San Diego from New Jersey via New York City!

Great! Just great! How am I going to get my money now? Should I get off the bus, wait for her to get back to the stop with my check? Did she have it with her? I didn’t have her number? I overheard her telling Avon, she was going to go back to the facility after dropping me off. I called the new girl. She didn’t pick up, c’mon, pick up! Pick up! Pick up! She did! I told her to ask the lady if she had my pay check. I called boss, no answer. He’s a lawyer, he was probably in court. Oh man! What am I going to do. I sent boss a text. He called back immediately telling me they would deposit the check into my account. I believed him.

I wasn’t at the bus long, and we drove off! Good bye New Jersey! See you around! I didn’t know what was awaiting me ahead, but I was looking forward to it. I told Perry, I was on my way. He told me he was glad I called, he had overslept. Perry is his own boss, he works from his house office. He never uses the alarm, he wakes up whenever he feels like it. I stayed in touch with him throughout the day. He was up and about trying to make sure everything was in order before I arrived. This is the same guy who told me he needed to get a shovel and start cleaning up the house, two weeks prior. It was a joke, but I don’t know how much of it was based on the truth.  East Coast is 3 hours ahead of the West coast timezone-wise.

I remember as if it were just yesterday, the feeling of entering the city of New York, it was nice and sunny outside. Mid November, beginning of winter, The City was smiling back at me. You know me and my love affair with New York City! It was a good day! I got off at port authority, walked around for a minute, then took the bus to JFK Aiport. It was a drive there. Which meant enjoying the city one last time before I westcoast it. The entire system is very organised, That’s the thing about the US, it’s such a big country and yet very organised. It’s not easy to get lost at all. Take it from me! At the airport, you get off at the entrance closest to the airline you’re flying with. How cool is that? No running up and down OR Tambo international aiport, up and down the elevators and escalators, all to find yourself back at square one (from experience ;) ). I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face :D

It must have been around 11am when I arrived at the airport. My flight was at 4pm. I had ample time to kill. I bought some snacks and sat at the waiting room. Watched some housewives episode (Beverly hills, if you care to know J) I had saved on my PC when I had internet. I was falling asleep due to my busy night the night before. Time flew and before I knew it, it was time to go. I headed for the gate, checked in and AMERICAN AIRLINES KNOWS WHY YOU FLY!  (In my best Ellen de Generes Voice). I sat next to a nice young man who had his hoodie on the entire flight, I have no idea what he looks like. Good thing is, neither does he. I must have fallen asleep as soon as I sat down. I was so tired! It had been a crazy few days. I hope I didn’t snore or fart! The flight was about 7 or 8 hours long.

Perry had warned me that there might be fog and we might have to land in Los Angeles (instead of San Diego) and he might have to pick me up there, or they would arrange a hotel for us and have us fly to SD the next morning. I was open to whatever. That would’ve given me an opportunity to see Los Angeles, be in LAX which I have always wanted to see. Don’t get me wrong, I was looking forward to meeting Perry, I was just keeping an open mind. Don’t judge me, I’m just a girl from Uitenhage, exploring America! No fog, we made to San Diego on schedule. It was around 11pm Eastern time when I arrived and 8pm San Diego time  so to speak (Pacific Time).

As I got off the plane, it dawned on me, I was no longer in New Jersey. Nobody but my family and two friends new where I was. WHAT THE HECK WAS I DOING! I ran to the restroom to freshen up and then turned my phone on. Perry had been waiting for me outside. OH MY GOSH, this is really happening! I hope he’s going to be nice to me! I walked out, called him and told him where I was waiting for him. He drove around to pick me up. I had the hugest smile on my face, you could swear I was just released from prison. Well, I was! I’m in California baby, wHOOOOooooo! I could yell at the top of my voice! There he was! Perry, he looked so handsome in person! Dear Lord, I’m going to live with this man! What is happening right now? He got off the car, “Brook?” Perry! Hi! WE did the awkward hug/handshake thing most people who meet for the first time do. I didn’t care, I was glad he was handsome. Call me Shallow, call me anything, as long as you call me. Maybe?

