Uncertain Future - 4. UF Chapter 4

Going to the library I designed and printed out 50 invitations; “Dear 401 Grenadier Street resident, you are cordially invited to attend a terrace party at 7pm tonight, location is on the apartment roof terrace, entertainment, refreshments and snacks provided, dress is semi-formal”. Once I had perfected that, I now had two days to organise the event, from the college newspaper, I found an advert for a string quartet, available for social events, and I booked and paid for them to provide live music for the evening. Next, I sent a text message to the cafe near the college asking if they would be able to cater for a small function for a total of 50 people with finger foods, light wines and soft drinks, for the upcoming Friday evening, commencing at 7pm.

I received a reply an hour later, accepting the booking and a suggested menu, with a selection of drinks was included., which I accepted, as I had no idea what the wines would be like. Late on Thursday night, I placed the invitations in the mail boxes of all the residents, and while visiting the hardware store earlier, to buy some patio lights, I slipped the envelope with an invite onto the counter, hoping he wouldn't notice it till I had left the store. In addition to the invitation, I had added a message to it, “Please don't inform the residents that it was me doing this. It is a gift for them from an anonymous donation. Could you please play host and let the caterers and musicians in at 6:30pm?”

I had included the swipe pass card with the note, to allow the owner of the Hardware store to be able to do as I asked, and now it was just a matter of waiting to see if all goes to plan. On the Friday morning, I went out for a long walk, followed by a light brunch, before returning to the apartment to shower and change into some unusual clothes I had bought from a charity shop a few days earlier; including an oversized pair of multi coloured trousers, which I managed to feed a thick piece of wire through the waist band, to create a wide round open area at the top of the trousers. I had also found some second-hand swimming flippers, which I trimmed so they are rounded instead of square at the toes, and a few cans of spray paint turned them into a bright fluorescent orange and red colour, a pair of bright blue braces to help keep the trousers up, and also a bright Hawaiian style shirt completed the wardrobe.

At lunch time, I made sure that the spa pool had been turned on to allow it to circulate fresh salt water around the pool, once I had turned it off I placed the large floating bouquet of flowers in the pool, and turned on the pumps for the two water features and the patio lights, before retreating indoors. At 4:30pm I began the transformation from an average looking young man to a clown mime, taking particular care with the face make up to get it perfect, with that completed in just over an hour, I dressed into my clown trousers and shirt, put on the red nose and finished off with the multi coloured wig, completing the task just after 6pm, as I listened to the sound of the elevator, and hearing footsteps in the passage way on the other side of the elevators and stairs, just before 7pm, I heard the quartet starting to play some music, and the sound of the elevator moving, stopping regularly to collect more passengers, the higher it went up.

By 6.30 pm the elevator had stopped operating continually, giving me the cue to make my entrance as part of the entertainment, where I would just move about amongst the guests, doing some mime to keep everyone entertained. I even mimed that I was playing a music instrument with the quartet, and that I got kicked off the stage, which brought some laughs. At 7pm, the hardware store owner called everyone's attention. “Ladies and Gentlemen of 401 Grenadier, for those who don't know me, my name is Edward Letscome, I am the owner of the local hardware store and nursery just a few blocks away from here. I have visited this building on a number of occasions over the years, as one of my friends here tonight is an apartment owner of the 5 - floor.

In all that time both my friend and I have never known about this beautiful roof terrace. With conversations, I have had with a number of the longer-term residents, I learnt tonight that this was the main social place for residents over twenty years ago, but it was locked up and left to rot, after a non-resident broke into the building, when security was not a big issue in those days, and fell to his death. Tonight, thanks to an anonymous donor, who wishes to remain just that, this terrace has been renovated back to its original purpose.

When the donor started coming into my store and ordering supplies for a patio renovation about a month ago, I knew that it was a lot more than that, and when the larger items were asked to be delivered to the side alleyway door to the basement of this building, I knew that it had to be somewhere here in this building or close by, but I didn't get to see what had been done until I received the access key today, to let the caterers and musicians up.

To the caterers, thank you for the wonderful refreshments and snacks, to the quartet from the local college, thank you for your wonderful music, and to our mysterious Mime clown, who I read in the college newspaper recently made an impressive performance down near the amphitheatre, I also thank you for your entertainment. I now ask you to raise your glasses for a toast to our generous donor, thank you for all you have done, and may we enjoy the fruits of your labour for many years to come.

To the Donor,” the hardware store owner said in an unprepared speech, which I thought went very well. I pretended to drink a toast with an imaginary glass, and pretended that the wine made my nose ticklish and I sneezed and the wine spills forward all over the guests, which brought a lot of laughter to everyone.

After the speech and toast I made a quick getaway from the party, slipping down to the hallway and into my little room without being seen, and quietly I removed my costume, before starting to remove all of the face paint. Once done, I laid on my bed and smiled. I had completed something that I was very proud of, and the reward was seeing all the residents enjoying the party in a magnificent newly renovated rooftop terrace.

