by Lana Evans

Created on: April 21, 2008

No. In the past I have been wronged. People have treated me badly, so badly that became either sad or angry, really angry! It was so clear to me how they were wrong, but they felt completely justified, and no amount of my reasoning would change their mind. I wanted to get revenge, put I came up with a better idea.

When I was about 20, I found myself in a crisis. I had just had a baby and nowhere to go. So my sister took me in. She and her husband had a two bedroom house with no kids. They let me stay in the small bedroom that they used for storage, so I got a bed. They said I could stay as long as I needed. I worked everyday. After two weeks, they asked for the rent. I figured when I moved in, that the utilities and rent on a tiny bedroom with all their stuff would be about a third of their cost, because I was a third person. But we hadn't discussed it in the beginning. It turned out that they wanted me to pay 50% of their rent, plus half of all utilities. So I did. Whatever.

Then, after the next month, they raised it with no warning and changed it all around so they could get more money out of me. I worked as a waitress, and when they were through with me, I had to beg a church for diapers. They told me I would now be paying by the week an amount that came to twice their own monthly rent rent in a month! So I was paying twice their rent to stay in a crowded back bedroom, with shelves of canned goods and stacks of stuff everywhere.

When I finally sternly objected, they wanted to argue with me; they pointed out all the things I had access to. They itemized them, for Christ's sakes! The washer and dryer, the shower, the refrigerator, the TV. I had to endure it another six weeks. Finally, they had saved enough, with my contribution, to move out into a little place they had bought. They moved out on me, and I was left behind in am empty place with no utilities and a baby in the summertime.

It wasn't like I was some bad roommate with nasty habits; this was my sister. We got along good; we have always gotten along good. But this issue drove a wedge between us until she left her husband a year later.

Well, at that time, I was living in another state, and she called me and told me what was going on. So I invited her over. She stayed with my husband and I rent free foe just over a month. Now she worked as a waitress, and she stayed in a tiny room. But I made sure to empty the room out completely for her. I cleaned it up real well. She had access to my car. I cooked for her.

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