Chapter 9

The party ended about three days later and it was almost de ja vu all over again. I was back in my apartment, except this time it wasn’t the persistent ringing of a phone that woke me.

It was the loud knocking on my door.

What the hell. Who could that be? I crawled out of bed and stumbled to the door in my underwear. It was the landlord and I could see through my alcohol and drug addled eyes that he didn’t look happy.

“Jay, you son of a bitch. I should have known your rent cheque would be worthless.” He screamed at me.

I looked at him in bewilderment as I tried to shake off the effects of three days of non- stop partying. That Susan can sure take a lot out of a guy.

“It bounced. Your god damned cheque was no good.” He continued to yell as I tried to understand what he was saying.

“Bounced?” What the hell are you talking about? I cashed the cheque a few days ago. The bank accepted it.”

“Well then it must have bounced too. Where did you get that cheque from anyway? No doubt one of your so called clients.” The landlord yelled again.

“Look, there must be some mistake here. Let me check it out with the bank. I’m sure it’s some minor problem. You know how picky banks can be.” I tried to assure the landlord while trying to shut the door on him.

But he would none of it.

“I don’t care what the bank thinks. I’ve had it with you. This is an eviction notice. I want you out ASAP. I may even sue for back rent. You’ve got 24 hours before I lock you out.”

I stared at the back of the retreating landlord with my mind in a frantic whirl. Bounced cheques? How could that be? Surely old Tom wouldn’t try and pull something like that. He seemed like such a nice old guy except for those damned eyes. They always made me feel as if he knew what my game was about.

Then with a sinking heart I realized that wasn’t the worst of it. If that $10,000 cheque bounced, what about the other cheques? $25,000 worth of them and I’d been spending and partying like a drunken sailor for the last three days.

“Fuck, oh no. This can’t be happening to me.” I cursed out loud as the full realization of what happened hit me.

My hangover disappeared as I frantically opened my laptop and entered my online banking site. Sure enough, it was all bad. All of Tom’s cheques were marked Not Sufficient Funds. Of course the bank wanted all the money that I’d taken out in cash which I no longer had. In addition there were warnings from the bank about the payments on my Charger being rejected because of the fiasco. One warning even indicated the bank was about to begin repossession of it immediately.

Hell, that meant that I was not only stone broke and back in debt, even deeper than before all this started. I thought to check the receipts from my three day party with Susan. I dug out my wallet and found lots of them amounting to thousands of dollars. The bank was gonna want all that money back of course and I didn’t have a cent. So what the hell was I going to do?

My next move was to get a hold of Tom and try to get him to make the cheques good but when I thought of how ghastly he looked, I feared he might not even be alive yet. I phoned Uncle Wally anyway and asked him about Tom.

“Too late, Jay.” He informed me. “Tom passed away last night but it was nice to see him surrounded by his family right up until he drew his last breath. It was so touching I had tears in my eyes.”

Yeah right very touching all right. That fucking family, I mumbled. It’s one I won’t forget soon. Not only had Tom taken me for $35,000 bucks in bad cheques but the others had shaken me down for $1,500. Money I suspected I would never get back.

As soon as I hung up I threw on some clothes and ran out the door. I was headed for Sofia’s house to see if I could salvage anything out of this mess.

As soon as I arrived at her house I rushed up the front steps and began pounding on the door but there was no answer. Damn, she’s not home. But then why should she be after pulling me into a mess like this. The bitch is probably trying to avoid me at all costs. That’s what I’d be doing if I were her.

Back in my car I tried phoning her at the number she’d given me a few days ago. I didn’t expect her to answer and I was right. So I left a voice mail message then sat dejected in the car wondering what I should do next.

I decided I had no choice. I drove back to my apartment and began throwing all my clothes and anything I may need like my lap top and my TV into my mini van. The furniture, such as it was I just left there. The landlord could do whatever he wanted with it since most of it was junk anyway. Then I called Susan. She was still in bed but I got her up and told her I was on my way over with some stuff. I unloaded it all then drove her back to my place to get my Charger.

Since the bank was looking for it I knew it had to be kept hidden so I talked Susan into letting me park it in her garage. Yeah, right beside her fancy Jaguar and motorcycle she didn’t even know how to ride. She told me she wouldn’t be caught dead driving a mini van so I had to let her drive the Charger while I followed behind. I didn’t like the way she gushed over it after she parked it but there was nothing I could do about it.

Of course, with no apartment I stayed at Susan’s but the parties weren’t like they used to be and I spent most of my time trying to find a nice, fat juicy divorce. The nastier the better. I figured that way I eventually might be able to find enough money to get out of the mess I was in.