The Tenant
(23 August 2006)
Cheryl is the landlady, always receiving the rent checks on time and never letting a month go by when Mr. Clurman keeps his six hundred eighty five dollars and fifty cents by sneaking out the window onto the fire escape. The only reason they both stay happy is because of her faulty memory. As far as she knows, everyone pays, and with the exception of Mr. Clurman, everyone does, except of course for Mr Clurman, because every month, when the fifteenth rolls around, Mr. Clurman sneaks out the window onto the fire escape. The fact is that every tenant pities Cheryl for her faulty memory, except for Mr. Clurman who doesn’t remember because his memory is as faulty as hers. Instead, he always sneaks out the window onto the fire escape. You see, Mr Clurman is Cheryl’s husband who has lived in Cheryl’s building for thirty-nine years, and he has never once paid rent. Instead he slips out the window onto the fire escape. The only reason Cheryl found out about Mr. Clurman’s secret little habit, of sneaking out the window on to the fire escape to be free of that month’s rent, is because last month he slipped and broke his hip. It didn’t matter how many times Cheryl warned him to wear his galoshes when it’s raining instead of those dirty, old sneakers. Mr. Clurman wore those sneakers every where because he had found them for only five dollars at a garage sale in near perfect condition. “Mr. Clurman, you were always one to choose fashion over safety,” she would tell him. So, the night he slipped and broke his hip, she did not care. It was his own fault. “You dig your own grave,” she told him and went back to her knitting. You see, at the time, she did not know he was sneaking out the window onto the fire escape to avoid his rent: six hundred eighty five dollars and fifty cents. Luckily it was Sunday, and Mrs. Johnson from the third floor was coming home from church and called Cheryl right away. It nearly gave her a death of a fright to find out her husband had fallen and no one had even noticed. Mr. Clurman is one of the most reliable tenants Cheryl has. “I hope this doesn’t cause him to move away,” she told herself finishing the new winter sweater for her husband, where ever he was.
Cheryl is the landlady, always receiving the rent checks on time and never letting a month go by when Mr. Clurman keeps his six hundred eighty five dollars and fifty cents by sneaking out the window onto the fire escape. The only reason they both stay happy is because of her faulty memory. As far as she knows, everyone pays, and with the exception of Mr. Clurman, everyone does, except of course for Mr Clurman, because every month, when the fifteenth rolls around, Mr. Clurman sneaks out the window onto the fire escape. The fact is that every tenant pities Cheryl for her faulty memory, except for Mr. Clurman who doesn’t remember because his memory is as faulty as hers. Instead, he always sneaks out the window onto the fire escape. You see, Mr Clurman is Cheryl’s husband who has lived in Cheryl’s building for thirty-nine years, and he has never once paid rent. Instead he slips out the window onto the fire escape. The only reason Cheryl found out about Mr. Clurman’s secret little habit, of sneaking out the window on to the fire escape to be free of that month’s rent, is because last month he slipped and broke his hip. It didn’t matter how many times Cheryl warned him to wear his galoshes when it’s raining instead of those dirty, old sneakers. Mr. Clurman wore those sneakers every where because he had found them for only five dollars at a garage sale in near perfect condition. “Mr. Clurman, you were always one to choose fashion over safety,” she would tell him. So, the night he slipped and broke his hip, she did not care. It was his own fault. “You dig your own grave,” she told him and went back to her knitting. You see, at the time, she did not know he was sneaking out the window onto the fire escape to avoid his rent: six hundred eighty five dollars and fifty cents. Luckily it was Sunday, and Mrs. Johnson from the third floor was coming home from church and called Cheryl right away. It nearly gave her a death of a fright to find out her husband had fallen and no one had even noticed. Mr. Clurman is one of the most reliable tenants Cheryl has. “I hope this doesn’t cause him to move away,” she told herself finishing the new winter sweater for her husband, where ever he was.