Lori and her children took the first coach
out of Oasis Springs heading north. As it happened, the coach was headed for
Evergreen Harbour and Lori thought that was as good a destination as any other.
It was a long ride and the boys were tired
and truly upset by the time they reached the outskirts of town—and their fellow
bus riders were totally fed up with their crying, too. They stepped out at the
first stop and Lori sat on a bench, considering her options. She really did not
want to stay in that town, but the kids had been restricted to the coach for
too long; they needed to have a short break, at least.
She decided to check the bus company’s site
and search for towns that were close by but better suited for her. She was
doing that when she overheard a conversation between two men at the coach
station entrance.
“Yeah, they’re going to tear it down in
about two weeks.”
“No kidding! I never thought I’d see the
day the Council took down the Old Quarry building.”
“Me neither, but the Councilman said that
the land has been sold to a development company that will make housing there, I
think.”
“How soon will that be? I wonder if I can
get a job. And what about the vagrants there? I’ve seen whole families with
children; will they evict them?”
“Those people are like ghosts to the
‘System’, there is no one to ‘evict’ from a non-housing building.”
“Man, that’s stupid. They are there, and
I’m sure they must be responsible for some of the breaking ins that we’ve seen
lately in town.”
The men moved away, but Lori was already
searching for the location of the Old Quarry Building in Evergreen Harbour. Why
spend her little money on a hotel if she could save it?
The place was not far from the coach
station and Lori dragged the boys there.
In truth, the building had probably been a
storehouse or workshop more than the offices she had expected, but it was a
roof over their heads. She had some blankets in one of her two bags and folded
them for the boys to use as beds.
Ryland was growing fast, and he was already
walking on his own, if a little wobbly.
This was a temporary solution, both because
of the timeline she’d heard from the men, and because the boys were not doing
well there. Lando had always been distant from his brothers, but he had started
pushing them and being mean to them. Lori knew they would need a more permanent
place, as much as she hated the idea of settling down again.
At least, this time it would be her choice.
------------------
The men had been right; there were whole
families in the building. Lori had not wanted to get pregnant or have the boys,
but now, they were part of the reality she grasped when she was not completely
stoned.
She also realised that she would not bear
to lose any of them.
A couple of days after huddling in one of
the smaller spaces in the building, Lori decided to make her mind once and for
all. She had to find a place where the boys would be safe and she could still
find a way of living. For five years she had given up thoughts of moving to other
towns or cities, but now, the more she thought of it, returning to her home
ground in Saint Michael was becoming more attractive.
The city offered her the anonymity she’d
need to get her ‘needs’ satisfied, plus she knew people there, or at least,
she’d known people back then. She had spent most of her adult life crashing on
people’s couches and occasionally staying at the homeless shelters, and even
though she had never rented a place, she’d never had to sleep in the street. If
she moved back in town, she could see her old ‘friends’ and maybe they could
help her sometimes. But she started looking at cheap places to rent—no more
being tied to one place for her, not at all. She found an apartment in the
Spice Market, an area she was familiar with. She made the call to the realtor
agency.
“Good morning, Mitchell Real Estate, Jane
Mitchell speaking.”
“Yes, I want to know about the rent for the
apartment on 10 Hallaby Street?”
“Of course. Give me a second. Ah, yes. We
have several units in that building. Which one are you interested in, please?”
“The cheapest one.”
“I see. Well, our cheapest unit is a studio
apartment. Would you like that?”
Lori thought about it for a second, but she
knew that the boys needed at least one room, and with Lando growing restless, he
might need to have one room all to himself. She sighed; it would be more
expensive, but the area was the cheapest in town.
“Ah, no. I-I need two or three bedrooms,
but the cheapest one, ok? I have no need for expensive features.”
“Of course. Let me check. Ok, we have a
2-bedroom unit on the second floor, and a 3-bedroom one on the third floor. Any
of those goes for a rent of $500 a month, plus a deposit of $500.”
“The 3-bedroom one is the same rent than
the 2 bedrooms? What’s the catch?”
“It’s just that the 3-bedroom unit is on
the third floor. Is that a problem for you?”
Lori looked at her three little sons. “No,
not a problem. When can I get the keys?”
“Wouldn’t you want to see it first?”
“I’ve seen the pictures of the building.
It’s fine.”
“OK. So, I’ll send you our banks details
and a form to fill in. Once we get those you will get further instructions and
a code to the box where the key will be stored. How does that work?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
Lori got the details and filled out the
form and sent it back that same day; the transfer took a short time but it went
through.
She got the instructions and code early
that afternoon, indicating that the key would be available for her first time
in the morning the next day.
Evergreen Harbour to Saint Michael was a
much shorter ride than they’d taken before, but she knew the kids would manage
better in the morning. They spent one last night at the Old Quarry Building and
took the early coach to Saint Michael the next day.
---------------
10 Hallaby Street was an old building, but
then again, Saint Michael was built in the late 1800s so no building was truly
new, unless you counted the skyscrapers.
The brick walls looked like time had stayed
with them, but Lori was not concerned with getting a beautiful place to live.
Besides, the Spice Market was the place to
be if she wanted to find the things she ‘needed’, and the building was
precisely in front of the main plaza. Perfect location in her opinion.
She found the key box and entered the code.
The key was there!
She gathered the kids around and they all
moved towards the front door. She had to admit that the dark hallway could be
intimidating, but the kids would not be coming up and down the stairs until
later on; they’d be used to the gloominess of the building by then.
The landing on the third floor had better
lighting, which did not help to make the area better looking.
When she got them inside the apartment,
Lori thought it was almost as big as the old prefab house they’d lived in those
five years, it’d do.
The bathroom was definitely in need of a
good cleaning, and Lori would take that task on, but later.
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