by Robert Burk

Created on: June 21, 2009   Last Updated: January 27, 2011

My landlady never worried about me. I rented but she was the closet thing to a relationship I had. It wasn't that she was a wonderful grandmotherly type. She never once bought me chocolate chip cookies on rent day. Mz McGuire (named changed though I can't say why) enjoyed her role as a landlady. It gave her power over other people's lives specifically mine. I wasn't expecting a lot, I'm a single guy. But everyone wants some privacy. Being with the hydro meant I was away at odd times. Bad weather could keep me out for days; coming home to sleep if I was lucky being put up at a motel if not. People are touchy about simple things. They go ballistic when the power goes out in mid-winter - no heat, three young kids to feed and the pipes are starting to freeze. But for me it was not such a bad life. It paid the bills. Mz McQuire's rent is not something paid a day late.

Perhaps I should have thought more, you know about Mz McQuire not caring. But with a busy life and an awkward schedule it is hard to find anyone to settle down with. A good woman makes a man more practical. But in this business you get to like a girl and then a storm hits, the lines are down and by the time you get back she's dating some guy you introduced her to a guy that used to be a friend.

Still, even the most unfortunate soul has to hit a bit of luck now and then. I've changed her name to Clara. She deserves anonymity because what happened wasn't all her fault.

After one long job the motels and greasy spoons were starting to wear me down. At the bar Clara was doing her best to get noticed. She was laughing and greeting everyone with the touchy, touchy thing that girls do. I tried to keep a low profile. Ignoring her was probably the worst thing I could do

She actually wasn't a bad sort of girl, once you got to know her. For one thing she soon resigned herself to the fact that I wouldn't be around all the time. We were both determined to make a go of it. We didn't plan it but she just seemed to be at my place more than hers. She gave in her notice and moved in with me.

It is strange to come home to a woman. The couch that I sat on to watch TV went along with the bed and the breakfast set and some other things. Suddenly it mattered what we had. It was a new life. If only I had realized just how far outside of it Mz McGuire was?

I got called out. Clare packed a lunch and a hot thermos of tea in the lunch box she purchased for me. Going to work with a lunch packed by my woman? Was I proud! To have seen those tens of thousands of men travelling to work with their lunch boxes and never knowing what a thrill it was.

Clara cooked Thai. Every recipe starts with 6 tablespoons of oil in a wok heated till it almost burns. Thais don't do this, but Clara not being Thai rushed down to pick up the mail. Clara got locked out of the apartment. Not being a bono fide tenant Mz McQuire would not let her in. She let in the fire department though. She may not have cared about my stuff but the fire was starting to eat away her walls.

No, I didn't have contents insurance. Clara did but on her stuff in her apartment, the one she gave up. Women are superior in that way. It wouldn't have hurt so much if it was the old stuff that got burnt, but it was the start of our life together, we lost. That hurts.

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