As the old-man of the condo, I was expert on the in's and out's of what was going on around town and within the buildings.
I had been there for years and years, after my wife passed, what was that 18 or 20+ years now... My kids were spread to the four winds, most of my family was gone. I just sort of continued, one day after the next, no plan, no objectives, except for some TV show or special on Cable, mostly educational material, NO SITCOM's - hated them with canned laugh tracks, but I really liked learning.
The condo slowly changed over as old owners passed on, then kids became owners, so sub-renters became the norm, just to make money for the estates and children. It was good money renting space on the Florida Gold Coast, vacation capital of the USA. Some units only rented for part of the year, being reserved for the original owner's families for vacations or summer breaks from school.
Some of the "kid's" I knew, others were introduced to me by their parents, I had by default became the "House Father", for troubles, tears and quick honest answers to world crushing youngster's problems. It was not too bad, never too many "kid's" at one time, spread across the year, so it was fun seeing people, even if they knew nothing or really cared about me.
I never knew I was very lonely till one woman moved in down the hall on my same floor. We started seeing each other, by accident only, in the hall, on the elevator, in the lobby, getting our mail, was never planned, at least by me.
I was not looking, at least I did not think so, but she was nice looking, much younger than me, but everybody was... Light brown-reddish hair, she kept it pulled back or under a hat or scarf - People don't wear hats anymore, shame really provides a lot of personality and spunk to be shown without questions.
She was in fine form, not really heavy but heathy, not skin and bones like some models - why anyone finds that sexy or enjoyable to look at I don't understand, really don't.
A bit shorter than me, but at 6'4" everybody is shorter than me. I also noticed that she did not wear the silly and stupid super high heals, but flats, sandals and short, what was once called mules, all very nice and set off her feet and legs very well.
I did not get a good read on the rest of her body, as none of her outfits were tight, low cut or in any way super-sexy, just great looking and smart outfits.
I assume that my "House Father" and trouble-shooter claim to fame was common knowledge so that one day this beautiful woman was knocking on my door, actually banging. I rushed to the door, as rushed as I get at my age, pulled the door open to see this woman in a panic, talking a millions miles an hour, such that I understood nothing. Slowly I determined that it was "Spang-Lish" or a thick mix of English and Spanish that many native speaking people develop and revert to in times of trouble.
Living in Florida as long as I had picked up enough Spanish to get around, put smiles on non-English faces and get what I wanted. Did I speak Spanish NO, can I understand it YES, to a degree. I finally kept hearing one word over and over again, AUGA, AUGA, AUGA - that is water...
I grabbed this woman's hand and took off running to her unit, as we got closer the hall carpet was getting wet, wetter and finally finding standing water.
As I grabbed her door knob and banged her door open with my hip and body, unless I had hold of the door, would have been knocked over as the water flooded out of her unit. After a second I saw what happened, a sprinkler head was missing in the ceiling over her kitchen/dinning room. I swung around and pulled open the closet, just inside the front door, reached inside and ripped open the control panel door, breaking the hinges, reached inside, found and started twisting the valve handle closed. After what seemed like hours the water draining from the busted sprinkler head... slowed.
Quickly I was on my phone to the complex office, trying to cancel the building's alarms and the Fire Department's/911 response. They were contacted, but still showed up, but without all the noise and flashing lights. Was a good thing as I found out they also carried very powerful vacuums to suck up all the water and left behind several huge powerful fans to try and dry the carpets and this poor woman's belongings.
Several hours later as people, firemen, complex maintenance crews, fire and safety inspectors finally left, I found this poor woman looking like her world had ended... What could I do, the same as I always did whenever anybody needed something. I HELPED as much as I could.
I walked over to her, slowly spoke to her, introduced myself, Joseph, asked her name; something Spanish, but she Americanized it to just "Angel". Next I asked her did she have family, friends or someplace to stay while her place dried out?????
The shocked look on her face, froze my heart for a second, so I quickly assumed she was a recent emigrant to our country, OK no problem. I think she was in shock, so as with a child, I asked her simple yes/no questions and went about getting some of her stuff, clothes, shoes, wallet, keys and collected her, with her belongings and walked down to my unit.
I took her to my second bedroom and bath, started to put her clothes into the dresser and closet, then got her to lay down on the bed. She looked terrible, with the wide eyed scared deer-in-the-headlights look. Worst of all, she said nothing, did nothing, just laid there not moving. I turned on the TV to a music channel, and closed the door leaving her alone to try and recover.
I had her keys and went back to her apartment, once inside I tried to pickup, clean up what little I could. The fire department fans were still running, I closed down the windows halfway in case it rained, shut off all her lights and as I was walking out seen a few old pictures of people around her TV. I did not think they were taken in the USA, but some foreign country, maybe at a Spanish Hacienda, I collected all the photos up, closed and locked her door and went back to my unit.
I knocked on the bedroom door, but got no response, slowly opening the door while loudly announcing my actions, I saw inside that Angel was asleep, so I quietly put her picture across top of the dresser, turned the cable TV music down and left her room.
I too zoned out in the living room, watching something on the TV, and after several hours was again aware of the world, my thirst and hunger becoming very important. I went into the kitchen, not a chief by any definition, but I could cook and follow directions on a bag or box well enough not to starve to death.
Looking through the freezer and frig I tried to decide what to cook, a few pork chops did not look too frozen, I found some frozen veggies and a bag of rice. OK, dinner as it was would be fried chops with fried rice, not too bad and I just had to clean one pan - a win, win, win. Tossed the chops in the microwave, took off to my room, took care of the necessities, cleaned up and went back to start cooking. With a beer in hand, some good rock-n-roll music playing, dinner was started.
Maybe I was a bit loud, or Angel was as hungry as I was, but she came wandering out just about when I was finished cooking. I greeted her, reintroduced myself, and asked her if she wanted to eat? She said nothing, but just stood there. I invited her to sit at the kitchen island and started setting her a place to eat. I asked her what she wanted to drink, but again no response, so I gave her a beer and iced tea. The rice was starting to blacken, so I grabbed the pan, served up two plates and set one in front of Angel. Then leaning on the kitchen sink I started to eat my dinner. After a few moments she also started to eat, but she was still out of it... I tried some chit-chat, but still got no response, I gave up and just ate my food in silence.
