Read Online The Saver by Edeet Ravel - Free Book Online Page B

stove. The truck wasn’t that big, so we had to make two trips. I had to put Beauty in a box. I had no choice. I’d kill myself if she got lost or run over. She was meowing like crazy.
    Jeff laughed some more when he saw the size of the new apartment and what I was bringing into it, and he thought it was hilarious that I’m a janitor.
    He said, “Hey, give me a call if you need any help. If I happen to be in the area, I’ll drop by.” He gave me his card, just like David. He lives in Verdun.
    Before he left, we went down to the boiler room and he explained to me about fuses. It’s not as hard as I thought. That was another thing he thought was funny, that I was the janitor and I didn’t even know what fuses were. He took off his sweater because it was hot in the boiler room. He has a million tattoos. Some people are addicted to tattoos. I read about that in
Green Needle of Death
.
    He didn’t come on to me of course. That’s one thing I don’t have to worry about.
    My new apartment looks like a storehouse now, but I like having all the furniture. I haven’t finished unpacking, so it’s still a mess, with boxes everywhere and no room to move. I have to climb over my bed to get from the bathroom to the kitchen.
    I managed to take my bed apart before the move. The two boards are leaning against the wall. I didn’t bother bringing my mattress because I’ll be using Mom’s. Jeff took my mattress and the sofa. He said he could use them in his basement and he took $20 off his price.
    Julian came out while we were moving. He kept shouting, “Three months’ notice, three months’ notice,”as if he’s the landlord. How pathetic can you get? Like he hasn’t been ranting about what a crook the landlord is for the past seven or eight years or however long he’s lived in his stupid apartment. I ignored him. He tried to get out of me where I was moving to, but I basically told him to take a hike.
    I was tired from the moving, but I wanted to clean the stairs, in case David came. The elevator means people don’t use the stairs all that much, but they were still pretty dirty.
    It was two in the morning by the time I finished. I had some tuna sandwiches and I passed out. For once I didn’t have bad dreams.
    Yours forever,
    Fern

Saturday
    December 15
    Hi Xanoth,
    I know there’s no pain on your planet, but here on Earth we have a lot of pain. The only thing you can do is take drugs, but they don’t always work. Today I got my period and I always get it bad. I saw a doctor about it once, but she said the painkillers have side effects and the best thing for me is to take Tylenol, which you can get generic for around $5.50 for 100.
    I didn’t have any period stuff left, so I took Mom’s bathrobe and cut it into pieces and I’m using that instead of pads. I’m soaking the used ones in a pail, with a million soap bubbles so you can’t see what’s inside. Gross, but who cares. That’s what women must have done in the old days, and probably still do in some countries.
    I also took the last six Tylenols I had.
    The phone rang nonstop about the empty apartments. I kept a neat list of names and phone numbers and appointment times, so David can see I’m doing my job. I managed OK with the French ones, don’t ask me how. Eleven people said they were going to come see theapartments, but only four showed up. They all filled in application forms. I gave the first three a 1 rating, but I gave the fourth one a 3. I had bad vibes from him.
    Apart from that, I lay in bed and moaned.
    One problem with this apartment is that the TV doesn’t work here. In our old place we managed to get two English channels without cable, but here all I can get is one blurry channel in French. I felt like smashing the stupid TV.
    Yours forever,
    Fern

Sunday
    December 16
    Hi Xanoth,
    I had an idea. I remembered Ricardo’s sister