4. Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Scott
M orrie wasn’t going to call.
I should have known he wouldn’t reach out that the moment I’d dropped the napkin with my number on it in front of him and seen the hesitancy written into his eyes. I’d gone ahead and purchased two tickets to the Christmas Penguin Parade at the aquarium anyway. With them only holding it two days over the whole month of Christmas, I was worried about them selling out and I supposed if all else failed, I’d find someone to give them to. I could also donate them back to the aquarium for someone else to be able to go for free if Morrie didn’t call. They’d get used in the end, even if the boy I wanted to take wasn’t the one to use them.
Still, there had been a glimmer of hope in how he’d taken to negotiating the proposed date with me, and that was what had me checking my phone for the last three days on and off as I waited. I reached into the center console of my car and plucked said phone from the cupholder, holding it up as I did another check for messages from Morrie but only found one from Silas. He’d invited me to join him at a local pub for dinner. I fired back an agreement before sighing and placing the phone back down into the center console.
Around my vehicle, snow whipped in the air, a gust of wind riling up the flurries that were falling outside. It was a strange thing to have sunshine, snow and wind all at the same time but that was really just one of the joys of living in Alberta. I had secretly longed for the incredibly beautiful snowy days Silas had described to me over the phone when I’d been living in the middle of Vancouver, not that I’d ever mention that to anyone around here. Complaining about the cold appeared to be as much a pastime in this province as whining about the heat in summer was, at least as far as I’d gathered from Silas in the time since he’d moved out here.
A black truck I recognized pulled up behind me and another one of my oldest friends who’d moved here following Silas’ lead, offering a wave as I climbed out of my car. Russ pulled me into a quick hug in greeting, then I turned, gesturing to the buildings I’d asked him here to see.
“What do you think?”
“You have got to be kidding me, Scott,” Russ murmured, staring at the brick exterior of one of the apartment buildings I’d purchased.
I would have winced at his words, if I hadn’t already been aware of exactly what I’d bought. Though the community around them appeared to be vibrant and cheery with storefronts decorated for Christmas and the scent of peppermint emanating from the small bakery at the end of the block, these five squat buildings that made up a two block stretch at the edge of the neighborhood remained untouched and grungy. The lightly falling snow made them seem even worse somehow. I had it within my power to change and improve three of them, and was waiting for the owner of the uglier two to respond to the offer I’d sent through my realtor and legal team a handful of days ago. The offer was generous, all things considered, and I had hope that he’d accept it or at least submit a counteroffer. Standing in front of the lot of them, I couldn’t help but feel the potential for something special rippling through the chilly air.
“You can’t see it,” I commented, giving Russ a smile. While I owned the buildings and would make all the final decisions about how to renovate and rejuvenate them, my friend would be there along the way with his construction crew to do the work. It was all part of the plan we’d concocted via a series of phone calls when I first suggested I was thinking about moving here.
“See what? Beat up apartment buildings that have seen better days?” he laughed, shaking his head.
“The potential. Take a look around the neighborhood and tell me that this isn’t an area of the city ripe for a comeback. There are all these quaint little shops down that way.” I pointed left, then right. “And schools down there. These apartments just need a little bit of work and they’ll be ready for families and new tenants to fil them up again.”
“Are they empty?”
“These three are,” I offered. gesturing at the ones I owned. “The previous owner was going to renovate, but chose to sell instead when he saw my offer. He handled the hard work of moving everyone out for me so I can start with a clean slate.”
“What about the other two?”
I eyed the brick buildings in question, the ones that were considerably worse than the rest, if such a thing was possible. The two of them were weather beaten, the brick crumbling in places and the wrought iron railings on the balconies rusted beneath the chipped white paint that had once covered them. Graffiti marred the outside of both entrances, the spattered paint designs looking like pointless scribbles to my eye, yet they probably meant something to someone. I knew if I looked close enough into the second one, the mailboxes that ran the length of the interior wall just inside the door would also be decorated in the same manner. Despite the cracked facade and the ominous vibes that screamed danger echoing off of these two bedraggled buildings, I still felt they were worth something and could be salvaged.
