Chapter Forty-Nine
Forty-Nine
After my run, I stopped at Starbucks and bought a white chocolate caffè mocha. I didn’t want to go home, so I sat myself down at one of the outside tables to people watch and think.
My conversation with Geneva flicked through my mind as I sipped the sweet coffee. She was right. Down in the deepest part of my heart, I’d already known the truth. I guess I just needed someone who loved and cared for me to say it out loud.
Not that the truth did anything to assuage the love I’d built over the years for Kendrick. In fact, it made me even more concerned about what it was he was going through and why he felt unable to share his problems with me.
It was to the point now that we hardly spoke, and when I did try to initiate a conversation, the only responses I got from him were grunts.
Maybe he was going through a midlife crisis? I mean, he was forty-two years old. Did it happen that early on? Maybe it did.
Maybe he was depressed. Maybe business wasn’t going well. Lord knew the market had been going up and down like a seesaw.
Whatever it was, it was real bad.
I drained the last bits of the coffee from the cup and tossed it into a trash can as I started my short walk home.
I would try to talk to him one last time. I’d offer my help, and if he felt like I couldn’t help him, then I’d offer to find someone who could.
And after that, I’d offer to help him pack, because as much as I loved him, I loved myself more.
—
“Hello, Mrs.Burgess,” I greeted the sophisticated-looking white-haired woman who was standing outside, cradling her small poodle in her arms. Mrs.Burgess had been a resident in the apartment below me since before the building had gone co-op.
And I swear, I’d never seen that dog out of her arms. I wondered if it could walk and mused even further about where and how it relieved itself.
“Ms.Atkins!” she screeched, and I almost jumped out of my skin.
“Yes?” I said, shrinking away from her.
“You have flooded my apartment!”
I just blinked at her. “What?” I said stupidly, believing that the old woman had finally lost her marbles.
“My apartment is under half a foot of water,” she screamed, and then hugged her dog closer to her breast. “Coco could have drowned!”
“Mrs.Burgess, are you sure—”
“Of course I’m sure! I had to call the super. He’s up in your apartment at this very moment.”
I didn’t wait for any more. I dashed to the elevator and jabbed frantically at the button.
“Everything is ruined, everything!” Mrs.Burgess hollered at my back. “I’m going to call my lawyer—you’ll see!”
My apartment door sat wide open on its hinges. As I approached, I could hear voices inside.
“Hello? Hello?” I yelled as I gingerly stepped through the door. My sneakers made a squishing sound on the floor, and I looked down to see that I was standing in water that came nearly up to my ankles. “Shit!”
“Ms.Atkins?” The super’s voice came to me from the living room.
“Yes,” I said as I waded down the hall toward him.
Passing the kitchen, I saw that the refrigerator door was wide open as well.
I reached my hand in and pushed it shut.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said, my voice filled with dismay.
“What happened, Henry, did a pipe break?” I asked when I was standing in front of him.
“No, Ms.Atkins, that’s what I thought when I got the call. I mean, this is an old building, and things like that do happen. Like last winter, when…”
I stared at the hefty Puerto Rican building attendant. How long was he going to take to get to what my problem was? It could take all day, and I didn’t have that much time or patience. I threw the palm of my hand up into his face. “Did a pipe break?” I said again from between clenched teeth.
Henry studied my palm for a while, and then his face went beet red. “No, Ms.Atkins. You left the faucet on.”
“What!” I screamed and then shoved past him and into the bathroom. Sure enough, the water was slowly draining away.
“You see?” Henry said, using his wrench to point at the tub. “You must have forgotten.”
“I didn’t forget shit!” I bellowed at him. “That no-good, low-down asshole who’s living with me finally decided to get up off his lazy ass and wash it!”
I lost it. My hands flailed in the air as I jumped up and down in the river of water.
Henry was horrified and began backing slowly out of the bathroom. “It’s okay, Ms.Atkins. It’s all right,” he said in a calming voice.
“No, it’s not. No, it’s not all right!” I cried. “Everything is ruined, everything!”
“I’ll call some of the maintenance guys to come up with the pump so we can get this water out of here,” Henry said, and then he was gone, shutting the front door behind him.
I screamed until my throat hurt, and then I cried until a knock came at the door and Henry hollered, “I’m back, with José and Sanchez, and we have the pump. We going to make it all better for you.”
With a pump, Henry, Sanchez, and José were going to make it all better for me?
The laughter came then, spilling out of me as quickly as the water had spilled from the bathtub faucet.
“Well,” I yelled as I stumbled toward the front door and swung it open, “if I’d known that all I needed was a pump and you guys to make it all better for me, I would have flooded my apartment a long time ago! ”
Henry and the other men exchanged glances. I’m sure I looked and sounded like a madwoman.
“Maybe we come back later, when you’re—um, feeling better?” Henry said.
“No, no, I’m feeling just fine. Fine and dandy, in fact!” I said, throwing my hands up in the air with glee. “Come in, come in!”
They hesitated, but then Henry made the sign of the cross and stepped across the threshold and the others cautiously followed.