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“I see,” I said. Yet another way my ex made sure that his tentacles reached far into my life without him.
“We were authorized by the previous owners, who I understand to be your grandparents—?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Yes.” He nodded. “They had authorized us to use a maintenance account to do basic upkeep on the property and the occasional appliance replacement or roof repair. When we realized the tenants had not been keeping up the residence, we went through the eviction process, but got no response from them. They had apparently already left. Legally, though, our hands were tied for a certain amount of time, and by the time we got into the house, there was a tremendous amount of work to be done. We did what we could, replacing some appliances to make it livable, along with some windows that were falling apart.”
“Is it livable now?” I asked.
“That depends on your definition of livable,” he said. “When we realized the tenants were not going to return and we could not reach you, we made the decision to stop repairs on the home. We did enough that the residence should not have fallen into further disrepair, but a large amount of the disrepair that was there already still exists.”
“So there is some of the maintenance account left?”
“Yes,” he said, rather cagily. “We were hoping you would be continuing our relationship with the property going forward.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I said. “I plan on living there for a while.”
“Oh,” he said. “Well, then. I can write you a check for the balance left on the maintenance account.”
We went over the details of the account and what they’d done before he showed me the balance left. It wasn’t a huge amount, but it was something, and I could use a lot of it to fix up the house while surviving for a little while. I was glad to have anything at that point. There wasn’t much on the prepaid debit card I had smuggled money to right before I left.
“Here you are,” George said, handing me the check and holding out his hand for a shake. “I noticed you were driven here. Do you need to call for them to pick you back up?”
“No,” I said. “I just need to call a rideshare.”
“That won’t be necessary,” he said, smiling. “After how the tenants treated the house on our watch, the least I can do is give you a ride. We have a maintenance truck outside, and one of our workers would be happy to bring you there.”
Thankful for the blessing of not having to spend money, I accepted, and a few minutes later, I was recognizing street signs as we headed to the house. It was kind of nostalgic, but at the same time, it was a reminder of how much my life had changed. The last time I’d seen these streets, my father was alive, and the world was my oyster.
As soon as we pulled into the driveway, I could see the state of the house from outside. It looked terrible, with trees growing over the roof, which clearly needed help, and weeds and bushes growing up past the windows. The grass hadn’t been mowed in a long time and was high and jungle-like, and in the rain, it looked like a gimmicky haunted house attraction.
Sighing, I thanked the driver and grabbed my stuff, walking through the storm to the front door. The key was new, having been reprinted off the original, which was safely in my purse. It stuck, but I wiggled it until it worked and pushed the door open. The smell of mildew hit me immediately, and I reached for where I remembered the light switch was.
I flicked it.
Then flicked it again.
Then flicked it a couple of times in a row.
“Shit,” I muttered. “No electricity. Fantastic.”
5
RYAN
It had been a long time since a car pulled into the driveway next door. Seeing the maintenance truck pull in was something that used to happen fairly often after the people who lived there moved out, according to the neighbor on the other side of me. Then they just stopped coming, and the grass grew, and the trees covered the front of the house like it was going into hiding. I often wondered what was going on with it, but aside from a once in a while check to make sure the doors were still locked, it was as if the management company had given up on it.
Now one of their trucks was there again, and it had caught my eye as I sat in my living room. The rest of the evening was mine, and I planned on using it to watch TV and eat crap food. I had not only gotten my horse time in, but I had done a good deed for the day, too, so I was feeling pretty pleased.
