Landlords
I've been renting this place for just over 18 months now. When I moved in it came with a dryer, but I brought my own better one so I moved the old one out onto the balcony and there it has sat, under a plastic wrap, until now. Also, I set up a PO box because the mailboxes out front are quite exposed to street pedestrian traffic, so the only mail that comes there is for the landlords. I have to collect that mail and take it around the corner to another box, I guess managed by the Body Corporate, and I don't do it very often but try to every month or so. I had formed a mental picture of the landlords. I imagined they must be a couple middle-aged or older, to own an investment property. They have the same last name. The mail comes from a bank, a home loan company, some art galleries, and lots of beauty shops and spas for the Mrs. I imagined them like the couples you see on travel ads, or maybe denture ads, attractive and well-dressed but grey-haired and enjoying the twilight of life.
When they asked me to sign a new lease recently, I decided to negotiate the dryer, because it was ugly sitting outside, but more because I was afraid it was being destroyed in the weather and I'd have to pay to replace it when I moved out. Whenever that will be. So I asked if they would please take it away, and they agreed. My rental agent, Lisa (from her voice the name "Lisa" has a little heart above the i) rang this week and said they'd come by today between 4 and 5.
The bell rang at about 4:30 and I opened the door, and saw two little kids on my steps. "Ellen?" the Mr. said. "I'm Stephen, and this is Cassandra." They looked about 25. They were both in weekend sweatpants and t-shirts, and she had her hair in a ponytail pulled away from her sweet round face. These were my landlords? How could they own property? They probably just learned to sign their names in cursive a week ago!
Cassandra said, "Wow, this is weird," and then I felt for her - this was probably a place they lived when they were very first married, and then they moved up and on and decided it was sensible to collect rent on it - my rent. I said, "You probably haven't been here for a while, have you? Come through!" I'm sure with my very eccentric stuff inside, the place looked absolutely nothing like their honeymoon dwelling, and it probably exorcised any weirdness for her - this is now the home of an eccentric middle-aged divorced lady, and they have moved on to their new life.
I went to move things out of the way but ended up getting in the way myself, because Stephen had hoisted the dryer up and was strolling by with it. Startling. I have lived now so long with my own dimensions and my own relationship to the physical world that it was startling to see a tall young man who could lift heavy things. Haven't had one of those in my life for a while now.
Yes, I did feel a little pang from that, and from knowing that they have the same last name and lived here together once. And that they're 25 and own real estate already.
But, more broadly, it's nice to have met the landlords as human people, and I might resent paying the rent a bit less having met them face to face.
When they asked me to sign a new lease recently, I decided to negotiate the dryer, because it was ugly sitting outside, but more because I was afraid it was being destroyed in the weather and I'd have to pay to replace it when I moved out. Whenever that will be. So I asked if they would please take it away, and they agreed. My rental agent, Lisa (from her voice the name "Lisa" has a little heart above the i) rang this week and said they'd come by today between 4 and 5.
The bell rang at about 4:30 and I opened the door, and saw two little kids on my steps. "Ellen?" the Mr. said. "I'm Stephen, and this is Cassandra." They looked about 25. They were both in weekend sweatpants and t-shirts, and she had her hair in a ponytail pulled away from her sweet round face. These were my landlords? How could they own property? They probably just learned to sign their names in cursive a week ago!
Cassandra said, "Wow, this is weird," and then I felt for her - this was probably a place they lived when they were very first married, and then they moved up and on and decided it was sensible to collect rent on it - my rent. I said, "You probably haven't been here for a while, have you? Come through!" I'm sure with my very eccentric stuff inside, the place looked absolutely nothing like their honeymoon dwelling, and it probably exorcised any weirdness for her - this is now the home of an eccentric middle-aged divorced lady, and they have moved on to their new life.
I went to move things out of the way but ended up getting in the way myself, because Stephen had hoisted the dryer up and was strolling by with it. Startling. I have lived now so long with my own dimensions and my own relationship to the physical world that it was startling to see a tall young man who could lift heavy things. Haven't had one of those in my life for a while now.
Yes, I did feel a little pang from that, and from knowing that they have the same last name and lived here together once. And that they're 25 and own real estate already.
But, more broadly, it's nice to have met the landlords as human people, and I might resent paying the rent a bit less having met them face to face.
posted by Ellen at 11:28 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home