Rent Free | Teen Ink

Rent Free

August 11, 2019
By dojehatl BRONZE, Bend, Oregon
dojehatl BRONZE, Bend, Oregon
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

It was a simple ad: Live rent free!!! The description went into a bit more detail, but it seemed benign when Edgar first read it. It seemed like the owner wanted another set of hands to help around the house, and they had an extra bedroom. Not having a job at the time, having just moved to Baltimore, rent free seemed like a good deal. So, he responded.

The owner replied quickly. They provided their phone number, and Edgar dialed.

“Hello?”

“Hello, this is Edgar , I responded to a Craigslist ad?”

“Oh, yes.” A woman’s voice answered. “I’ll text you the address. The sooner you can come interview, the better! Shouldn’t be too much trouble. Just text me when you’re here.”

“Ok. I was ju-” Edgar could tell that the woman had hung up. 

Edgar arrived an hour later, having to drive a bit out of the city to reach the house. It was not huge, but he could tell it was expensive. There was an air of wealth about the place that one could just detect. He texted the owner that he had arrived, and surveyed the grounds. There was a somewhat large front yard that was impeccably kept, with hedges separating the house from the grass, cut into perfect cubes. On the far side of the house, a shed, undoubtedly housing yardwork supplies, could be seen. 

After ten minutes, Edgar decided to proceed without a reply, figuring she just wasn’t answering. He rang the doorbell expectantly.

“Let yourself in, Edgar.” He jumped before quickly calming himself down after noticing the intercom beside the door. He pressed the button to speak back.

“Okay.” 

The inside of the house was more elegant than the outside, with a large oriental rug laid out in the entryway, and deceptively high ceilings partly cloaked by the darkness inside. A chandelier hung over his head, not a gaudy, crystal chandelier, but one entirely of glass, with round, flowing shapes that seemed to change as the chandelier swung. Edgar looked at it, trying to decide what the shapes reminded him of, when a voice startled him out of the trance. 

“Edgar, so nice of you to come. I’m Evelyn.” She was a tall, slender white woman who must have been middle-aged by her voice and hair, but a face that could be anywhere from thirty to sixty. 

Edgar swallowed loudly.

“Hello, Miss.” She smiled at him. 

“Well, what do you think,” she said, gesturing to the chandelier.

“It is very pretty, Miss.”

“Please, call me Evelyn. We are to be roommates afterall. Please, come. I’ll show you your room.” Evelyn strolled down a hallway, with Edgar shuffling behind. 

The room was dark, much like the rest of the house, with one window that didn’t seem to do much for the lighting. Evelyn had left Edgar to make himself at home while she fetched a list of his expected share of the housework. The window faced the backyard, probably a couple acres of perfectly mowed lawn. Though it was not a bad view, Edgar noticed that he despised it already. A low, gravelly voice woke him up.

“You the new boy, huh.” Edgar jerked around, being met with the sight of an old man, bent over from years of hard work, with skin that looked like black leather. “Let me give you a piece of advice.” The man gestured to Edgar to come closer. “Don’t think for a second that you her roommate.” The old man reached into his pocket slowly, withdrawing a loose cigarette and placing it between his lips. Edgar quickly flicked his own lighter out, wanting to hear what the man had to say next. “Yeah, you think you got it good, living out here in the suburbs with some lonely white lady. Let me tell you what you gon be doin’ out here.” Edgar leaned in closer, his eyes widening as he began to see the old man’s hands. The scars were not merely scars of old age. These were clean cuts, some of them almost seeming fresh. “You hers, man.” Edgar swallowed.

“What you mean, hers?” 

“You know Maryland was a slave state, right?” Edgar, who had been raised in Panama until he was fifteen, had no knowledge of the American Civil War. He shook his head, earning only a nod back from the old man. “You gon learn then.” Edgar bit his tongue to avoid shouting out. He noticed a particularly nasty scar on the man’s face, leading from above his right eye down through the eyelid to his right nostril. Edgar quickly rushed out of his room, searching for Evelyn, or the front door, trying to turn down her “offer”. He found both at the same time. 

“Something wrong, Edgar?” he shook his head.

“I just think, you know, I don’t want to be a bother, and I don’t know, I can find somewhere cheap to stay closer in to the city, I can get a job.” He wrang his hands nervously. Evelyn smiled slightly, still fully blocking the only exit Edgar was aware of. 

“Oh that sounds lovely.” She made no effort to move. “Cheap is great. Some of my favorite things in life are cheap.” She paused, her voice hardening. “However,” she stared at him, Edgar unable to look away. “Cheap ain’t free.”



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