“I don’t own those ones yet.”
“Yet?”
“I have an offer in. It’s generous, all things considered.” By this time next year, the railings on the balconies could be lined with Christmas lights and the glow of Christmas trees would emanate from the repaired windows that were currently boarded up with bits of plywood.
“Scott,” he admonished.
“Russ,” I responded, raising an eyebrow at him.
Our stand off lasted only a handful of minutes until he sighed and gestured towards the buildings I’d bought. “I can’t believe with all your money, you decided to buy these.”
“Not what you expected, huh?” I responded, with a small smile.
Russ shook his head. “When you said apartments, I pictured something like those two huge towers downtown, not this.”
I nodded, understanding entirely, though I was still very confident in my purchase. “It’s the potential, Russ. It’s there. I can see it.”
Russ turned to look at the buildings again, narrowing his eyes like that would somehow reveal what I was picturing in my mind to him. “Might as well show me what I’m working with and then, you owe me dinner.”
I grinned, knowing he was going to absolutely hate every square inch of what I was about to show him.
Hours later, I sat in my car with the heater going, reading through the immense list of repairs that Russ had recommended. It was a daunting task ahead of us, but he was pretty sure he could fix up the apartments with his crew and the contractors he’d need for things like windows, furnaces and air conditioners. Russ had grudgingly agreed that the buildings had good bones despite looking like they needed knocking down, and when I’d shown him my proposed budget he’d perked up even more. I was prepared to spend into the low millions to do things up right and make sure the buildings passed whatever codes this city had in place. If we ended up going over to make sure things were safe and clean for future tenants, that would be okay to a certain extent. I didn’t want to go completely off track though, I still had my eye on two additional buildings, after all.
I glanced up through the window as the city bus pulled up the curb and people spilled out onto the sidewalk. They looked cold and tired, something I’d noticed the first few times I’d traveled to take a look at the apartment buildings I now owned. Mothers and children puffed cold breaths of air into the chilly sky, their bodies covered by coats that didn’t look quite warm enough and their gloved hands holding onto each other. I wrinkled my nose as I considered the neighborhood and the timeline of the project ahead. If the owner of the remaining two buildings was willing to sell, I’d have to be sure that the tenants who were just trying their best in life had a place to go when I took over. I wasn’t about to kick a bunch of people out into the cold Alberta winter if I could help it.
The bus pulled away from the curb, leaving in its wake one solitary figure wearing a black winter jacket. The person slumped where he stood like his body was too heavy to hold up and my heart did a swan dive as I realized it was Morrie. He looked exhausted as he stepped forward, boots slipping on the icy pavement, but he didn’t make a move to catch himself should he fall. I frowned as I saw that his hands were jammed into his pockets like he didn’t have gloves. I caught a glimpse of his drawn face as he tucked it into the collar of the coat he wore and started making his way to one of the rundown buildings, my heart sinking as I finally put the pieces together.
He shivered as he passed by my car and before I knew what I was doing, I was out of the vehicle and approaching him as he walked slowly down the sidewalk.
“Morrie?” I asked, hoping to not startle the poor thing.
“Huh?” he mumbled, his cheeks and chin popping out of the collar of his jacket as he looked up towards me. “Scott?”
As his eyes met mine, I saw the exhaustion buried inside and the bags beneath them made me want to reach out and scoop him into my arms. My brain reminded me that he wasn’t a fan of touch and though it was hard, I refrained. Behind the sheer fatigue I could read panic and perhaps even fear so I took a half step back and offered a smile. “How are you?”
“I was going to call,” he offered, on a yawn that spread his mouth so wide open that I could tell he didn’t have tonsils. He smacked his lips and moved his reddened hands out of his pockets to wipe at his tearing eyes. “You didn’t have to come find me. That’s weird.”
I chuckled softly, though my eyes caught on the red, raw skin of his hands before he put them back into his pockets. “I didn’t come find you. I promise, this is just a happy coincidence. I was in the area.”
Morrie snorted a laugh and shook his head, yawning again. “I might be sleepy but I’m not stupid.”
“You’re right,” I responded. “You’re not. I came to look at my purchases. I bought some apartment buildings a while back.”
