A Different Blue(80)

summer it will be the coolest place in the house.”

I followed him down the stairs, trying not to get excited, telling myself it was a bad idea. The

basement was nothing much to see. It was concrete walls and floor, easily 2,500 square feet of

mostly empty space. There were some odds and ends and an old washer and dryer pushed up against

the farthest wall, but that was all. The fact that the home had a basement was notable.

Basements in Las Vegas were about as scarce as brick houses. It had overhead lights though, and

electricity for my power tools. It would be more than sufficient for what I needed.

“There's some old furniture that was in the house when I bought the place.” Wilson jerked

tarps off of various items in the farthest corner. “You're welcome to whatever you think you

can use, and that washer and dryer are all hooked up. You could come down here and do your

laundry, too.”

“How much, Wilson?” I demanded, interrupting his list of amenities. “How much a month?”

He considered, tilting his head to the side as if he had to put a lot of thought into it.

“It's small, and I can't rent it to a full-grown man. He'd feel like Gulliver living with the

Lilliputians. I had actually decided to just leave it empty and let my mum use it when she

visited. But she's too much of a snob, so that probably won't work.”

“How much, Wilson?”

“Four hundred a month would be too much probably.” He eyed me. “But I'll throw in your

utilities to make it more fair.”

Four hundred was ridiculously cheap, and he knew it. The rent on Cheryl's apartment was $900 a

month and it was a smelly dive, and that only included water and sewer. Gas and power were

separate. I knew because there were times when I'd had to pay the power bill out of my paycheck

from the cafe.

[page]“Why are you doing this for me?” I demanded, shoving my hands into the pockets of my

raggedy shorts.

Wilson sighed. “I'm really not doing anything, Blue. The $400 is more than sufficient, really.

It will be nice for Mrs. Darwin to have another female in the building, too. My new tenant is a

bloke. This way if she needs help with anything . . . female . . . then you will be here. It's

perfect, really.” He was grasping at straws.

“Anything female? Like what?”

“Well, I don't know. Just bits and bobs . . . uh, female stuff that I wouldn't be able to

assist her with.”

“I see,” I said, trying not to laugh. Euphoria was bubbling in my chest, and I wanted to do a

celebratory dance around the basement. I was going to do it. I was going to move into that

perfect little apartment all by myself. No smoke, no Cheryl, no beer bottles and sweaty men to

trip over and avoid. I was moving out.





Chapter Fifteen





I found a table and two chairs, a loveseat with a matching recliner, and a bed frame that we

brought up from the basement. Wilson insisted on having the sofa and recliner steam cleaned. He

made up some excuse about Mrs. Darwin having already scheduled someone to come for some of her

things, but Mrs. Darwin looked completey clueless when I mentioned it to her the day the steam

cleaner arrived. Wilson also miraculously produced a brand new, double-sized mattress and box

springs that he said had also been in the basement, though I hadn't seen them.