I slept uneasily in my bed that night, knowing Doc Ock and Change-O were still out there. Did they find out anything? Do they know more than I know about myself?
There was a loud bang at the door at 10:00. I got out of the bed I was trying to sleep in and walked to the door.
"Open up, Hanson!"
"Mr. Standa?" I asked, opening the door.
The old coot was standing there, his eyes big and angry.
"You haven't paid your rent!"
"So you're telling me this at ten at night?"
"You're rent is overdue!"
"Okay, okay...relax, man, I mean, sir. Relax, sir." I said, adjusting my eyes to the light.
He waited for me to start talking. I waited for him.
"You haven't paid your rent in
six months!"
"What? What are you talking about?" I asked.
"You haven't paid me my money!"
"I gave all the money to Josh to give to you."
"He hasn't given me a cent!"
That's when I realized it. Josh was using our rent money to buy drugs.
"Sir, how much do I owe you?"
"It's
$1500 a month, missy!"
"What?" I screamed. So 1500 times 6...
"Sir, where am I gonna come up with $9000?"
"You have two weeks. And you're lucky I'm giving you that long. Tell your parents to work extra hours or dip into your college fund or something."
With that he left. Now I'm definitely not gonna sleep easily tonight. Josh, you asshole, you selfish bastard, why did you do this to us? To me?
The next day I opened up my guitar case and started to play. I sat right there on the street corner, next to a decorated mailbox. It had spiders on it and stuff. Cool, since Halloween was in two days.
I got out my lucky pick and left my guitar case wide open, inviting anybody's money. Let's play some Avril now, huh...
"I'm standing on the bridgeI'm waiting in the dark
I thought that you'd be here by now
There's nothing but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I'm listening but there's no sound
Isn't anyone trying to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home?
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won't you take me by the hand take me somewhere new?
I don' know who you are but I,
I'm with you
I'm looking for a place
I'm searching for a face
Is anybody here I know
Cause
nothing's going right
And everything's a mess
And no one likes to be alone
Isn't anyone trying to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home?
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won't you take me by the hand take me somewhere new?
I don' know who you are but I,
I'm with you
Why is everything so confusing?
Maybe I'm just out of my mind
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah
Yeah yeah
Yeah yeah
Yeah...oh, oh...
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won't you take me by the hand take me somewhere new?
I don' know who you are but I,
I'm with you
Yeah, I'm with you
I'm with you"
By the end of the day, which was about fourteen hours, I made one hundred and seven dollars, plus sixty-three cents.
There's gotta be a better way to do this...a faster way...
Well, you know what they say; Illegal is often faster...