Kim and I take turns calling the electric company,
the phone company and the landlord, all from the gas station pay phone.
Kim calls the Half Moon Café and explains that
we can't make it to work because of the flood in our apartment. On
the phone Kim is met by the sound of skepticism in Jodi's voice. “Well come in
when you can,” Jodi replies flippantly before hanging up.
A deep guttural sound grows out of Kim as she slams
the receiver again and again against the phone. I reach out to her and touch
her on the shoulder. Kim quickly turns to me, buries her face in my chest and
begins sobbing uncontrollably.
It is a full two days before the landlord even
shows up at our apartment. We have already pulled everything apart, cleaned,
scrubbed and thrown out almost everything that the water has touched and
destroyed.
Water stains start about three feet from the floor
and are on all the walls. The entire apartment stinks of mold and mildew, we
are devastated.
“Hello!” chirps the landlord as he lets himself
into the front hallway with his key. The carpet he stands on is squishy with
water that pools around his feet.
“Looks like you had quite a problem here,” he says
trying not to show in his face, just how bad things really are. “Well,” he says
pausing to look around. “The good news is that nobody is dead.” and then
snickers. Kim and I look at each other, her eyebrows shoot to the top of her
head.
“So this happened because they repaved with little
round stones next door?” The landlord runs his finger around what is left of
the window frame. “Well it rained before they paved and nothing like this has
ever happened" Kim says. The landlord makes a "snort" sound and
walks further into the house. Kim grasps her upper thighs with her hands trying
to remain calm.
“Well,” says the landlord again as he begins to
walk the full length of the apartment looking at all the damage. “I have called
the insurance company, but this seems to be flood damage, and we don’t live
near anyplace that should flood so…”
His voice trails off as his eyes land on the
kitchen window.
Quickly recovering he smiles and says “Any who, I
will have my men replace this window, I need to speak to the business next door
about replacing their driveway with a substance that wont flood your house and
insurance should be here within the next couple of days.”
“We lost everything.” Kim mumbles.
“Well look on the bright side,” says the landlord as
he moves towards the front door and pauses to look back. “You now get a chance
to start over.”
Two days later the landlord’s men fix the window
and within the the insurance company comes to survey the damage. The guy
with the name tag that reads "Bill" fills out a lot of forms.
Three weeks later
it rains again.
To be continued…
Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.
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