Chapter 3
Early one Sunday morning Mr. Cannon pulled into the driveway that had been expanded into a large parking pad. He stood outside for a long time looking at the improvements. I watched as he walked to my apartment and opened the door just as he raised his hand to knock.
"My God Damon, how did you get all of this done so fast?"
"Mr. Cannon, come on inside," I said.
As he walked inside with his jaw dragging the floor and his eyes trying to take in everything I said, "I have to confess. I have some very good friends that helped me. A lot of the material was stuff that was left over from other jobs and I had to buy very little. All of the apartments are painted off-white because that is what my friend had in his warehouse. Some of the things my friend said that he had left over but I know that he wanted me to have a nice apartment to stay in. If you want I'll take you inside and ask the tenants if you can look at the apartments."
He hesitated before he answered, "No, I don't have to go through the apartments. I just couldn't believe the pictures. I had to see it for myself. I can't believe that this was once a garage. This is a hell of a nice apartment. I really owe you. There's no way that I could have afforded to do all of this just now."
When he had stopped looking at everything Dan's crew had to do to make me an apartment I asked, "I found an old laptop computer in the garage when I cleaned it out. It had never been opened but its three years old. Do you mind if I use it for a while?"
He looked at me and smiled, "Hell, keep it. I wouldn't know what to do with a laptop computer. I'm not that into computers. I use the one at home for emails and surfing the 'net. Other than that I haven't a clue."
I insisted that Mr. Cannon take a walk to the apartment building and look what we had done. When he walked into the hallway he became quiet and just looked at everything with a shocked look on his face. One of the students had gone to church so I opened the apartment door and let Mr. Cannon see what the apartments looked like now. I told him that the plumbing fixtures and some of the appliances would have to be replaced soon but that I thought that we could get two more years out of them. He kept shaking his head at everything that he looked at.
"Damon, I know that you're going to live rent-free for four years but I think that I got the better end of this deal. I see it but I can't believe that you did all of this."
It was my turn to smile, "Well Mr. Cannon, I think that next year you should consider a rent increase. These apartments are better than most of the student rentals in town. I'm sure that the building is worth at least twice what it was."
"I agree, Damon."
I asked if he had brought the bank deposit slips that I had asked for in an email and he pulled a stack of them out of his jacket.
I went to my desk and opened the drawer, "I have five checks and cash for the other three apartments. Do you want to take the cash and have me deposit the checks?"
He grinned and reached for the cash, "Damon, you're a man after my own heart."
We talked for a while and he turned to go and then stopped, "Look my mother has a Nissan Sentra at her house. Its seven years old but it only has twenty-one thousand miles on it and it been garaged ever since it was new. My mother will never be able to use it again. Would you like to have it?"
I couldn't answer for a minute and he continued, "I couldn't get anything for it because of its age and I hate small cars. If you want it it's yours."
I gulped and said, "Sure if you think that you really want to give it away. I thought that I'd have to wait a year before I could afford a car."
"I have all of the records on the car. My mother had the car serviced even if she hadn't used it in three months. Why don't you hop in my car and we'll go over and get it. I've got the title over at the house and since I have my mother's power of attorney I can sign the title. Just get the title transferred and turn in the old tags."
We went over to his mother's house. Mr. Cannon located the title, signed it and handed me the keys and title. He went to the desk and pulled out a manila folder that held all of the records for the services that had been performed on the car.
I thanked him way too much and he kept telling me that he was getting the better end of the deal and that I had earned the car.
When we went outside he pushed the button on the garage door remote and the garage door began to open. As soon as the garage door was open I saw that the car was better than he had said. As I walked around the car I couldn't even find one scratch. I opened the door and it looked like the upholstery had never been sat on. The car started immediately.
Mr. Cannon patted me on the shoulder and motioned me to start driving so that he could close the garage door and start back to Tucson.
On the drive back to my apartment I was grinning from ear to ear. The car was clean as a pin and drove great. I pulled into a Jiffy Lube as a precaution and had the oil and filter changed.
When I finally got back to my apartment I made sure to park so that no one could swing their car door into it and made a mental note to buy a car cover the next day. I knew that I had been blessed with this gift and I had to make it last through my four years of college. I also made a mental note to get car insurance.
The next couple of weeks was spent getting my books, making final arraignments for all of my classes and doing the little chores that always seem to be needed with rental properties.
I stopped by one of the local pizza places that delivered and asked if they needed a driver for weekends. Pizza deliverers could make ten to fifteen dollars an hour with tips. I knew that they had trouble filling the weekend shifts because the younger crowd loved to party on weekends. I had no trouble getting the job. With what I had saved working summers and the money that I would pick up Friday night, Saturday and Sunday I would be able to live through the fours years ahead of me.
Kids that have grown up in families that didn't have much money usually managed their own money one of two ways. They either spent their money as soon as it came in and were constantly broke or they were super efficient in managing their money. I was one of the latter. When I spent a dollar it had to be spent. I knew that my money had to be used wisely or college was out.
The weekend before the fall semester was to start four of the guys on the second floor decided to have a party. They opened the windows and the music blasted so loud that I'm sure that they could hear it in Tucson. I hurried upstairs to the offending apartment and knocked on the door.
Some little skinny freshman opened the door and snarled, "What do you want. You weren't invited to this bash."
I asked him to keep the noise down and to make sure that the party doesn't last past eleven o'clock. He made a big mistake when he told me to go fuck myself. He said he had paid the rent for this apartment and he could do whatever he wanted. He attempted to close the door and I put my foot against the door to keep it from closing. I yelled into the room that the party was over and that everyone that didn't live there was out or they would be put out.
Little skinny freshman decided to show his friends that he was the bravest dude in town and tried to kick my foot away from the door. I avoided his kicks and he began to get mad. He opened the door and tried to bash me with the beer can. I guess that he thought a beer can would hurt as much as a beer bottle. I grabbed him by the neck and held him about two feet off of the floor and explained to him what I had ordered his crowd to do. Little skinny freshman gagged and gasped and his eyes bugged. I let him down and shoved him into the room. As I looked around I saw that no one was over twenty-one.
"Ok, this is the way it's going to be. All of the beer is going to disappear or I'm going to call the police. Since none of you is twenty-one yet, I'm sure that they won't be too happy and will be only too glad to let each of you spend the night in a drunk tank. Any questions?"
Little skinny freshman was still on the floor trying to catch his breath and the room slowly began to clear out. No one said a word as they passed me. Each of them looked at little skinny freshman and then at me on the way out of the door. After everyone except the people that were renting the apartment was gone I pulled the door shut and went back to my own apartment. I waited for about an hour before I went to bed in case any of the revelers got some beer courage and decided to come down to my apartment and see if my confrontation with little skinny freshman was a fluke. The apartment house was quiet the rest of the night.
After that night I only had a few minor incidents like music too loud, garbage in the hallway and loud arguments.
I know. I told you that this story was about my family. But, if I
don't give you the background it won't make any sense. It's even hard
for me to understand it and I lived it.