He had a bunch of red roses in the car for me. EIGHTEEN! Count them! The biggest bunch of roses I ever got! And I have received flowers in my time! I think I remember the first thing I ever said to him was, “I’m here!” His eyes looked more beautiful in person, they are nice and green. He says they are hazel. We drove through the city of San Diego, he showed me around. It was beautiful, there’s part of town called the Gas Lamp, it’s kinda like 7^th Street, Melville (where my sister was lucky enough to live for a couple of years), Florida Road in Durban or Long Street in Cape Town. We drove past the bay, etc. We grabbed dinner and took it home with us.

I had already seen pictures of the house online and he had sent me a few of the inside. It looked much nicer in person. It was very brown though, everything inside was brown. We sat on the sofa, had dinner, and talked, then bedtime!

The night before the morning after

I talked with my Jamaican friend and asked her to recommend someone I could use as my replacement. She did. I talked to the lady, who had a very interesting vibe about her. I felt like I was the one looking for a job and she was the boss. Whatever. To cut a long story short, I told my boss I was leaving the Sunday and I was due to fly out the following Wednesday. He seemed shocked that I would want to leave. Trust me, If you were in my shoes, some of you may not have lasted a day in that job. I won’t go into detail.

I told him I had two a few people lined up to take over my job. He wanted to interview them, I gave them the names and numbers. He liked the first one. The interesting one. He was like, ok, Brook, would you like this lady to start tomorrow (Monday). I was like, uhm, no, Wednesday! What the heck! I told him, I was going to leave Wednesday morning. What is this? Was I getting fired AFTER I quit?

As usual, Boss was behind in paying me. He owed me three week’s salary. He promised to bring my cheque (by the way, Cheque in American English is spelt Check) on Wednesday. He was very nice about the whole thing, once he found a replacement he was happy with. The lady was a Jamaican who lived in New York. Boss was going to pick her up from the bus station, and then drop me off wherever I needed to go. Which came in handy because I didn’t really know how I was going to get to the airport.

That's her in the Trash room

My poor suitcase, had been abused so much, it couldn’t take it anymore, one of the tires gave in. I had to get rid of it. I didn’t have enough time to buy luggage online and had it reach me before I left. I was not about to leave my stuff with someone else to hopefully ship it for me later. Oh heyll Naw! I packed everything in boxes, got a ride from a very nice nurse who always offered to give me a ride should I need it, I decided to take her up on it. She dropped me off at the post office. I was going to take a cab on my way back. The drive there didn’t seem that long. I shipped my stuff, it cost me almost $100 (+-R1 000). Perry promised to pay me back all that, which I wasn’t too comfortable about. Having someone pay me back for shipping my own stuff! Apparently, Perry is such a gentleman, he wouldn’t let a woman spend a dime of her own money!

My Stuff. Packed to the Brim

Anyway, whenever I got a chance to go for a walk, I did. I needed it! I was happy to walk back to the facility from the post office. Silly me, what the heck was I thinking! First of all, It was much colder than I imagined. Having been locked up in an airconditioned apartment for weeks, then into an airconditioned car got me fooled. It was freeeezzziiiinngggg! I had leggings on, a short sleeved top and SANDALS! Clearly, I was already in a California State of mind. When I realised how far the place was, I was probably halfway between the facility and the post office. AND I didn’t cave cash with me! I couldn’t take a bus or anything, not that there were any in that deserted road. Everywhere looked more deserted than they probably were after the hurricane. There were trees all over the sidewalks. I decided to call a cab, that’s when I realised that my phone had died! I couldn’t use my GPS to find a shorter walking route, couldn’t do nothing, I HAD TO WALK BACK! I was half frozen! Remember, we had a snow storm in New Jersey just after the hurricane. This was just after the storm. The snow had melted but the temperatures hadn’t improved at all.

View from the balcony

People looked at me like I was weird walking that road dressed like that. Maybe they didn’t but I felt that way. I remember a police car stopping to ask me where I was coming from and where I was going, they probably thought me suspicious. That was before I decided I couldn’t walk there. IF it were after, I would’ve asked them for a ride or to use their phone.

I felt like I was in a horror movie! I didn’t know what was going to happen next. The cars that I saw were going the opposite direction, nothing toward my direction. Crap! What now? I kept walking and walking, the closer I thought I was, the farther I seemed to be. Where the heck is this place! My hands and feet were frozen, and my uhm, lady parts that are protruding? Year those, were like ice balls. The worst thing that could happen to me that day was for me to take the wrong turn.  The more I walked, the more I wondered if I was on the right track. I saw signage with the name of the hospital which is right next to the facility. That gave me hope. Apparently they have an ATM over there. I thought I’d go in there and withdraw some money. I needed to thaw (defrost) more than anything else.

