The Landlord

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Good morning Ruth," Blake said, holding the door open for me to come in. He was clad in black shorts and a red tee. "I'm about to head out. Mel should be here any minute."

Stepping inside, and noticing for the first time his AC on, I sighed in relief. For once, I might not actually sweat like a hog. "God, I don't know why you don't have this on all the time. I—"

High-pitched squeals and squawking interrupted me. This time though, the source didn't stay a mystery. Spinning around, my eyes found a large bird. It looked just like a parrot, but it was white and looked fluffier. I wasn't sure how to feel about the discovery. The bird was perched on wooden stand on a small table. Not caged. Yeah. Not fucking caged!

Immediately, I was tense. "Wh— What the hell?"

Blake chuckled. "Meet Sherman."

"Well, why the fuck is Sherman not in a cage?"

"He needs space to roam."

"I need space to not die!"

I stared at the bird with wide eyes. It looked cheery, happy, and cute as it started to waddle back and forth on the stand. However, it was a big ass bird so yeah, a little daunting. The thing could dig my eyes out if it tried.

Then, right fucking next to me, Blake held out his arm and clicked his tongue. Sherman squealed, flew off his perch, and landed on Blake's arm. Sure, I might have ducked out of the way and squealed as loud as the parrot, but whatever.

Blake headed towards the stairs as Sherman climbed up to his shoulder. "It's okay, the blood-thirsty beast won't hurt you." He and his parrot disappeared upstairs. Returning without the bird, I could only assume he put his pet in a cage. You know, where wild animals belong. "You might hear him get rambunctious, but don't worry, he'll quiet down. He's got enough toys to play with until I get home."

"That's good. Oh! Does your parrot need to be walked every few hours? What if he starts barking?"

Smirking at my teasing remarks, he snagged his keys from the table. "First of all, he's a cockatoo. Second, he barks only if you bark at him first." Heading towards the door, he said, "You and Mel should be able to get everything done today. You guys just need to do the basement. I'll see you later," he said with a smile before walking out the door.

Sherman was a good example of why I was secretly excited for today. I hated to admit it, but Blake was an interesting guy. I was too proud to ask him questions directly (since I didn't like getting questions back), so second sources would be the next best thing. Between riffling through his stuff and talking with Mel, I could learn a lot about the guy.

When Mel arrived, we headed to the basement. It wasn't too exciting at first. There were tons of boxes and crates full of junk – a good amount being old people stuff. I was kneeling on a bunched up blanket since the floor was nothing but concrete (my paint pillow unfortunately went into retirement).

After the first couple boxes we went through, I pulled out an old style lantern from the large box in front of us. It was a nice change from all the gross antler mounts we already found.

Tossing it into the garage sale box, which we almost filled already, I sighed. "You know, I thought we would find juicy stuff. Nothing like this."

She riffled through a different crate next to me. Sitting cross-legged on the hard floor, she moved twice fast as me. Then again, she had a better idea than I did of what to get rid of. "Most of this stuff belonged to his Uncle Rick. Which I think is why we are here, if I'm being honest."