I was late for class this morning and I needed to get out of my apartment building fast. The elevator doors opened up and I immediately thought to myself, of course it's full, fuck me. Living on the eleventh floor meant I wasn't taking the stairs. So make a spot and squeeze in. My mind was starting to get exasperated, please nobody pass gas.
The only good thing about this was that I was the first one out as soon as we reached the first floor. Checking my watch I still had time pick up my coffee. On the first floor of the apartment building were two businesses. One was a sandwich shop that served great breakfast pastries and grab to go breakfast food.
Walking in I noticed the HELP WANTED sign in the window. I had recently lost my job and I was on the clock for the rent that would be due in a couple of months. I had come into a severance check from my last job so rent was paid for now. At least for the next couple of months. But after that I would be out of luck.
I ordered my coffee which the lady behind the counter already knew by heart how I liked it. I had been living in the building for 4 months already and was a regular customer. "You're hiring?" I asked. "We sure are. Don't tell me you're looking for work?" I politely nodded yes. "What happened to the theater job?" She asked. I suddenly realized that maybe I shouldn't tell everyone, everything.
The theater job was a job that I wanted to forget had ever happened. I quickly responded with a generic answer, "I didn't care for the jobs plus the hours weren't right with me going to school." I didn't want to say that I quit because I couldn't stand the manager. That I thought he was a real pig.
"Here's your coffee and fill this out. Drop it off when you get home from class. Now get out of here and have a good one." With those final words I had my coffee and job application in hand. I was out the door, off to my new school.
I had just moved to the area. I left my old school after completing just half the term. As soon as the Christmas break hit I checked out and moved to another city. The move put me closer to family and into a new school. I had suffered a really bad episode in my life and I couldn't stay at the old school anymore. I was nineteen, young and immature so...I ran away.
Letting go of my past was a painful process. I was punishing myself for my past and putting myself through a self-destruct phase. The person who I allowed to inflict the punishment was my old theater boss. But now I had finally had enough. I had hit bottom and it was time to put a stop to it. I had finally told him what I thought of him and his job. So, yeah he got the hint. I hadn't seen my old boss since my break down so I was finally starting to heal.
Back to today, this day flew by and I had finally made it back to my apartment building. The owner of the sandwich shop was at a table doing paperwork. As I walked in the door Mr. Lewis, the shop owner, called out to me. "David? Correct?" I immediately started walking to his table. "Yes sir, David." I responded. Mr. Lewis invited me to sit down and just like that he started the interview.
It was 1977 and looking for a job was more personal than it is today. Today to get a job at a McDonalds you have to put in an application online. Then wait for weeks and maybe get an email to come in for bullshit questions. In this day and time you actually got to speak to a real person from the beginning. Mr. Lewis knew who I was because he had seen me in his shop almost every day.
He had already spoken to the building apartment manager and had gotten a lot of information from him. He had found out that I was a freshman at the local Methodist University. That I paid my rent and utilities on time. That I was a model tenant. That meant that no one had ever complained about my unit. Mr. Lewis even spoke to the old guys that hung out in the lobby. They all told him that I was a good kid and they all enjoyed my company.
I was raised by my grandfather so being kind and talking to the old guys sitting around downstairs in the main lobby was easy for me. I was always good for a game of cards, chess, domino's or whatever they were playing at that moment. It wasn't so much that I was a great kid devoting all my free time to the aged. It was more like...I had no life.
The reason I moved was because my heart had been broken. It was broken by the person I loved and the person who was supposed to be my best friend. Some messed up shit right? I had moved to start over. Something that no nineteen year old should ever have to do at such a young age. But that's life and it was...what it was.
I was finally getting the bounce back in my step. This day was the start of it. Mr. Lewis gladly hired me but insisted that I give him a schedule of my classes. "You will go to school if you work for me young man." Mr. Lewis was firm with that order. "Yes sir." I replied instantly.
Just like that I had a job. I could keep my little efficiency apartment and keep going to school. Life was getting better.
I got myself a bike, a ten speed bike. After work if I still had energy I would take off riding around the general area of my apartment building. The apartment building had been a nice high end hotel back in the fifties and mid-sixties, it had seen its best days.
Luckily the building had been rescued and renovated in the early 70's. It was now eighteen floors of efficiency apartments with one or two larger apartments. The top penthouse apartment was now just a storage area. The people living there were mostly old people living on their retirement money or broke college kids from the three church sponsored universities located in the city.
The building was located smack dab in the middle of the downtown area. The city itself was a medium to large West Texas town. There were the assortment of eight and ten story buildings clustered in the downtown area but my apartment building towered over all of them.
After my bike ride in the evenings I would get home shower and study. If I had time to spare I would set up in my big comfy chair. Right in front of my window. I would open it up and look off into the distance. Being eleven floors up the view was something that I had never experienced before.
I had figured out how to remove the window screen so I had a clear view. The real show was watching the rain storms roll in from the distance. Watching those big dark clouds roll in was cool but the lightning dancing around in the distance was spectacular.
I was alone but I was finally feeling good about myself. Little did I know that everything was about to change. The next day I would get up and life as I knew it was about to start over for me.
I never really noticed Casey. Honestly I don't know why I had never noticed her. Casey was in her senior year of high school. She had just turned 18 and she was a tiny thing that stood all of 5ft tall. That's if she was in her shoes. I can imagine that barefoot she was 4ft 11ish. She had short, straight, natural blonde hair, almost a platinum blonde.
