Loving A STRANGER

Laurence nearly cried when they arrived at the Flinch House. Not only had he been homesick, but he was surprised by all of the changes that had been made in his absence. Even Alice was astonished. They had just moved a few days ago, but the new owners had already made a plethora of changes.

Alice glances nervously and Khloe. They had pa.s.sed the point of no return, and they both knew that, whatever happens next, it would not be good. Khloe looked at her father and said, "Wow, the buyer must be an old man. His style is really quaint and simple. Their surname is also Finch. It is quite a coincidence."

"Did you sell my home?" Laurence wondered.

"I did," Khloe replied. "I am sorry. It seemed to be the right move at the moment. Only in retrospect can I see that it wasn"t. I wanted to tell you sooner, but I couldn"t find the words.

Laurence was holding a cane, and his hands were shaking. He took two steps forward, and he looked as if he was about to cry – but he remained silent.

"Dad," Khloe said, "let me ring the doorbell. I will tell them we are the former homeowners. I am sure they won"t mind if we go in and have one last look."

"Forget it," Laurence sighed. "It"s late now. Let"s not disturb them. What you"ve done to me is most heinous, but I can see clearly that it cannot be undone. Please, show me where we live now?"

"Mother and I rent an apartment," Khloe stuttered. "It is nothing special."

"Never mind," Laurence said. "I am a resilient man. Take me there so that I may begin acclimating myself to this new lifestyle."

When Laurence saw the red paint on the door, he lost his temper for the first time, and he slapped Khloe across the face. It was one thing to make bad business decisions and lose – he understood that every investment came with a risk. What he had no respect for, though, were people who made shady deals with shady loan sharks. He would often say that such a person always gets what is coming to them in the end. Now though, that person was his daughter, so his words stuck in his throat and fueled his rage instead.

"I used to think that Kylie was the black sheep of this family," he hissed, "but I was wrong. You are the black sheep. How did this happen?"

Alice began to cry, and she told him everything. Once the tale was told, Khloe looked at her parents and said, "Maybe we shouldn"t go in…"

Alice looked at her and asked her what she meant.

Khloe looked at the floor and said, "It is worse inside…"

Hearing this, Laurence s.n.a.t.c.hed the key out of Alice"s hand, put it in the k.n.o.b, turned it, and pushed the door open. "Better to face your demons that avoid them, my old pappy used to say."

When Alice saw the state of the apartment, she nearly pa.s.sed out, and Khloe had to steady her to keep her from falling. Above all, it was the s.h.i.t on the walls that hurt her the most, and she began to babble. "Somebody s.h.i.t all over my home," she cried, "They turned my home into a toilet. What will the bridge club think? Oh… my… G.o.d… What will my knitting circle think?"

Once Laurence found a clean piece of wall, he sat down and leaned his back against it. He covered his face with his hands, and he began to laugh. "This is too funny," he gasped as he motioned for Alice to sit beside him. "Don"t cry. We have been humbled; that is all. Wipe your eyes and give thanks to the G.o.d that you are so adamant exists. Doesn"t the bible say, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength? After this," he motioned with his hands, "you should have super strength!"

Listening to Laurence mock her religion, Alice was filled with rage. Even as she continued to cry, she began to hit Laurence. "Shut up!" She shouted. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Laurence quit teasing her, but he couldn"t stop laughing.

It was at that moment that, by some cosmic justice, the landlord popped his head in. He looked around the apartment and shouted, "As of this moment, you are evicted, and I am keeping your damage deposit!"

"Stop it!" Laurence cried. "Enough with the jokes! As it is, I can barely breathe!"

The landlord turned to Laurence and, with a very serious look on his face, said, "This is no laughing matter."

"This is no laughing matter," Laurence parroted back to him. "This is no laughing matter."

Finally, Khloe walked over to her father and said, "What are you doing. If you weren"t acting this way, then perhaps there would have been a chance for us to make a deal with the landlord. Perhaps we could have found a way to clean up the apartment. Maybe he would have let us stay indefinitely after that, or at least a few days to get our stuff moved out…"

"You are such a killjoy," Laurence sighed as his laughter went away. "I never noticed it before, but you have always been a killjoy. It has never been as intolerable as it is right now, though..."

Laurence got to his feet and helped his wife standing. He looked at her and said, "Look at all this damage. The landlord can keep the deposit. It will cost him at least one hundred thousand dollars to fix. The deposit you will lose is nothing but a pittance. Let them keep it."

"But where will we sleep?" Alice whined.

"Look around you," Laurence replied. "Even if this troll let us stay longer, where would we sleep?"

The landlord looked up, obviously annoyed at being referred to as a troll. He looked at Laurence and said, "Rest a.s.sured that this is not over. My lawyers will sue you, and they never lose!"

Hearing this, Khloe fell to her knees at the troll"s feet and begged him, "Please don"t sue us. It would ruin us."

Laurence turned to Khloe with a look of scorn on his face, and he said, "Stand up you little c.u.n.t! You are embarra.s.sing yourself, and you are embarra.s.sing me. Let this little man sue. Haven"t you heard the saying that you couldn"t get blood from a rock? He can sue us, but what will it get him? We have nothing. Even the shares for our company are worthless. If he sued up, he would pay a bundle in court fees and, even after he won, he wouldn"t get a dime. Furthermore, we don"t need any time to pack. There is nothing here worth taking!"

Khloe looked at her father in shocked surprise. Of all the responses she"d imagined he might have to their current situation, this giddy joviality hadn"t been one of them.

"Enough!" the landlord shouted. "I want you out NOW!"

Laughing, Laurence allowed the ladies to each take one of his elbows, and they skipped out of the apartment like some strange recreation of Dorothy, Tin Man, and Lion, as they made them marry way down the yellow brick road. 

As they walked into the street, Khloe turned to her father and said, "Dad, please let me explain…"

"I don"t want to hear your explanations," Laurence sighed. "You are a joke that has no punch line."

As far as Khloe could see, after what had just happened, this was one of the worst insults that he could give. "What are we going to do now?" she wondered.

"There is no we anymore," he replied. "In the same way that you found this apartment, you will find another. This time, if you are smart, you won"t tell the loan shark where you live. As for myself, I will go out on my own. The two of you have been nothing but trouble, and I don"t want to have to look at either of you anymore."

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