I must have fallen asleep, as it was early morning when I next woke up to the sound of the elevators going up and down for the Saturday morning rush. I just laid there listening, thinking back to the success of the previous night. At 8am when the rush was over I went down stairs to the bathroom for a shower, returned to my room briefly, before I cautiously went up to the roof terrace to see if any tidying up was needed to be done, but I was surprised to see that it was spotlessly clean.

On the table under the gazebo, I found an envelope weighed down by an unopened bottle of red wine, with “Donor” written on the outside. “Dear Sir, after the departure of our Mime clown and musicians at last night's wonderful party, we had a residents meeting, we think the first to happen in two decades. Firstly, we wish to thank you for all you have done, with the terrace, it is magnificent and I'm sure will be used regularly from now on. Between us, and with the help of Mr Letscome, we have pieced together enough information about how this come about.

One of our residents said he accidentally lost his swipe card about a month ago, which is the same card Mr Letscome had last night, and this is also when some of the residents started to hear the occasional noises, but couldn't work out where it was coming from. We presume that you are more than likely homeless, with a little bit of money to spend and probably living on the terrace, while you were renovating it. You will be receiving reimbursement for your costs in the near future.

Our long-term caretaker / cleaner has recently given us notice, and departed at the end of last week. Although we know nothing about you, except from what Mr Letscome knows, and he will only tell us that you are a kind-hearted person, well dressed with excellent manners, we would like to offer you this position which includes the ground floor caretaker unit, no rental cost; you just pay for power and water. It is located at the far end of the lobby passageway, which you probably already know.

Please accept this position, as we really do need a new caretaker. Kind regards, Mrs Finley, on behalf of all the residents”, also inside the envelope was a new swipe card and an apartment key. Returning to my small room behind the elevators, I lay on the bed, amazed at how things were starting to improve for me. I had spent about $5000 with the renovations, and knowing that I would be getting most of that money back I was pleased in a way that this is the case.

When I felt that there was virtually no one in the building, I went down to the ground floor, taking with me, my bike and my back pack of clothes, and I let myself into the caretaker apartment. Inside is a small lounge room, which has been turned into an office/work space were there was a large desk, office chair, a filing cabinet, a couple of empty in-trays and a telephone on the desk, along the back wall there was an “L” shaped work bench, a steel locker cabinet and a shelving unit.

In the back corner there was a door, that lead into a wide hallway, with a kitchen and dining room on one side and a large bedroom that had been turned into a lounge room opposite, with a bathroom next to it, followed by a second slightly smaller bedroom, with a double bed, tall boy cabinet, bed side tables and a wardrobe, opposite this behind the dining room, was a large store room. Leaving the bike in the empty store room, I went back to the front office and sat on the chair, looking around the rather plain looking room, with dirty walls, and the smell of cigarette smoke, which made me screw up my nose.

Standing up, I opened up all the windows in the apartment, all which had security screens on them, and I grabbed my wallet and left the building to go to the hardware store. “Good morning young man, thank you for a wonderful evening last night” Mr Letscome said when I walked in and walked to the counter, “Thank you for the kind words and the toast, last night Mr Letscome,” I said with a smile, as I began thinking of what I needed for the apartment.

“It's Edward not Mr Letscome too you, young man, and now may I ask who I am addressing?” he added, and I was not sure if I should give him my real name of a false one, so I gave him my name in an altered way, “Its Devon Amos Wesley sir, now as you are probably aware, thanks to you I now have a more permanent home and job. So first off, I want to improve my home environment, I need to clean the walls and carpet to get rid of the cigarette smells, maybe a coat of paint on the walls in the office, lounge and 2nd bedroom.

I need to start looking at improving the looks the front of the apartment building” I said as it all came to the front of my mind. “Well Mr Devon Wesley, let’s start with me lending you a commercial grade carpet cleaner, too sort out your carpets. I can get you a 2-litre container of Sugar soap, just dilute with water and that would make it easier to clean the walls, what colour would you like to have in the rooms?” Edward said putting on his best service manner with a smile.

By the time I left the store, I had a few bags in hand with painting equipment and cleaning supplies, which were put onto the Apartment account, and for the next few hours I was kept moving the furniture from the front office into the store room, to make way for cleaning. At lunch time Edward appeared, with a trolley full of supplies, including the carpet cleaner and chemicals, a large pot plant to bring some greenery into the office, and eight different colours of paint, four of them for feature walls for each area.

I had left it up to Edward to choose the colours, and he had selected a very pale light yellow for the front office, with a pale brown as a feature colour for one wall, a very pale light orange for the kitchen and dining room, with a strong burnt orange colour as a feature colour for one wall in the dining room, a very pale light green in the lounge room, with a dark green as a feature colour for one wall, and finally a pale light blue for the main bedroom, with a dark royal blue for the feature wall.

With everything stored in the apartment, Edward left to return to work, as he had closed the store for half an hour, while I began working on cleaning every wall in the apartment, which I spent the next three days doing, mostly on my own, but Edward came after he had closed the store to help me for about 2 hours each day, with cleaning the carpets while I was cleaning the walls.

