Chapter 1

Does it rain at every funeral? The three I had previously attended had been damp and wet affairs, but today it was coming down in buckets. At least it hid the few tears I couldn't stop, as I stood listening to the next insincere condolence from yet another unknown person. I tried hard not to show them any emotion and get through the final part as quick as possible. My plan was to leave this town as soon as I could as there was nothing left for me here except sorrow and anger.

I said my own goodbyes privately to them when all of the others left. At least they were together, my father now with my mother, who had died from cancer six months earlier after a long two year battle. He had never been the same since she died and the accident at the mill had only hastened a predictable death from a broken heart.

I thanked the preacher and the funeral director and left the cemetery in my car. I drove home and changed into jeans and a t-shirt and finished packing what I wanted to bring with me. I loaded everything into the car and locked up the house. I backed up the car and pulled out onto the highway going into town. I stopped by the real estate office that was handling the sale of the house for me and gave them the keys. Then I quickly dropped into the office of the lawyer handling all the legal matters with the death of my father to let him know I was leaving and gave him my forwarding address and contact information at school. Finally I grabbed a burger combo to eat on the road. I pulled out of town heading south in the early afternoon on a Saturday in late August with no relatives or friends there to see me off.

I hit the U.S. border and crossed into Minnesota and kept driving south until I hit Duluth and found a hotel for the night. I got up early, had a good breakfast and got back on the road heading south east through Wisconsin and into Illinois. I grabbed a late lunch in Chicago and then drove around Lake Michigan until I hit Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan and now my residence for the next four years. It was late so rather than heading to my basement apartment, I found a hotel for the night. The next morning I ate in the hotel restaurant and then drove over to the house where the apartment was.

I found the street and slowly drove down it looking for the address. I had been here once back in June but all the houses looked the same. The street was lined with old two storey homes that had seen better days. Since the street was close to the University, a lot of the houses had been turned into multiple apartment rentals by their owners, with either the owner living in one of the apartments or one of the tenants would act as the manager for the owner. In this case the owner, a Mrs Sullivan, still lived in the building on the main floor but had two apartments upstairs and two downstairs in the basement. I had managed to rent the smallest basement apartment which basically had one room for a bedroom/living room, a small washroom and a small kitchen. The two basement apartments shared an outside entrance that also led to the laundry room for all four apartments and Mrs. Sullivan.

I located the house and pulled into the driveway so I could unpack what little I had brought with me. The apartment came with a bed, a dresser and a small desk in the bedroom, and a table and two chairs for the kitchen, so luckily I didn't need to spend much to get settled in. I knocked on the main front door and looked around while waiting for Mrs. Sullivan to answer. She answered the door and smiled as she recognized me.

"Michael, you made it. How was the trip down from Canada?" she asked.

"It was good Mrs. Sullivan, but long. It's good to be here finally" I replied with a small smile.

"I hope you didn't drive all night to get here this morning?" she asked with a worried look.

"No, I came in late last night and stayed in a hotel down the road" I said.

"That's good. Ok, let's get your keys and get you set up downstairs"

She grabbed a set of keys and we walked to the back of the house where the downstairs entrance was. Mrs. Sullivan used one key to open that door and we walked down the stairs into a well lit hallway. My apartment was on the left, another on the right, with the laundry room located at the far end of the hallway. She opened my apartment with the second key and then gave me the set. We went in and she went over the rules quickly, no drugs, alcohol, or loud music or parties. Guests were allowed, but noise levels had to be kept down. Laundry room privileges were included except I had to provide detergent. The rent included utilities, but I had to keep usage moderate or rent would increase. I asked about parking the car and she showed me the small parking area in the back. They were assigned by apartment so she showed me where to park after I was done looking around.

I told her I no problem with any of those rules so she left me to move in after we settled up on the first and last months' rent. I just had a few garbage bags of clothes, a couple boxes of books, my laptop, a small TV and DVD player and some keepsakes and pictures. I had one box of kitchen dishes, pots and pans and a box of cleaning and laundry supplies. There wasn't room for much else in either my car or the apartment.

It took me about a half hour to get everything inside and park the car. I hung up the clothes in the small closet and put the rest in the dresser. I unpacked the dishes and the supplies but let the books and the keepsakes in their boxes until I could get a couple of shelves hung and pick up a cheap bookcase. The TV and DVD went on the top of the dresser to be watched from the bed.