Chapter 3

Early one Sunday morning Mr. Cannon pulled into the driveway that had been expanded into a large parking pad. He stood outside for a long time looking at the improvements. I watched as he walked to my apartment and opened the door just as he raised his hand to knock.

"My God Damon, how did you get all of this done so fast?"

"Mr. Cannon, come on inside," I said.

As he walked inside with his jaw dragging the floor and his eyes trying to take in everything I said, "I have to confess. I have some very good friends that helped me. A lot of the material was stuff that was left over from other jobs and I had to buy very little. All of the apartments are painted off-white because that is what my friend had in his warehouse. Some of the things my friend said that he had left over but I know that he wanted me to have a nice apartment to stay in. If you want I'll take you inside and ask the tenants if you can look at the apartments."

He hesitated before he answered, "No, I don't have to go through the apartments. I just couldn't believe the pictures. I had to see it for myself. I can't believe that this was once a garage. This is a hell of a nice apartment. I really owe you. There's no way that I could have afforded to do all of this just now."

When he had stopped looking at everything Dan's crew had to do to make me an apartment I asked, "I found an old laptop computer in the garage when I cleaned it out. It had never been opened but its three years old. Do you mind if I use it for a while?"

He looked at me and smiled, "Hell, keep it. I wouldn't know what to do with a laptop computer. I'm not that into computers. I use the one at home for emails and surfing the 'net. Other than that I haven't a clue."

I insisted that Mr. Cannon take a walk to the apartment building and look what we had done. When he walked into the hallway he became quiet and just looked at everything with a shocked look on his face. One of the students had gone to church so I opened the apartment door and let Mr. Cannon see what the apartments looked like now. I told him that the plumbing fixtures and some of the appliances would have to be replaced soon but that I thought that we could get two more years out of them. He kept shaking his head at everything that he looked at.

"Damon, I know that you're going to live rent-free for four years but I think that I got the better end of this deal. I see it but I can't believe that you did all of this."

It was my turn to smile, "Well Mr. Cannon, I think that next year you should consider a rent increase. These apartments are better than most of the student rentals in town. I'm sure that the building is worth at least twice what it was."

"I agree, Damon."

I asked if he had brought the bank deposit slips that I had asked for in an email and he pulled a stack of them out of his jacket.

I went to my desk and opened the drawer, "I have five checks and cash for the other three apartments. Do you want to take the cash and have me deposit the checks?"

He grinned and reached for the cash, "Damon, you're a man after my own heart."

We talked for a while and he turned to go and then stopped, "Look my mother has a Nissan Sentra at her house. Its seven years old but it only has twenty-one thousand miles on it and it been garaged ever since it was new. My mother will never be able to use it again. Would you like to have it?"

I couldn't answer for a minute and he continued, "I couldn't get anything for it because of its age and I hate small cars. If you want it it's yours."

I gulped and said, "Sure if you think that you really want to give it away. I thought that I'd have to wait a year before I could afford a car."

"I have all of the records on the car. My mother had the car serviced even if she hadn't used it in three months. Why don't you hop in my car and we'll go over and get it. I've got the title over at the house and since I have my mother's power of attorney I can sign the title. Just get the title transferred and turn in the old tags."

We went over to his mother's house. Mr. Cannon located the title, signed it and handed me the keys and title. He went to the desk and pulled out a manila folder that held all of the records for the services that had been performed on the car.

I thanked him way too much and he kept telling me that he was getting the better end of the deal and that I had earned the car.

When we went outside he pushed the button on the garage door remote and the garage door began to open. As soon as the garage door was open I saw that the car was better than he had said. As I walked around the car I couldn't even find one scratch. I opened the door and it looked like the upholstery had never been sat on. The car started immediately.