Edward had mentioned to the residents he saw, when there, that he had employed a young man to assist the caretaker with cleaning and painting the caretaker’s apartment, so now when residents saw me there, they had no idea that I was actually their new caretaker, who still seemed to be a mystery to them. When all the walls had been cleaned and freshly painted, plus the carpets thoroughly cleaned Edward helped to put all the furniture back into place, and when finished the apartment looked completely different, especially with the new blinds and light fittings that Edward had replaced. On Thursday morning when I walked into the store, Edward handed me an apron and I looked at him in a puzzled way, “Well if you are employed by me, you need to look the part,” Edward said to me and I was still confused.

“Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays, 8am to 1pm, you get award rates for wages plus entitlements, and today I will just show you around the store so you are ready to start tomorrow,” Edward added and then I realised that I now had a paid job, which I was thrilled about. Before leaving at 2pm, Edward suggested that he organise a small party on the terrace, and invite the residents to meet their new Caretaker, minus that mime clown costume, and when he saw my shocked look on my face, he laughed. I smiled and nodded to Edward, agreeing reluctantly to his idea, and I made my way down to the nearest department store to get a few essentials, proper cutlery, pots and pans, crockery, bed linen, blankets, pillows, towels, plus a few cheap large prints to hang on the walls in the office, bedroom and lounge room.

I ended up with so much stuff, I had to come back home in a taxi, to carry it all, and Edward was at the front of the apartment building when I arrived back, and he helped me to get it all into my new apartment, the two large prints in the office definitely made a big improvement to liven up the room, and Edward was impressed with the prints that I had chosen. Once they were up we sat down Edward asked me what my thoughts were with improving the look of the apartment building on the outside, and together we put together a list of items that needed to be done prioritising what order each item should be placed in. That night was the first full night that I slept in my new home, now that I had all the required supplies to make it comfortable to live there, but instead of cooking, I chose to order pizza, as I was tired from a very busy week.

Remembering to check my now official mail box, I notice that I had a number of requests for maintenance to be done, mainly with the replacement of light globes and the replacement of smoke alarm batteries in passageways on a number of levels. I placed the messages in the in-tray on my desk, before heading to work, and after saying good morning to Edward, I wrote down a list of items that I needed for the apartment, which I placed near the till, before starting work. During the day, I started to learn where to find many items on the shelves while restocking the shelves.

During my lunch break I asked Edward to put on the account the items I needed for the apartment, which I took there and stored in the office, and grabbed a snack to eat from a café on the way back. When I had finished work I raced back to the apartment building and replaced all of the batteries of all smoke alarms in the main passageways on all levels, completing the job by 4pm. When I returned to my apartment, and marking on the desk calendar today's date as when the smoke alarm batteries were replaced.

The evening before, Edward has dropped off invitations to all the residents, inviting them to come up to the Rooftop terrace at 6pm, and to bring a dish to share, and BYO – bring your own drinks, with dress being casual. As the late afternoon, became evening, I took a quick shower, and changed into my best clothes, and I sat at the desk, in the front office and waited till it was time to go up to the rooftop terrace. When there was a knock on the door, I was surprised to see that it was Edward, and we headed upstairs in the elevator, to the top floor.

On arrival on the terrace, Edward introduced me as his employee and the young man who has been helping with the renovations of the terrace, as well as the caretaker’s apartment. Once all of the residents had arrived, and I had been introduced to all of them, Edward called for silence.

“Ladies and gentlemen, once again we meet at this magnificent terrace, this time to meet your mysterious new caretaker. I know he is young, but he is smart and has the skills to do the job, He has already put together a list of things that need doing to the building, which have been neglected by the previous caretaker. Many of you have met him before, and he is my employee, so ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, your new caretaker – Mr Wesley A Devonport” Edward said directing everyone’s attention to me.

I was a little stunned, that Edward had said my real name, and I didn’t realise that the residents were a little surprised that it was me that they had offered the job too, but they began to applaud and everyone joined in. “I know you are surprised by the young man before you, but he is a good and hard-working young man, so please don’t judge him by his age, and remember that it was him, and him alone who restored this beautiful terrace” Edward said to the residents, and everyone chatted amongst themselves.

“Very well, we will keep to our word with the job offer, but he is on a three-month probation period, and we will decide if it is permanent at that time” one of the men announced, and Edward smiled, “That is all I ask, he works for me in the mornings, from 8am to 1pm four days a week’s, so he is all yours any time after that and on his free days, which is Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that he has Sundays off” Edward responded. From a nod of agreement from all of the residents, the resident representative said that they all agree with this, then suggested that we all eat.

After an enjoyable evening, I helped to clean up the terrace aft the meal was ended, and said good night to the residents, before retiring to me apartment, to get a good night’s rest, as I had work in the morning, and as I drifted off to sleep, I smiled as I realised that I was very happy with how my life and future was heading.