When I got closer to the hospital, I tried to walk towards the main entrance, but the building seemed to move further, the closer I got to it. I was like darn it, I’m not doing this! Five minutes later, I was at the facility. I had never been happier to arrive at that place in my life!

It had got so dark outside, I felt like I was gone for ages. I was frozen. I remember bumping into the boss in the hallway. Someone had told her I was leaving, she wanted to tell me how mad she was at me for leaving. I let her feel my hand, she told me to go stand in front of the fire place. I did. For a moment, I thought I was too cold to feel the heat from the fire but then saw the residents looking me like I was a lunatic. Turned out, the thing was off. Oops. 

I ran upstairs and took a long shower. You know you’re cold when you have a tingling sensation when you come across heat. The last time I had that feeling, which was also my first, was in Georgia, after walking in flooded streets, with snow and it was hailing outside. When I tried to heat my feet up, I could die from that weird tingling feeling. Have you ever had such a thing happen to you? I talked to Perry a little bit on the phone, once I had it charged. Everything seemed so real! My closet was empty, All I had were my laptop bag (heaviest thing you can ever carry, two heavy external hard drives, laptop, and everything else that can fit in it. I wasn’t going to take a chance and ship them, too fragile, and the handbag, filled to the brim J

I had printed my ticket, called American Airlines to confirm everything, I really was leaving the following day. I went to bed around 10pm, pooped! I got up after 11pm frm the worst stomach ache ever! You know when you’re sleeping and you dream that you’re sick and wake up actually sick? Yup, that’s what happened! I was tossing and turning in bed, trying to get my beauty slip. I wanted to enjoy my trip to the West Coast. No such luck! I drank warm water, took , baking soda (bicarbonate of soda),nothing! I was sweating bullets, trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake Avon up. The pan pierced through my stomach to my back onto a muscle along the spinal chord. It felt like a bubble that I couldn’t burst. I BBMed my sister who apparently suffers from that kind of condition, long story. She told me to lay on the floor on my back and to do some exercises. Kinda like riding a bicycle? There I was on the floor, sweating like a racehorse, riding an air bicycle in the middle of the night. I would take breaks and sit on the floor right by the corner of the frame of the bathroom door and massage the back muscle with the corner of the thing. The pain would then move to the front, back and forth, back and forth. Gosh!

I texted Perry. He was freaking out. He told me to go to the hospital. I could tell he thought I was having a case of cold feet but was still supportive. Two hours later, I was still on the floor not knowing what the heck to do with myself. I went to the nurse’s station to ask for something. Normally, they don’t give out meds to anybody other than the residents, hence my taking so long to ask. Desperate times! Fortunately, they had the nice big guy that night. He’s so cool. When the residents who can’t walk fall, he picks them up like, it’s they’re lightest thing ever. He’s amazing! Anyway, he told me that sounded like a gas bubble or something else I forgot cos I kinda knew it was gas. I had had a similar pain a few times before whenever I had bread more than two days in a row. That only started while living at the facility. Nothing that serious though, either in the tummy or back, not both at once in the middle of the night before I fly across the country! The nurse gave me two tablets, I was supposed to chew them then drink a glass of water. I did. Twenty minutes later, I was exhausted from tossing and turning, riding air bicycles and all, I went back to bed. I could feel the pain going away slowly. Wwwhhhheeewww!

I must have fallen asleep after 3am. I did send my sister and Perry texts before I dozed off. They were both so nice, they kept me company the entire time. I was up around 5. I was expecting the new lady around 7am, i had to be ready by then. I washed my linen and my sweaty clothes from the night before. Nobody wants to sit next to that smell on the planeJ! I was supposed to be at the bus stop at 9am, They had free shuttles running from New Jersey to New York because public transport wasn’t running as normal (thanks to Miss Hurricane Sandy). No, seriously, thank you! For saving us some money! Who doesn’t want a free ride? Boss’ wife, was a tad bit late dropping the new girl. I was beginning to panic when they showed up. The girl looked friendlier than she sounded over the phone, thank Goodness for small miracles!

