A Condo's Tale

My Florida Club condo, if it could tell the story of me living here.

Remember this is the story being told by a 950-square-foot apartment home,

so give it the narrative voice of Morgan Freeman or someone like that. 

People sometimes muse about what their house would say

If it could tell its story of everything it’s seen through the years.

I may not be free-standing,  on an earthy lot with a driveway,

But I can still tell a story as good as any old house can.

I was “born” in the year 2000, as were my 23 other fraternal twins.

We make up an entire family of units under one roof,

But each of us is unique. Most of us have a different owner.

I rarely have ever seen my owner.

He purchased me to help him make money.

He lives somewhere in Michigan or Ohio

And never stays here within my four walls.

Instead, he hired a realty company to find tenants for me.

They might stay a few months,

Preferably a year,

Hopefully longer, if they’re nice.

I have had several different tenants and they varied

In levels of niceness and messiness or neatness.

By the end of the year 2011,

My last tenant, a single man with a puppy,

Decided to pursue a new adventure and left me behind.

I forget if he was leaving for a job or for love.

I was sort of relieved because the puppy was starting to

Do a bit of damage to my carpets and interior.

I sat empty for a few months.

And then she arrived.

She was young- couldn’t possibly be more than about 23 or 24.

I could tell right away she was very, very sad.

Maybe even a little angry.

The first time she entered my front door,

I felt a heaviness of her anxiety and depression.

It made the light green walls feel dark gray.

But I couldn’t will her away for a happier tenant,

She needed a place to stay as soon as possible.

Her house where she was renting was being sold out from under her,

And she was newly single.

Hence the broken heart.

She hadn’t filled me with possessions yet.

She hadn’t even officially been granted the lease.

She was here to make sure I was what she needed,

What she wanted to pay for every month.

I couldn’t tell if she was either impressed or dissappointed.

Her sadness was overpowering everything.

The first words she said were what I’ll never forget.

“Great. 950 Square feet to die alone in.”

Did she really think she would be here that long?

Without anyone special to come and join her?

She was only in her early 20’s after all.

I think I remember her parents coming to visit

And saying something about how she didn’t have to move far

To be in a place that he hadn’t been.

It was a fresh new start.

How sad, I thought.

It’s almost Christmas!

She moved in and started her new life here on December 1.

I spent many, many hours feeling the weight

Of her intense sadness and anxiety as she would pace around.

She would pace through the rooms in the morning,

Talking to herself, trying to calm her nerves.

She even declared rather loudly one morning to my four walls

“This home is MINE! No one can take it away! It’s mine!

I’m safe here!”

If it’s yours and you’re safe here,

Then why are you so unhappy?

I started to worry about my tenant when

she started to get new friends.

I know she was online, meeting a few people to go

On dates with.

I’d see her leave dressed up a little better

But she would come home alone.

Thank goodness she didn’t rush into anything.

She made a few friends though… guy friends.

And I wish I could have found a way to speak

So I could tell her she could do better.

Much better.

I don’t know if she thought of them as romantic interests.

I hope not.

I think they wanted her to be their girlfriend.

One in particular was particularly slimy.

I never liked him from day one.

He didn’t have to really say or do much, I just knew he was bad.

I was always happy when he would leave.

Thank goodness he wasn’t around for too long.

I was happy in the month of May

When she started talking about having another girl

To come and stay in the second bedroom.

Good, she needed a friend.

And help with the bills.

When she brought that girl in,

The bad guy went away.

She told him her new roommate didn’t want strange guys around.

He gave her a hard time about it,

Made her nervous and scared for awhile

But then it was behind us.

We could all move forward.

At the end of that summer,

My main tenant started to be gone a lot more.

Something wonderful was happening.

She’d gone to church regularly.

And she’d started coming home with a much lighter heart.

She wasn’t intensely sad and angry anymore.

She was more optimistic now.

She started making new friends and going out a lot.

She was coming home happy,

So I could tell she was out with good people doing good things.

No more of this dark negative energy.

I was confused at first when I heard her talking to her roommate

One day about the guy.

This was the guy who she’d broken up with, wasn’t it?

She talked excitedly about him.

Apparently they were becoming friends again.

And I think it made her feel like a kid on Christmas.

Or a teenage girl falling in love for the first time.

It was strange but exciting.

Had they finally made ammends?

I can’t tell you how many hours she sat in my livingroom

Typing angry thoughts about him on the computer.

I guess he had changed?

I think I had seen him once before.

I think they had tried to be friends when she first moved in.

But something had gone horribly wrong.

So I hoped for her sake,

As I watched her struggle to go to sleep

One summer night because she was so excited,

That things wouldn’t go back the way they were

When she arrived.

At the end of the summer,

My washing machine broke and kept filling and filling.

