I start walking up the stairs, shivering as I pull my jacket tighter around my body.
"Hello?" I called. No response
"Hello?" I called again. Again no response.
Good, I think to myself. No one here. No one to talk to. I walk up the last set of stairs, teeth chattering.
My hand fumbles as I try to jam my key into the lock.
"Damn it" I say.
"Can't the stupid landlord do one good thing in his life."
My landlord is a grumpy old drunk who lives on the third floor. He only comes out of his room/office to collect the rent. He never listens to me when I ask him to fix my lock, and I don't think he ever will. Anyways...
The lock finally clicks, and I stumble into the apartment.
I walk over to the light switch. I watch as my hand goes to flip on the light. Click click shhhhhhhhh. Lights are out. Again. I turn on my phone flashlight and walk over to the couch, dumping my bag on the floor. I lay down on the couch and look up at the ceiling, and that's when
I notice it. It's tiny at first, but it slowly gets larger. A water leak. I watch as water pools up in the center and drips down onto my face. I sit up, wiping the droplet off with my sleeve. Another falls. Drip, Drip, Drip.
I walk over to the door, trying the lights again on my way out. The one bulb hanging from my ceiling flickered, toying with my hope, but eventually just turned off again.
"Great," I whisper.
"Just perfect"
I turn the cold doorknob to my front door and pull the door open. I stick my head out, checking before walking outside. Robberies are common in this side of town. I turn around and lock the door behind me.
I walk up the rusty metal stairs to my landlord's room. He lives right above me. Yipee.
I bang on his door.
"There's a leak again Mr. Kolowski"
I hear rumbling from behind the door, then something falls and smashes.
A muffled "be right there" comes from somewhere to the right of the door.
Suddenly, the door swings open. Mr.Kolowski peers out, looking as scruffy as usual.
"Can I help you?" He asks, in his whiny nasally voice.
"Yes, you can actually. Your apartment is causing a leak in mine" I say, a bit louder then both he and I expected
"And how can that be?" He asks, scratching his belly.
"Well, sir, I live right underneath you, so it would be easy to cau-."
"Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm not causing any leak, so you best go away!" He makes a rude hand gesture and slams the door in my face.
"But sir, I ne-." again I was cut off. Again I will have to get out the bucket. Again I will have to position it just right to keep it from falling off of the couch.
"Worst. Landlord. Ever" I mumble as I walk back down the creaky stairs to my flaky apartment. Once I'm inside again, I head over to the kitchen, which is really just a corner of the one room, one bathroom apartment. I open the one tiny cupboard on the wall and take out a mug. Setting the kettle on the stove, I reach over to get the tea.
"I can't believe he just cut me off like that! What a jerk." I ramble to myself as I go get the bucket from the bathroom. I walk back to the couch and prop the bucket up with pillows so it doesn't topple to the floor.
How I ended up in this situation, how I ended up in this apartment, in this town, with this cranky old drunk as a landlord, I don't know. But what I do know is that I'm not staying here forever. What I do know is that I'm getting out.
