Chapter 100: Just the Way It Is

I showed the apartment a few times during the week, but nothing really happened until Friday night. Around 6PM Friday night Sarah Beth's grand parents arrived with a gaggle of other people. "Grand Pa stood at my door with a younger version of himself and a pudgy Betty Crocker type female.

"Maxine this is my son and his wife." He named names but they were lost on me. They just became Sarah's Mom and Dad to me.

"Nice to meet you both. I met Sarah and she is a real sweetie," I said.

"I am very impressed with your security system here. Even though I understand you have a dangerous lifestyle at times, I think Sarah will be safer here than in some huge complex in Tryon." her dad said to me.

His comments put an end to any rental arrangement I might have been considering with Swamp Thing. "I certainly hope so," I replied. "Just so you know, I have never brought my work home with me."

"Good," he said. "Tell me, if Sarah orders delivery pizza, how are they going to get into the gate?"

"She is either going to have to be sure the delivery man has her cell number, or she is going to have to watch the gate video camera and come meet him or her, If a friend just shows up, it better be a close enough friend to have her phone number." I said

"The final contact option is that my cell phone number is listed at the gate. I can relay a message, if your daughter answers her cell phone for me. If she doesn't, then whoever is at the gate needs to just leave."

"And they will," Grandpa said.

"I expect them to leave peacefully yes," I replied straight faced.

"Well, we are moving Sarah in more or less," Grandpa replied. "Actually her mom and dad plus two brother are doing the moving. Grandma and me are just observing."

"It should be warm in there, I have had the heat up since Sarah's rent started a couple of days ago." I suggested.

"Oh it is nice and warm in there. The cable vision man is supposed to be here one day next week." Dad suggested.

"Tell Sarah to make sure I know what day. I won't just let him in on his say so alone. All service people have to be arranged in advance. Actually I had all that taken care of in the renovations. They should be able to do it from the office, but if not, one of us has to let them in. I should be here most any day for a while." My plan was to hang around at least until all the units were rented. I would have enjoyed the downtime better, if it had been 80 degrees, but you can't have everything.

Sarah spent the night in the apartment. God only knew how many months it had been since there were people staying in the motel. The new occupants were semi permanent residents, not transients. With all the other stuff on his plate I'm sure God didn't mind the Casa Del Aster's status change.

On Saturday the calls picked up. The first couple to show up was obviously a Father Daughter combination or he was the world's luckiest man. He was a man about sixty or so. He had all his own hair, but it was colored. The coloring was a very good job, but his facial wrinkles didn't match the hair color by about twenty years. He looked soft, but fairly close to the correct height weight proportion. He looked like the kind of guy who would fit into the kind of lifestyle that the tiny apartment would dictate.

I gave them the speech pretty much in one long narrative. "So there will be an additional fee for the heating of the place?" he asked when I finished.

"Yes sir, that is the most asked question I get. I had a choice of adding a new heating unit which would been less efficient, and cost the tenant more to operate, or to go this way. The Heating and Air Conditioning Contractor suggested this method. It's going to be a pain, so it wouldn't have been my first choice. There is an agreement in the lease that it is capped at $200. If it a resident's share goes over that, the additional is slopped over and we catch it up in the spring. In other words, if it get really nasty out, you will know that $200 is going to be the most you will have to pay at any one time."

"That is still a lot for those on social security alone," he suggested.

"Yes it is, but it's the best I could do. I am sorry, if it won't fit into your budget and I fully understand."

"Ms. Stone," the girl spoke for the first time. "That really isn't the issue. My dad is just really concerned about seniors these days,"

"I completely understand, but to me honest I'm not the government, nor am I a charity. I am not trying to get rich by any means, but the place has to pay for itself. This is the price and the plan that the experts tell me will work."

"My dad could never get into the Senior Towers, nor would he want to take up a space there. This place is ideal and the size is even larger than those units. The towers is better for those who can't drive or get around as well as my dad. We are going to talk about his, I expect that you will be hearing from us."

"I didn't catch your father's name? Just so I will know who I'm talking to if he calls back."

"Johnathan Hunter," she said simply. It was all she needed to say. Johnathan Hunter was the son of the mill owner who had in effect started Aster's first growth spurt. When his dad built the textile mill, people began to actually build houses near the mill, so the town double in population almost over night. As the Aster furniture factory and the textile mill grew it doubled a few more times, before the nationwide decline in industrial jobs began. The story was that Johnathan Hunter had lost most of his family money, and then he gave away the rest of it as some kind of penitence. I would have to give him some serious thought, if he ever called back.

The second apartment actually rented Saturday just after noon. It went to a woman again, even thought I would have preferred a man. Her name was Lois. Yes she had a family name, but I couldn't pronounce it, let alone spell it. Some Italian monstrosity which a true southerner wouldn't be able to say correctly with a hundred years of practice.