Chapter 4

A little over a week had passed since the card game when an incessant knocking at my back door startled me out of my slumber one morning. Actually, it was more banging than a knock.

In order to make everything clear, I need to explain about the door arrangement in my apartment. My front door is actually the elevator which comes from the downstairs foyer on the ground floor. Each floor of the building is a separate condo. The elevator stops at any one of the five levels, if you have the correct key. Visitors call up to the unit they wish to visit on the house phone located outside on the wall by the door, and the tenant of the unit must release the elevator to bring the guests up to their level. The elevator will not stop on any other floor unless you have the key to make it stop.

The apartment building is set into a large hill and only my floor is high enough to have a back door. This door is reachable via a short bridge which leads from the side of the vacant lot behind my property to my kitchen door. When the apartment building was built, they had to cut into the hill behind the complex. Because of the building’s height and the steep rise of the hill, my apartment is the only one that actually ended up with a back door. There’s a concrete retaining wall behind the entire structure which holds the back wall of dirt in place. Because of the retaining wall, all the other units only have small windows that face out against the concrete wall. I have a steel mesh security door covering my back door. Since no one can really see very well into the lot that faces the entire back of the apartment, I feel very secure with my back door arrangement.

What had pulled me out of my happy sleep was somebody banging on that steel door. The noise rebounding through my entire place was impossible to ignore. Although I glanced at the clock beside my bed, in my state of fogginess, the time didn’t register. On my way to the back door, I again glanced at a clock on the wall, and this time it finally sunk in. I was operating on around four hours of sleep.

I peered out the peephole to see who had so rudely interrupted my sleep and I found Scott standing there. I opened the main door, keeping the steel mesh door closed and locked. At this point, I just wasn’t feeling very friendly. “Why aren’t you asleep?” I growled through the mesh, “You know I had a date last night. As I recall, so did you!” Without letting him answer, I continued, “So the question is, why are you out running around at this time of day, ass- hole? Did your date have a headache?” “Asshole?” He sounded hurt. “Who you calling asshole? You don’t know it yet, but I’m the guy who is trying to help you out. And no, my date did not have a headache. Not all of us have to sleep with every date we have.” Scott reached out and tried to open the steel door, but it was locked. “Damn it, Matt, let me in! I’m not going to stand out here and talk to you like some door-to-door salesman. Anyway, this is about your houseboat.”

This was great news. Hardly a week had passed, and the paperwork still wasn’t completed, and already it was disturbing my sleep. To continue the conversation, I didn’t want to have, I flipped the lock and turned around to go to put on some clothes. I called back over my shoulder for Scott to make some coffee.

Once inside my bedroom, I went over to my date from the previous evening and pulled up the covers. No reason she shouldn’t catch some more sleep. She mumbled something incoherent and moved closer to the center of the bed. Glimpsing her sexy nude lush body while covering her up, I recalled last night’s passion. Her lovely naked breasts seemed to call to me. Those erotic thoughts did little to push me to return to Scott. Besides, I knew in the back of my mind I didn’t want to hear what he had to tell me about the houseboat. But I went anyways.

When I returned to the kitchen the aroma of coffee filled the room. Even though the pot hadn’t finished dripping, I grabbed a cup from the cupboard and poured some coffee from the carafe. I needed something right now. Screw waiting! As I took a sip, I could tell Scott noticed what I had done. By the look on his face, I could tell he was considering making some snide comment. I gave him a dirty look and he thought better of it.

“OK, what’s so important you had to wake me at this unholy hour?”

By now, Blackjack had dragged her lazy butt out of the bedroom where she’d been sleeping. When she saw Scott, she went straight to him and started begging for his attention. The two of them get along well, and when I have to leave town, I usually ask Scott to dog sit for me. He’s actually more of a cat person, so I’m surprised the two of them get on so well. One of the first times he’d met BJ, he told me a story about when he was a kid, and the little black cocker that a car had run over. Maybe BJ reminds him of his childhood.

Scott drew himself a cup of the finished joe and took a sip before he started in. “ ... took the liberty of checking on the houseboat moorage. I felt it was my duty since I was more or less the one who goaded you to take the bet.

“By the way, I had a courier take all the paperwork to Slim last Thursday and I also started the paperwork you’ll need to sign. After Slim finally signs everything and ... well...” his voice trailed off.

Considering the mood I was in; I thought that saying just one word was very kind. “Well?”

He looked down at the floor and spoke so softly I could hardly hear him, “I thought I should research the current lease on your space in the marina. It turns out you have a houseboat all right ... but you won’t have a place to tie it up after the first of next month. You have to move it.”

His comment made me take in too much hot coffee, and I burned my tongue. I shouted at him, “What? How can I have a houseboat, and not have somewhere to tie the damn thing up?” I knew I needed to lower my voice, but I just couldn’t. “How can somebody just tell me I have to move? I thought there was a lease or something! And how can you move anything that large? Doesn’t this thing have power and telephone connected to it, and ... and ... and like that other stuff?” By now I was waving my hands in the air, but I was too wound up to stop. “Isn’t there some way we can arrange to keep it there? Isn’t there...”

Scott held up one hand, and ducked his head in mock surrender, “Slow down, one question at a time, please.” He held up one finger, “They will disconnect the power and telephone on the thirtieth of next month.” Another finger popped up, “You can move the houseboat with a tugboat. If you don’t have a tug there on the first of the following month to move it, they’ll just cast you off, disconnect the power and stuff, and your boat will float off into the lake. At least that’s what they told me.”

Now he held up another finger, “As for the lease, the deal is, there are two types of houseboat moorages. The first type is you own the moorage and part of the dock. All the owners are responsible for keeping up the docks, piers and the grounds out front. The other arrangement is someone else owns the dock, the piers and the land up to the street and each tenant is on a month-to-month rental with some sort of extended lease involved. Yours was on a lease, and Slim hadn’t renewed the lease since he planned to move anyway. He must have thought he had more time, and you sorta got stuck.”

Scott continued, “I just found all of this out yesterday afternoon after I filed all the papers with the title agency. Please understand I’ve tried to reach you to tell you this, but I keep missing you. I knew I could find you here this morning. I’m really sorry I told you to take the damn thing on that bet. Anyway, if they do cut the thing loose, then the city will cite you. I’ll admit I know nothing about maritime law, but my guess is it has to do with being a hazard to navigation or something. Anyway, the coast guard will have the boat impounded, for which they will also bill you. We need to find you a new spot and arrange to have a tug move the boat.” After his spiel he took a long sip of his coffee.