Sept 6: As my world turns....

(Note: Certain parts have been edited out. You'll understand as you read.)

It's been a very eventful last five days. I keep wishing this was a soap opera that could be turned off. Of course it could be worse....

After writing the last post there was more information that evening. The tenant's girlfriend, who will now be referred to as GF, came to see me. She is the one who has paid the rent for the two months and TT(The Tenant) had told me that she was paying for September. Her opening comment was "He and I are no longer together." Since losing his first job here after coming up from Texas TT has been on a real downward spiral. While a couple weeks later he got a job as a waiter he doesn't like it as much as the first one. She says he's been _____ing a lot, hasn't picked up any of the bills he was supposed to after he started working, and a few other things. She broke up with him Sunday night, never knew about what happened regarding his argument or what happened to my door. She had given him most of the security deposit and was stunned when she read my eviction notice saying he had given me less than half of what was due.

I really like GF. She's got an MBA and works for a big corporation. She also has early onset Parkinson's and her jerking head and limbs were much worse than I've ever seen them. This is really taking a toll on her. We talked for over an hour. She completely agreed with my giving TT notice and told him that she would not pay another months rent, paying September so as not to be unfair to me.

I'd taken a personal day Wednesday to handle everything, had only told the office manager and her assistant. I'd begged the office manager to not say anything except to the big boss because I just didn't want to keep going over things and have to listen to people's well-meaning suggestions. Thursday I went to work, didn't let on that anything was amiss.

Friday I went out to an antique salvage place that had at least one door fairly close to my back door's measurements. Found a total of three doors that might work, which would save a lot of money in replacing it. This was a suggestion from the builder who came to evaluate the window situation, but got pulled into the more urgent issue. Friday night there was water in my closet again, even worse than two weeks ago. Something else on the upstairs toilet had broken. I called a different plumber who easily tightened a couple things and seemed to feel sorry enough for me that he only charged me $50 for a Friday night emergency call.

My blood test came back late Friday afternoon. Low normal amounts of lead. Still waiting for the water test to come back.

Saturday I'd decided that all I wanted to do was sit out on my back patio and read a book. Since the back door is nailed shut this requires going out the front door and walking to the back, making it less convenient. And my level of paranoia was such that I was locking the front door on my way out. Who knows when that lunatic would come back? And since at 2pm I was going on call there was only a narrow window of total relaxation. That lasted until I heard the doorbell ring through the window screen.

As I walked up the path there were two police cars visible, the officers already at my door and on my lawn. They asked for the tenant by his formal name, I directed them around to the other side of the house where the entrance is. They ascertained that I was the owner and he was the renter. I offered to get the keys for them and went into my area of the house. As I came back out the door a third police car pulled up. They were already talking to TT from the vestibule, so I backed away and sat on my front stoop. I called the GF and said "There are 3 cops here to see TT--what's going on? Did he do something?" Her reply was "I don't know. My mom woke me from a nap because there are 2 cops standing in my kitchen."

This can't be good. My vivid imagination took off with possibilities including robbery, assault, murder.... One of my neighbors came out of his house to see what was going on and I invited him over to help keep me from freaking out.

After about 15 mins (seemed longer) the cops came back, one left and the other two came over to me. "Am I allowed to ask now what's going on?" The first cop said that TT had apparently posted something on Facebook which caused someone to call and ask for them to check on his well being. (It turned out to be his mother in Texas.) Apparently he sounded suicidal, or worse. They assured me he seemed fine, no cause for concern but that I should call them immediately if I heard, saw or suspected anything.

Not particularly reassuring for a partially disabled woman living alone.

Another neighbor came over to see if I was alright. She gave me her phone number and urged me to call her or come over if there was anything she could do. The first neighbor (whose number I already have) left, and the second neighbor and I had a nice chat. It seems her daughter had a mechanical mitral valve replacement from rheumatic fever damage at 14 years old and at 21 is doing fine physically, but emotionally has ups and downs. I invited her to send her daughter over for a chat and support anytime.

Later that day I saw that my next door neighbor was home. A nice young couple, the loud motorcycles aren't too frequent. They were the ones who told the cops on Monday about TT argument, which made me feel better as there was an explanation and the attack didn't seem as random. She gave me both their cell phone numbers and also told me to call them anytime of day or night and to immediately come over if I was scared or felt threatened, which was very sweet.

I've now had more interaction with my immediate neighbors than I have over the last four years. While this wouldn't have been my choice in how to establish contact, it is a nice silver lining.

Saturday night my friend Christine came over to my house since I was on call and need to stay close to a fax machine. We ate dinner and watched a movie, which was a good distraction.

I decided that if TT's truck moved or he made noise at least once a day I didn't need to call anyone. I'm ashamed to admit that my concern was that he would kill himself in my apartment, causing a major mess and/or making the apartment impossible to rent again. Rather calloused, huh?

Sunday I went to Fellowship, stood up during joys and concerns and asked for prayers and positive thoughts. While seemingly fairly calm, the anxiety came out at night. I stayed up very late reading, still jumping at any noise.

This morning I heard the outside door open, it is right behind the wall in my bedroom and ends up being just on the other side of my pillow. It was after 9am, but with no commitments I decided to doze a while longer, which didn't make the fuzzy ones happy. At noon the GF called and asked to come over. Seems TT left Sunday morning while I was at Fellowship, in handcuffs and escorted by a couple police officers. He now has a new place to stay: Chester County Prison.
Who thought I could miss so much just by going to services?!

I hope that was as dramatic as possible. Please let me know. It would be a small comfort.

Edited version: GF claims that there are things missing from her house. It's more dramatic than that, but all that can be said now.

The noise I'd heard that morning was her coming back with one of the cops __ ______ ____She feels violated, stupid and really angry. She doesn't know what he's been spending the money on, my thought was drugs or gambling.

Because of the amount stolen (the current charges include) felony theft. This will (may)now be two felony crimes on his record since he already had a grand theft auto before. Should there be a guilty conviction he would serve time in prison.

Well, that's better than cleaning up a messy suicide.

Inspecting the apartment there is a hole through the wall in the living room which seems to be from a fist. There are several other holes or partial holes which are probably from furniture moving. It smells as if he's been smoking in the kitchen. Will certainly cost more than the paltry $225 security money he gave me.

Despite all this I'm pretty calm. There's nothing like seeing someone way worse off than you to put things into perspective. And the poor GF is out well over $_______ (it's a LOT of money)between rent, car payments and things stolen. The arraignment is this Thursday. This time I'm not rushing into anything---it's just not worth what I've gone through with these last two guys. I've already contacted the nice lady on disability. Her rent is mostly paid for through a county program and she's too affected by her fibromyalgia to be any sort of physical threat.

But the strain is showing. I'm still jumping at any sound, nervous, checking outside all the time. I needed this like another hole in my heart.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of the latest saga...... Laurie