Authors Forward: Again, thanks to you who gave encouragement and/or constructive criticism on my last submission.
This submission below is yet another one about two people who DO NOT live next door. Hope you will enjoy.
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My name is John Banks, I gained ownership of our condo at 30 but lost my wife and a whole lot of money three years ago when my divorce was final. It was the proverbial painful and messy affair for which I filed for a divorce after my wife split with her previously secret lover.
Looking back at her treachery now, it's laughable though it was certainly painful at the time. Two things are interesting about our no-contest divorce settlement: 1) She netted a windfall of assets which she converted immediately to cash. Then she and her lover spent almost all of it in the south of France in a very few months. Then when April 15th approached I got a call from her because she had no way to pay her taxes. She asked me for help. I replied by hanging up the phone and then turning off the ringer.
The second interesting thing about our divorce settlement 2) was that the condo with furniture which I got has two bedrooms and a finished basement plus the usual appointments one expects to find in a 50 year old residential building that had been made into a four-plex sometime in its history. Its location was on a quiet side street and was located between both Harvard and MIT campuses, and was walking distance from a subway stop. For the past three years I have leased the spare bedroom to certain graduate students from one of the two schools, having advertised my vacancies in select student association bulletins. To say the least, subway proximity type apartment shares between two major campuses insure that I get the best tenants and a lucrative monthly income year round now, while my ex-wife and her lover - who left her when the money ran low - struggle for survival.
Today its July 8th, 2008 at 10 A.M. and there is a voice mail waiting. It said, "Hello. I am Melissa Chang and I am a PhD graduate student and read your advertisement in our association bulletin. I would like to pay up front the total amount for a two year lease, if you and I can successfully negotiate it. I would like to come by about 3:00 this afternoon and ask that you call me back if that is not agreeable to you. Thank you in advance." She repeated her number and hung up.
When the doorbell rang, Melissa extended a tiny hand that was smooth and unblemished. She appeared to be 13 years old and incredibly small and light - like 80 pounds standing about 4'10" maybe - and her clothes were obviously kid clothes. But her eyes were very large as if she were a real live model for the big-eye school of modern art. Moreover, unable to stop looking at her, I began to look carefully at her kid face and saw immediately that her giant eyes told of brilliance, far and away above other graduate students who had rented from me for the past three years.
She smiled and said, "Hello, John. Call me Melissa, please. First, you and I have met. My older brother was your tenant two years ago and he introduced us but its understandable that you have forgotten."
I said, "Sadly I remember just his name and no details about him or his guests as tenants come and go here very often."
After some small talk, we began the house tour we walked into the vacant bedroom and she jumped off the floor clasping her hands together exactly like a kid would do and said, "This is it. You haven't changed it." She walked over to the wall-to-wall display board and tested and erased a mark and continued, "Just what I need, along with the work bench and office chair."
After I showed her the kitchen and dining area, she immediately asked for a glass and dispensed herself water out of the refrigerator door spigot. "You still have clean water. Good!"
I showed her the tenant's bathroom and said,"You must promise to clean weekly!"
"Yes, of course."
After we sat down at the dining room table she asked, "What is the least amount you will take for an advanced payment for 24 months of rentals with kitchen privileges?"
"Before I answer that Melissa, you must satisfy me that you are 18 or more years old and that you are a PhD student - I have strange neighbors and it will be my luck that some busy body will report me to the social workers for living in sin with a child."
She chuckled at the reference to 'busybody,' smiled broadly and said, "Of course."
She took her backpack off and laid out her Chinese passport on the dining room table along with her U.S. student visa and her recent commencement exercise program from Stanford plus a department head letter welcoming her to Boston and to their their graduate math program.
After I examined the appropriate date fields and compared her photo to her face before me, I smiled and said, "O.K., I believe you, and the social workers will just have to believe you because of these." I quoted her the monthly rate and continued, "I will take 5 percent off the 24 month total for full prepayment."
She responded quickly, "Make it 8 percent and we have a deal with one caveat."
I asked, "What's that?"
She said, "You write me out a receipt, drive me to the bank to get your money, then give me the receipt, and then drive me by my friends apartment to get my belongings, and help me move in with you?" While she was talking she displayed an stunning smile that was NOT a kid smile.
I responded, "Wait a minute for all that work I insist on a discount of only 5 percent. Or, I will do you one better, Melissa."
"Better? How so, John?"
"You agree in writing to also completely clean this entire apartment up spic and span bi-weekly and a touch up weekly for 10 percent reduction."
She cried, "Sold to Mr. John Banks!" She obviously was mimicking a TV show she had once seen.
After I had deposited the cash she had paid me into my bank and we got her moved in and her wifi was working I said, "I'm pooped and hungry. Dinner is on me. What would you like?"
She said, "I often go to McDonald's."