Last year I met an attractive lady at my local bar. She was quite intelligent and I enjoyed talking to her. Eventually we went out to dinner. After a few drinks I decided to ask her a question that had bothered me since I met her. "why" I asked would a classy lady like you visit a toilet of a bar like my "favorite bar". She told me that her first apartment was near the bar and she just started stopping in there. Now she was writing a book about the bar and its clients. That I thought would be a book I would love to read (wondering of course how I would be depicted). She is still working on it and so far I have seen none of it.
After six months she returned to Canada. We kept in touch via email and then she announced that she was returning and had taken an apartment just one block from me. I had her over for drinks several times. I love discussing politics and religion with her. She was raised in the Anglican Church and became a deacon in the church, so it took me a while to tell her that I thought all religions are just plain dumb. I am fascinated by the history of religion and how they all evolved, but think that basically they are just another business trying to take money from the populace. One night she told me about her problems with a new neighbor in her building. He stays up all night with the television blasting at full volume and then sleeps all day. After a couple of sleepless nights she told him that he had to turn the television off after midnight. He became very angry and irate.
She then complained to the land lord. After he spoke to the guy, he really became angry and shouted obscenities at her and threatened to kill her, while pounding on her door. In the meantime she learned that he had been thrown out of almost every bar in town. My favorite bar tender threw him out and the guy came back and offered a 1,000 peso bribe, if he would serve him more liquor. He refused. Finally it escalated to the point where she called the police. He was arrested and put in jail. For an angry man, a Mexican prison is not something that would improve his disposition. At that point I told her that she could not stay in her apartment once he was released and suggested she move into my guest room.
Having lived alone for the past 17 years, it was an adjustment, especially since she was a woman. I sleep in the nude, so the fist thing I did was to dig out an old robe out of my "travel drawer". It was a wise move for the next morning I saw shocked when opening my bedroom door t see her seated at my dining table typing away on her computer. Until I have my first two cups of coffee and my cigarettes, I am unconscious. Conversation is not an option at that hour. But she was very polite and neat (I noticed her bed was already made up). She spends 10 hours a day writing. She has written several books, mostly on politics. But I am only interested on the one she is working on about my bar. None of her books have made her much money, so she freelance writes for social media. Companies hire her to create blogs, or just write favorable comments. I use no social media at all, so I understand none of this.
Later that morning she went back to her apartment to speak to her landlord, knowing that the ogre would be sound asleep. She demanded that they evict him. The landlord told her that "Mexico is a noisy place" (very true) and they were not about to only select tenants that she approved of. Very typically, Mexican men are very macho and do not like being told what to do by a woman. She was so mad, she started looking for another apartment- Then she accidentally ran into her landlords at a taco stand.. He told her that she was right and had gotten into a fist fight with the man at 5:00 am that morning. They had given him a week to move. The guy said he had paid rent and had every right to be there and that my friend was the problem. In Mexico you do not need a court order to remove a tenant. You just go in while they are out, place all their stuff outside and change the locks, so the landlord was giving him more leeway than necessary. Apparently the mad man was not that appreciative. We continued to hear about other encounters where the man had become violent. My bartender told me that when the guy is sober (which is rare) he appears and acts normal. But once he starts drinking he becomes insane.
After she was here for a week, she moved to a girl friends apartment. She felt she had stayed with me too long already (I did not protest). Finally the man did move somewhere (no one knows where). The landlord changed to locks in his door, her door, and the gate on the street. He also promised to have an iron security gate added to her door. A nice gesture, but it will probably never happen.
So far no one has seen him since, so maybe he moved to a new part of town. I wonder how long before he is kicked out of more bars and evicted again. The guy hates everything and everyone here.
One might ask, "Why is he still here, why doesn't he go back home?" He claims to live in France but is really half Italian and half Spanish (this may account for his disposition). My friend thinks that maybe he cannot return home and that is why he is in Mexico. She still is trying to get him deported, but so far nothing has happened. Always a little excitement here.
My guest room is empty again and my life is back to its normal routine (of doing almost nothing).. I did enjoy our evening conversations over drinks or dinner. My next house guest isn't due until next May. He will be here for two weeks. Hopefully less drama. We will see.
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The room looks really nice. The picture is one of my favorites of yours. Since the window faces east, it must be very cheery in the morning.
ReplyDeleteIt's deliciously quiet and dark at night!
DeleteI laughed all the way through this. HILARIOUS!
ReplyDelete