make.
[music] [music] [music] What are you doing?
Put that wrench down right now.
It’s not what it looks like.
I stopped.
I swear I stopped.
I couldn’t do the rest of it.
Jesse, look at me.
Nobody is going to hurt him.
Just tell us who put you up to this.
She gave him a job and a seat at her table.
And he did this to her the first chance he got.
Help me shut this off.
Then think about who wins if Jesse takes the blame for it.
[music] Haiti, I heard what happened and I’m truly sorry.
That new employee of yours went flooded my building.
You heard fast, Grant.
It hasn’t been an hour.
The floor’s not even dry yet.
It’s a small town.
Sheriff, see it for yourself.
A broken machine, watered everywhere, and the fellow who did it off.
Mrs.
Lowry, I’m sorry to ask, did your employee, Jesse Hollis, do this damage?
I didn’t see who did it, Sheriff.
And I won’t name that young man until I hear it from his own mouth.
It doesn’t much matter.
Your lease is clear.
Damage by you or your employees ends it.
You’re out Friday at noon.
We’ll pay for the damage.
Every dollar today in cash if that’s how you want it.
It’s not about money, son.
It’s about the lease.
Ask your brother.
I hear he’s the one with the brains.
The judge will sign the order this afternoon.
Friday at noon, the sheriff comes with a lock nipper.
Please don’t make this ugly.
Let him have it.
I’m 67 years old.
Maybe it’s time somebody else folded this town sheets.
No, ma’am.
You never once let us quit anything, so you don’t get to quit either.
This isn’t a spelling test, Abel.
It’s a man with [music] $3 million on the line and a judge’s order with my name on it.
Then tell us why this place matters so much.
Mhm.
You could open somewhere else.
We’d help you start over anywhere you like.
When I took you two off those courthouse steps, the county said one woman in one rented room couldn’t keep two boys.
The judge gave me 30 days to show him a real home and a steady business.
If I couldn’t, you two were going to a group home three counties away.
So, I took every dollar I’d ever saved, signed the lease on this place [music] and the rooms upstairs, and I showed him.
You never told us that.
We always thought you’d had the laundromat for years before us.
I got it for you.
This building is the reason they let me keep you.
And that’s why I can’t just [music] walk away from it.
I called our lawyers this afternoon.
They read every page of the lease and they say that clause is airtight.
If Sutter’s story holds, no amount of money keeps you in this building.
We have to prove he caused the damage.
Abel, Jesse didn’t break the second machine.
He cracked one and stopped.
People who want to hurt somebody don’t stop.
Somebody has something on him.
And Sutter knew all about it before the floor was even dry.
And Jesse is the only one who can prove it.
If he gets on a bus out of here, Sutter wins.
Where would he run, Mama Hattie?
The bus stop out on the highway.
The same place you two ran to the summer you turned 14.
[music] If you came to drag me to the sheriff, go ahead.
I’m not going to fight you.
We came to tell you a story.
The summer we turned 14, Abel and I sat on this exact bench.
We’d stolen $40 out of her cash drawer.
We figured she’d throw us out so we’d leave first.
So what did she do?
She walked two miles out here in her house slippers, sat right where you’re sitting, and handed us two sandwiches.
She said, “You can run from me, but you can’t run from yourselves, so you might as well come home.”
Rudy has a picture of me getting off the making bus.
I’m on probation and I’m not allowed to leave the county.
I only went for a job interview.
[snorts] He said, “Break her machines or one phone call puts me back inside for 18 months.”
[snorts] I cracked one window and I couldn’t do the rest.
I looked up and saw her coffee cup sitting on the counter.
If you tell the sheriff the truth, you’ll have to tell him about making too.
You understand that?
I understand.
I’d rather go back to jail than let her lose that place because of me.
Then running proves Sutter right about you.
Standing up proves Hattie right about you.
Which one do you want?
I want her to be right.
Tomorrow I’ll tell the sheriff everything making and all in front of anybody who wants to hear it.
Then you won’t be standing there alone.
We’ll be right beside you.
And so will the best lawyer in Atlanta.
It’s Isaac.
I need three trucks in Cedar Fork by noon tomorrow.
Loaded with everything on the list I sent you.
It’s 5 minutes to noon, Hattie.
5 minutes to walk out with dignity or the sheriff walks you out.
I’ve stood in this doorway for 25 years, Grant.
I believe I can stand in it five more minutes.
You’re making delivery to a building she’ll be locked out of in five minutes.
12 brand new washers and eight dryers.
Mama Hadtie’s old ones were older than me and my brother.
Sheriff, it’s noon.
Go ahead and do your job.
There he is, Sheriff.
That’s the man who flooded my building.
Arrest him before he runs off again.
I’m not running anywhere, sir.
I came here to tell you who made me do it.
Rudy Kaine has a picture of me and McCain.
I broke my probation going to a job if you and he knew it.
He said wreck machines or he’d send me back to jail.
I cracked one and I couldn’t do the rest.
You hear that, Sheriff?
He just admitted breaking his probation.
That’s a convict’s word against mine.
Then here’s something that isn’t anybody’s word, Sheriff.
This lock was chained to her water valve on Tuesday morning.
Whoever locked it kept the key.
Ask Rudy to hand you his key ring, Sheriff.
Crit, you swore nobody would ever look at that lock.
You said the kid would take Thaw for all of it.
Shut your mouth, you fool.
Grant, I’ve known you 30 years.
You can’t force a man to wreck your own building and then collect on it.
You and Rudy are going to take a ride down the station with me.
You think you’ve won something, Hattie?
You’re a laundry woman with two delivery boys.
No, Grant.
I’m a laundry woman with two sons.
You’d know the difference if you’d ever raised anybody.
And I’ve still got six years on my lease.
Come by any Tuesday and I’ll wash your shirts.
Same price as everybody else.
Nobody is locking your door today, Mrs.
Lowry, or any other day as far as I’m concerned.
And son, a man who rides two hours to beg for a job isn’t who I’m worried about.
I’ll call your officer myself.
Lowi Brothers Freight.
I’ve passed these trucks on the interstate for years and and I never once thought about the name.
We took her name the day we turned 18.
Ma’am, every truck we own carries it.
All 200 of them.
200 trucks.
Dot.
Those Dun twins own the whole company.
25 years ago, I stood on those courthouse steps and said nobody should take in the Dun twins.
You were right about one thing, Mrs.
Keer.
Nobody in this town took us in.
Nobody except her.
I’m sorry, Hattie, for all of it.
And if he’ll steals me, I’ll be I’ll be here Tuesday with my wash.
[music] That’s the front door key.
Somebody has to open up at 6:00 and I’ve decided to start sleeping late.
Mrs.
Flowy, I broke your machine and I never told you about making.
Why would you trust me with a key?
Because you stopped.
Mhm.
And because you told the whole street the truth when it could have sent you back to jail.
Besides, I took a chance once on two hungry fellas sitting on the courthouse steps.
It turned out just fine.
I won’t let you down, Mrs.
Lowry.
I promise you that.
We never said it right, Mama Hattie.
Not once in all these years of Sunday phone calls.
Thank you for wanting us.
When the whole town said no, you were the only one who said yes.
I didn’t save you two.
You looked up at me from those steps like I was the last open door in town.
I just never closed it.
Now we have to finish that lemon cake or I held it on my lap for 200 miles for nothing.
[music]