Avon hadn’t talked to me the whole morning. She was ignoring me. We introduced the new girl to her. I showed the girl around. When it was time to say my final goodbye to Avon, I found her crying L uncontrollably. That made me sad L What a ride it had been Working for her! I was ready to get the heck out of there and enjoy America, but sad to see her cry. It was hard for me to leave her in that state but I had to rush, else I was going to miss the bus. I punched the address into my GPS, Boss wife took me to “her car” in the parking lot. The doors wouldn’t open. She kept pressing and pressing the remote, turns out, NOPE, WRONG CAR! Hers was a Jeep, she was trying to open a Hyundai or something like that. Hey, they were both white! WE rushed for the bus stop! Luckily, we got there just in time! We had a nice talk on the way there, she told me, if things didn’t work out where i was going, to call her, she would hook me up with a friend of hers. I could help the friend with her mother or somebody. That was nice to hear, it meant they were happy with my work. I had no intentions to go back to the East Coast though, I have always wanted to go to California. I’m an LA girl at heart!

As soon as she drove off, I remembered: MY PAY CHECK!

Hurricane Sandy

November 2012

Perry’s deal was: He had already made his mind up that he wanted me. I hadn’t. He has a three bedroom home, where he lived with his two dogs. I was going to stay in my own bedroom. We’d date until I decided whether or not I liked him like that. Should I decide I didn’t like him, I could move out anytime or stay there until I figured out what to do next, as friends. New Jersey was too far from California. It would’ve been impossible to date living forty hours apart.

Hurricane Sandy hit The East Coast. It was a crazy week. A huge inconvenience! Imagine living in a two storey building with an elevator for people who were wheelchair bound and then having no power! The dining room was downstairs. The nursing station was upstairs. TV room was downstairs. All residents had tv’s in their apartments, but a lot of them hung out in the downstairs tv room. When the power went out, someone was in the elevator. They had to call the people come get her out. They were quick to respond, which was nice. When they got her out, she was more concerned about her glasses she left in the elevator than anything else. Don’t ask me how they left her face! 

The facility did the best they could to make the experience as smooth as possible for the residents. They had the kitchen staff served people on both floors, the nurses did the same, everybody got a couple of torches, the generator lit up the hallway and some of the rooms. The electricity closets (where all the main switches are)  had power, I guess from the generator, there were about two per floor, where we could charge our phones. All the networks were off, towers were hit by Sandy, except Verizon. Few people in the building were with Verizon cos it’s expensive.

After talking to Perry for about a month, about seven hours per day, I decided to take him up on his offer. I didn’t know how to tell my boss and Avon that I was leaving, I postponed it until the very last minute. By the way, Just after Hurricane Sandy hit, we had the national election. I did a radio interview with The number 2 National radio station in South Africa UMHLOBO WENENE. Who of you caught the interview? It was the most fun  I had while living in that facility J. Perry had already bought me my ticket to San Diego.

The stations were closed, I couldn’t take a train from the station close by to New York, where I was going to fly from. The buses were too far, for some reason, I couldn’t get hold of taxi cabs. I suppose they had their own Sandy problems. Two weeks after Sandy, the town was still dead. Some people still didn’t have power. We got ours back within a week If I remember well. We were lucky because we were a bit far from the ocean. Avon made it past Halloween! The predictions were wrong! Three months later, she was still around. Which meant a job for me! Whew!

On receiving my parcel from N who really came through for me. I asked her how much I owed her so I could mail her a money order. The facility, where I stayed and worked was kind of out of the way. It was very far from things, I couldn’t just walk to the bank, And I don’t have a car. She told me not to worry about reimbursing her. I had to, she had spent quite a bit of money on shipping the stuff more than $30 (more than R300). I am not one for freebies. Neither is everybody I have met since I have been here, if you think you’re not paying for something, YOU’RE PAYING! You just don’t know how, yet! I sent her a money order of $50. Just before I did, she told me not to put her name on it, but just Cash. Which meant anybody who received it, could cash it. When I brought that up, she told me,it’s ok, nobody will steal her money order. I shipped it. And texted her to the fact. According to her, SHE NEVER RECEIVED IT! She said the delay must have been caused by the hurricane. I really didn’t need that kind of stress. I had warned her that it was safer having her name on the thing, she was stubborn, when she “didn’t” receive it, it became my problem. I tried to follow up with Western Union. They told me, they could trace it, at a fee of $15 (+-R150) I mean, seriously now! N told me not to worry, she was going to wait, if she didn’t get it, oh well. She had told me to refund her anyway. So basically, I threw all that money away. What do you think happened to the money order?

What Happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, unless it's Marriage!

Living with someone you take care of and work for at the same time can be no fun at times. I had been working for more than two months straight, without a day off. I joined a dating site, I KNOW, I KNOW! Don’t judge me, I had no friends, no nothing! I talked to a few guys but the fact that I was doing a live in job (sleep in) was a deal breaker. One of the guys and I came really close. He was cute, really tall, with long-sh curly hair, green eyes, and had a soft, gentle voice. I like my men like I like my coffee, White and weak. Haha, Just kidding, I don’t drink coffee. My sister once said she likes her men like she likes her coffe: Blonde with blue eyes haha! Go figure! This guy and I talked for hours. I changed my mind about after talking about him with a friend, I heard how stupid the things she said when I retold them to that friend.

Then there was Nelson. An older The oldest man you can ever imagine on a dating site. He didn’t want to email back and forth. He wanted to Skype instead. I added him. We chatted for a few hours. He told me he wanted me to move in with him, He was going to take me to Vegas, where we would get married. Yeah sure, when? I went along with it, out of sheer boredom. He sat on the same spot everyday and wanted to do nothing but chat on Skype. He showed me the entire house on webcam. When I saw that huge, kingsize bed, I could’ve packed my bags and moved to Texas. I kid you not! I was that tired. I just wanted to sleep for days, nonstop! As If that man was going to let me sleep for days. I mean really now!

I had to block him when he started getting all dirty on me. I wanna Fck my baby, I wanna do this and do that to my baby. I started talking to another man from the site. He seemed nice and sweet. He’s going through a divorce, his wife left him in May. They had been married for 23 years. No kids. He wanted me to move in with him right away. He lives in California. It was just before Winter. I was excited by the idea of skipping the winter, and heading straight to  California where it’s always sunny. At least the part I was going to be at if I had taken him on his offer. He also proposed marriage, he said the day his divorce gets finalised, we’d head for Vegas and get married. All I want is to be married by an Elvis impersonator J . He has his own business, he wanted me to help him with that, he works from home. He made offers that were really hard to refuse.

The nurses were telling me constantly how Avon was going to leave us any minute. The end was near. One of the nurses told me, she’d be surprised if she made it to Halloween. That’s the end of October, as you well know. Gosh, what am I going to do? Where am I going to go? Where am I going to leave? I had been looking for a job since I started the job at Avon’s, nothing! I was beginning to panic! I had to do something, but what!

I was also chatting to a very nice gentleman from somewhere in the Desert. The first guy wanted me to move in with him ASAP. Some of the men I was talking to , just wanted to move in and get married. Nobody knows how serious they were. He sent me about  pictures per email. Awkward! I mean you get to the point where you run out of compliments. I mean really now! He called me once. He had a really REALLY nice voice! He sent me pictures of his house and car. Turns out, that’s not the house he was living in. That’s the house he lost. And the pictures were all old. I asked him for current pictures. He sent me a picture of himself, standing outside his apartment, that he was building all by himself, he had a walking stick in his hand. WHAT? He had very long white hair, he looked really scary. Something about his eyes. They are very deep and sad. He wasn’t smiling in any of his pictures. And I saw a lot of them! I freaked out and stopped all contact with him. He felt bad and sent me emails, asking him what he did wrong, apologising blah blah blah. I felt bad too but it’s what it is

You don't know Jack!

