Chapter 69

The night's drinking left me with a hangover and a foul taste in my mouth. It also left me with absolutely no short term memory of the night before. I brushed my teeth while I considered a shower. The two older men had gone for the day, so I could do it without any fear of an unwanted visitor.

Since the Guest House's owner never came around before noon, and then hung out for only a couple of hours, I didn't have to fear him either. What the hell, I thought. I hadn't taken an early morning shower since I arrived in Mossberg.

I was more than surprised to find semen stains in the panties I had worn the night before. My mind flashed back to the two old men and our drinking the night before. I could vaguely remember a fullness in my vagina and a soft warm feeling in my mouth but it was like a dream.

"Liam get your ass in here and tell me it ain't so," I said in a bit of a panic. It wasn't that I had screwed the two old men that bothered me. It was that I had no clear memory of it.

"It is so old girl. I tried to warn you not to take the Ecstasy, but you wouldn't listen to me. One of those good old boys is a dentist. It seemed he isn't adverse to the use of drugs in his personal life as well as in his practice."

"I can't believe it, me of all people drugged and raped," I said.

"Well it wasn't technically rape in the old fashioned sense. You were willing and you took the drug voluntarily. You just can't remember it, but I assure you that you enjoyed it."

"Son of a bitch," I said turning off the water. "I was planning to stay here a couple of more days now I will have to move."

After that shower I carefully packed the two backpacks for the trailer and the one for the basket of the trike. I immediately left the Guest House for what I expected was the last time.

I had the girl at the diner on the morning shift have her grandfather Levi and work crew meet me at the building. I had already begun to think of it as a townhouse studio.

There were two of them who came to the townhouse studio just before noon. "I need electrical power today," I said to them.

"I can't get the wiring replaced until Friday," the younger man said. "But I can check the existing wiring out and give the Power Company over in Williamston the go ahead to turn you on. Once you have some electric, we can comeback to finish later."

"How much to certify it won't burn down from an electrical fire?" I asked.

"The price of a service call is $75. That is all I'm going to charge you for this visit. Let me take a look around and give you a firm price for the work," the younger man said.

"Since I have to pay for the inspection anyway, let's do it," I said. Jasper, yes that was his name, looked the place over then made the call on his cell phone to the Power Company.

"They said they will do it this afternoon. You don't have to be here for that. It all gets done on the outside of the building."

"Good, I need to go back to Williamston anyway. I can stop and do the paperwork when we finish here."

We walked over the building and I showed him where I was going to put the bathroom so he knew where to put the ground fault breaker plug. Then plugs every eight feet along the walls. There were only two plugs since it had been only used for storage. Even then it had no metal conduit, just open insulated wire.

"Okay we will do a conduit run all around the room with household current. No overhead lights at all. Are you sure you don't want a switched circuit for a lamp?" he asked.

"No, I just want wall plugs up here," I said. "I want two different zones downstairs. One over head light in each with switches. I need some wall plugs as well."

"I have an idea of what I need to buy and the cost. I can give you a firm estimate now," Jasper said.

"Okay let's see if we are doing business or not," I suggested.

"We will come back day after tomorrow early and start work. We will upgrade your breakers and put in the conduit and wall plugs up here. We will put in the 220 circuit for a wall unit heating and or air conditioning unit over the kitchen area and in the studio portion of the ground floor. We will wire two over head lights and another conduit system on the ground floor. All of them at forty inches from the floor." He took a breath and I nodded. We will leave a capped off circuit for the hot water heater in the corner of the kitchen area, is that the complete list?" he asked.

"If there is more I will pay more," I suggested.

Labor and materials will run you $800," Jasper said.

I looked up at his grandfather when I replied, "In that case you need to write it down. I will get another estimate then let you know."

"I thought it was settled?" Jasper asked.

"I paid you for the inspection because I didn't want to be obligated to use you. I don't know your price might be fair. It might also be more than reasonable. See I know it will take you no more than a day, I know you have overhead, and I know you don't want to work for wages. I also know there is a certain amount of downtime in any business. You need paying customers to cover that. So $800 a day maybe a fair rate for all that, or it may not be. The estimate almost doubled and it's really the same as one day's labor. So I'm going to take it under advisement."