It flooded me and the unit below me.

It was a mess, and it took over a week to dry.

It was the only really catastrophic event that I know of.

My front door got bent and dented by a crow bar

Because the maintenance worker couldn’t find a key.

I never saw much of the guy.

I think for her roommate’s sake,

She went out to meet him most of the time.

That was funny because her roommate had a boyfriend

Of her own for awhile.

I can’t explain why she stayed home and invited him for dinner

And my tenant would always go out.

For most of the year 2013, I didn’t see her except when

She’d come home to sleep or do a few chores.

During the nearly two years she’d been here by this point,

She’d made a few minor upgrades here and there.

Mostly, my interior did look as if what was here had been handed down.

Old, mixmatched furniture.

Cheap decorations.

Mixmatched dishes.

Her roommate’s personal effects were even more random at times.

Fall 2013, two things changed.

The roommate brought home a kitten.

It was cute and fluffy and infected everyone with pure joy.

Then, in October, something funny must have gotten

Into my tenant.

She started spending a little more time at home

And when she would come home,

She would bring new stuff.

First the livingroom got made over.

It got a shag rug, an ottoman, new couch cushions.

She hung mirrors and pictures and lanterns.

She would attempt to stage the diningroom table.

She got rid of various things.

She decorated her room a little more too.

She also had the front door fixed. It hadn’t been secure

Since the crowbar damaged it the year before.

I guess by making me more modern,

She was making me more comfortable for someone?

Somehow I didn’t think it was just for her.

I didn’t get to solve the mystery until December.

Her special guy, who’d been her boyfriend for awhile now,

Finally started to come for visits!

In fact, he was here a lot.

It was almost like he lived here.

He ate here, watched movies here,

Took walks in the neighborhood,

Talked to the roommate,

Even showered here sometimes.

I think he had an unusual situation at home.

Something new and wonderful was getting ready

To happen though.

I heard talk of it.

By the new year, 2014,

I heard them planning something.

A white dress was involved.

And decorations.

And family.

And a church.

They were going to get married!

In fact, in the coming months,

It was all I ever heard about.

Planning, planning, planning.

Some of these days were exciting

Some were stressful.

The roommate had mentioned wanting to move.

It came up the previous fall,

But then I didn’t hear it again really.

In April, she started talking about places she wanted to go.

She had a hard time waiting for her friends

To figure it out,

But she started packing in May.

I think the wedding was coming in June.

Then it hit me!

What would happen to me?

If the roommate was leaving,

Would my tenant leave too?

It seems like everyone who meets a new adventure

Moves somewhere else for that.

As she was leaving, however,

I found out that the young man had signed my lease.

Starting on June 1,

The lease belonged to him!

If they were getting married, I still belonged to her too.

He spent a few weeks cleaning out my cupboards and closets,

And filling the second room with his office equipment.

Then they were gone for  a week.

A girl I didn’t know came to check on me once or twice.

Then they returned.

They were Mr. and Mrs. ,now!

It was a totally new chapter in my tenant’s life

But I get to witness it.

It is clear they love each other,

That most of the hurt she felt when she moved in

Is gone.

Though late at night, when they lay in bed,

I do hear them talk about the past in hushed voices.

I’ve heard them argue,

But then they always make up.

They filled some of the walls with wedding photos

And there’s a pillow on the couch that says “Mr. and Mrs.”.

She spends a lot of time cooking for him.

She loves to do that.

There is no talk of them growing to become a family of three.

They don’t seem to want to.

For one, he would have to get rid of his beloved office space

And use that little room for a nursery.

Also, they have a lot of priorities.

He will go to college again.

She will work on her money.

They want a new car for him before they leave me behind.

I know they won’t stay forever.

They are too indecisive right now for me to know

What they are thinking.

Sometimes he says they will stay four more years.

Sometimes she says they will stay two.

Sometimes he looks at houses online.

Sometimes she says they should wait until they have more money.

Sometimes he says he would buy me from my current owner!

I don’t think she wants to do that.

She does want to live in a house one day.

But I know they won’t leave anytime soon.

I get to watch their marriage grow and blossom,

Like a pretty spring flower.

I know when they do leave,

They will leave good vibes for the next tenant.

I think back sometimes though to the beginning.

To those seemingly dark days in the end of 2011,

When she had almost no hope.

I was a fresh start for her but the future seemed grim

The way she talked about it.

I never thought she would die alone here.

That would mean she’d have to live here for at least 60 more years!

I did think that someday, she would meet someone new

Or find a special new career

And move away and I’d never know what became of her.

It has been a blessing and a privilege

To watch her make amends with the one she loved

And marry him.

I am proud to be their starting-out home

As newlyweds.

What an honor!

I don’t think any story that unfolds here

After they are gone

Will have quite the same happy ending.