“Oh.” Morrie yawned again, reaching up to wipe his eyes again as he winced, though whether it was from the exhaustion or the pain that had to be running through his cracked knuckles, I wasn’t sure. He wavered on his feet where he stood, blinking slowly like his eyes were threatening to shut entirely.
“You look so sleepy,” I murmured, stepping closer though minding where I was putting my hands.
Morrie nodded, yawning again. “Worked a double. Been up for 24 hours.”
I hesitated for a moment as Morrie blinked again, his eyes drooping shut. At this point I didn’t trust him to make it to whichever apartment was his with the way he was falling asleep where he stood. “Could I help get you up to your bed?”
He wrinkled his nose before yawning once again. “I dunno.”
“I won’t touch you,” I offered. “I’d just like to walk behind you up the stairs in case you fall. Could I do that?”
Morrie hesitated for a moment before nodding a single, curt motion. He connected eyes with me and I read the unspoken boundary in the sudden sharpness of his pupils before they went lazy again. He trudged off towards the building, opening the heavy front door that I realized didn’t even have a key.
“No lock?”
“Never works,” he mumbled. “Someone broke it and the landlord never fixed it.”
“Oh, Morrie. That’s so unsafe.”
He shrugged as we walked into the building, the scent of cigarette smoke and stale beer meeting my nose along with something sour. Morrie wrinkled his nose at the scent as well, then sighed. “Third floor, probably.”
I didn’t ask what he meant by that because I really didn’t have to. Echoing from somewhere up above were voices shouting and music playing at volumes usually reserved for concerts. Morrie trudged upwards, each step as laborious as the previous until we came to the bottom of the stairs heading to the third floor. He glanced back at me and offered a wry smile. “Go fast.”
“Fast?”
“Yeah. The third floor is scary. I don’t like to linger.”
I nodded, my heart squeezing in my chest that this boy, this tired, fearful boy, had to rush past a single floor of the place he lived like a rabbit just so he could feel safe. My resolve to purchase this building and its twin solidified as we rushed past the open door to the third floor. I peered in as we went by to see apartment doors open and a couple of people slumped into darkened corners. The whole thing reminded me of what I’d seen on the streets of Vancouver and that it was happening here, in the place that Morrie and the rest of the tenants should feel safe and comfortable, made a bolt of anger course through me.
We finally made it to the fourth floor, Morrie slumping and slouching as he headed for a door at the very end of the hall. He pulled a key out of his pocket and opened the door up, turning around to give me a small look of concern. “I’m home now. Thank you.”
Oh, that wouldn’t do at all. I didn’t intend on leaving him until I was certain he was tucked into his warm bed, safe and sound, especially after witnessing the ominous third floor. “I said I’d get you to your bed.”
“I don’t need to be tucked in,” he protested, though it didn’t ring as the truth. His cheeks pinked as he glanced at me, then back down to the door and I got the sense that his words weren’t matching with what he really wanted.
“If you want me to leave you, I absolutely will,” I stated. “But, Morrie. If you want me to stay and make sure you’re safe and snuggled in your bed, that offer is also on the table.”
“I don’t even know you. You could be dangerous.”
“You decide, Morrie.” Morrie went silent, his hands flexing on the doorknob of his apartment like he was thinking, though I wondered how much his exhaustion was allowing for his thoughts to be clear. After a few moments of silence, I backed away carefully. “I’m being really pushy and I don’t mean to be. You go get some rest and text me later about the aquarium, if you’re still up to going with me.”
I took a step away fully intending to take my leave, but Morrie stopped me with a sharp look in my direction.
“You don’t get to laugh at my shitty apartment.”
“I never would.”
“And you have to leave when I tell you to,” he added, with a stern look.
I almost grinned at the petulant, tired little boy I saw peeking out of his grumbly facade. He was going to be delightful if he’d ever let me see who he really was. I thrived on snarly little boys who just needed to be heard and understood.
“Promise,” I swore, crossing my heart with my pointer finger.
With a curt nod, Morrie pushed the door open and revealed his tiny frozen apartment to me.