"Would you go for six hundred cash," he asked.

"You come Thursday morning and I will hand you three one hundred dollar bills. Finish it and I will give three more," I suggested.

"Fair enough," he said.

"When they left, I carried my two backpacks from the trailer into the building. Then they went upstairs and into a corner of the room. I locked the door carefully before heading for Williamston. It was a forty five minute ride to the much larger town. Williamston, though larger was still not a major city. It was about twice the size of the town with the McDonald's and post office where I had a box rented. The box allowed me to get mail as Iris Martin with only a half hour's drive to retrieve it.

Williamston as well as having the electric co-op headquarters, also held the phone co-op's office. I signed up for both, then went shopping. I bought furniture in a local mom and pop store. I bought a very solid wooden table with two chairs. I also found a sofa bed just like the ones I had in my house at Farmer's Grove. I was about to leave when I saw a game table with adjustable top. I bought it to use as a drawing table. Delivery of it all, as well as a few lamps was set for the next day. That gave me one full day before the electrical work was to begin. I used cash from my road cash for those items. I carried my cash with me in the backpack on my trike. It was hidden in a box wrapped with black duct tape to disguise it as a battery pack. I always carried about fifty bucks for small items I purchased out of pocket. It would also make a thief think he had it all. Even so I made an exception because I had two thousand of the cash in my pocket that mornings.

The Phone Company was due to do its installation the next day. From the phone co-op I bought only broadband Internet. Even though they offered cable and phone service bundle at a good price, I had no use for it. I returned to the townhouse studio to spend the night sleeping on the floor in my sleeping bag.

I had the lightweight sleeping bag for camping, so one night on the floor was doable. If I slept in the Guest House one more night, I would have to kill the two old fishermen, I thought with a smile.

In the upstairs storage area there were two huge windows overlooking Main Street. Main Street was the only street in town with street lights, I expected. There were plenty of outside lights on wooden poles, but those were paid for by the individual property owners. My building had been built with large fixed windows as an important architectural item.

I sat Indian style by those windows to listen to my mp3 player. It was the only tech item I had access to since the broadband wouldn't be installed until the next day. I also had no water, but I did have electricity, so it was not an impossible situation. I used bottle water to wash the next morning.

I was back in the restaurant the next morning looking at the pegboard. The same young girl was behind the counter. "Hey you know a cheap plumber?" I asked.

"My boy friend's uncle is a plumber. How cheap he is I don't know," she replied. "Want me to give him a call?"

"Sure why not. I need a couple of eggs and bacon with toast as well," I said.

"After the breakfast I was off to my house to await the plumber, the furniture delivery and the Phone Company's installer. I carried water and a coffee maker with me. The coffee maker came from Williamston and the water was in a gallon jug from the restaurant provided by the waitress. I gave her an extra dollar tip.

My only furniture downstairs was the bike trailer. It occupied the front area of the downstairs, which one day would be the retail showroom. It could be seen through the dirty front window. How that window had survived was a complete mystery to me. I suppose there weren't a lot of vandals living close enough to walk to the seafood store.

Anyway I had an old wooden front door with glass and a large plate glass window as bonus features of the building. The plumber came first to turn on the water and to talk about the job.

"Laney is my name," he said extending his hand to me. Laney, like the electrician, was black. He actually was a darker black than Jasper or his dad. "So what you got in mind?"

"Well Laney first of all I need to get the water turned on, so that I can flush the toilet while you are working," I suggested.

"Well if you will pay my $85 dollar service call fee, I will turn on your water and check for leaks," he suggested.

"You got it," I said.

"Well when we do the update we gonna have to install a cutoff inside the building. All you got now is a cutoff at the water main. That is too much trouble. You probably would get a flood before you got it off."

He had a tool to open the valve. We found two leaks. One in the pedestal sink and one in the toilet valve. Laney had the parts on his truck, so my total bill was $110 dollars. Surprising enough the larger sink outside the bathroom was in good shape. That sink had been used for cleaning fish I presumed since it was much larger. It could easily accommodate a five gallon bucket.