N called me daily, a few times a day. That was unusual for us especially with everything we went through. Most of what he talked about were other people, especially T. I wasn’t trying to get myself in no hot mess, so I would just go  really, oh no, what, omg,haha. That’s it. One morning, around five (T’s magic hour), I got a text from T. “Brook, I heard everything you have been telling people about me. I am begging you to stop. I don’t know what I did to you, but please stop now, I will do anything, please, this is too much!” I didn’t respond, I had nothing to say, just like I had nothing to say about her, I had nothing to say to her either. On our next conversation with N, who was the only South African I was talking to at the time, I asked her what she had been telling people I was saying about T. As you may well know, what one says and what people say you  said can be totally different. She told me she doesn’t talk to South Africans, plus there was nothing to tell them, she only talked to one lady, a South African friend of hers, and so and so and So and So, I thought to myself, I don’t need this. I’m sure N was happy to see that T and I had a falling out after both T And I were not talking to her, now that I am back asking her for a favour, with my tail in between legs, of course she’s gonna tell people about it. I wouldn’t blame her.

Time was flying and I didn’t know when I was going to get my stuff, Effie had suggested  I just forget about the stuff. The thing is, those were all the nice things I brought, a lot of them had sentimental value, my sister used to do my shopping for me. She bought most of the stuff overseas, Europe and The US whenever she went on vacation. I couldn’t just let all those go.

One day, before Liz left, I had bought myself a new leopard print bra. I showed it to her. After lunch, on her day back, she showed me her new bra, It looked exactly the same as mine. Apparently she went to all the stores I had been talking about, shopping at and shopped up a storm. We went upstairs for her to give me what she had brought me. It so happened that I may have mentioned my clothing size to her one day while talking. Which  I regret because she bought me a bag full of clothes IN MY SIZE, so that Excuse was out. Why was I going to say I wasn’t going to take the stuff. Darn it!

She took me to one of the common rooms, old, worn out, Shoprite plastic in hand and made me try all the clothes in front of her. Crap! I couldn’t get out of that one. I was busy thinking what  I was going to say, I couldn’t come up with anything. So I just said, it’s so nice of you to have done this, but I really don’t feel comfortable accepting gifts especially so much, as you know everyone who has been kind to me in this country, turned around and stabbed me in the back. I appreciate your friendship (NOT) and wouldn’t want to risk it going that way. Thanks though. DIDN’T WORK. She forced the bag in my hand and walked away.

In case you’re wondering what she bought me;  She got me EIGHT items of clothing! Count ‘em! Men’s t-shirts and one pair of pants. All from the thrift store (Second hand store)! No offence but they all smelled. She told me not to wash them, she and her cousins shop there all the time, the clothes are so clean, they never bother to wash them. I like how she went to the normal store, bought herself stuff that looks like mine, then went to the thrift store to buy ME stuff. Good Going Liz! I took the Shoprite plastic bag to the Apartment, showed the stuff to Avon, she was like “ohhhhhh mmmyyy Gosh, Brook, you’re in trouble! You know what this means, right?” No, I don’t, what does it mean? “You have a friend for life! She is buying your friendship. She can see that you’ve been avoiding her, now she’s buying you over.” I told her I wasn’t going to keep the stuff. I didn’t know where to put it because it smelled so much. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against second hand clothes, my mom sells them. I grew up wearing them. And selling them!  It’s just that, there’s something about someone who buys you a bunch of old smelly clothes.

We sat together at Dinner. She told me how nice she is, ‘you see Brook, not everybody is a bad person. I’m your friend,  I want only the best for you...’ I had to bite my tongue because I just wanted to ask, then why did you buy me old clothes. That’s your idea of nothing but the best? Earlier on, I had even told her that I had bought a whole lot of clothes online, which I was expecting anytime then Plus my stuff from Connecticut was on the way. I am not stable yet, I can’t afford to have a ton of things  I won’t be able to move around with. She didn’t care, she just wanted to be friends forever.

The next morning, I called her. She was in the old lady’s apartment. Before I could go there, she was calling me back, so excited that I had called. Crap, this is not the kind of news to be excited about. I had to go through with it! Walking towards her apartment, I was still trying to figure out what I was going to tell her, then she came out looking for me. Gosh, patience please! I gave her the bag and apologised profusely that I couldn’t accept the gift, she didn’t even let me finish, she grabbed the bag, rolled her eyes and said “Geeeezus!” I was happy to have been rid of the “gift” and walked back to Avon’s with a huge sigh of relief. “What did she say, Brook, what did she say?” Avon wanted to know!

Liz never talked to me again. I didn’t lose a wink of sleep over that, at all. Here’s the very person who told me she was a nice person, blah blah blah, that was a chance for him to prove how nice she was. If that were a test, she would’ve failed dismally. It’s just that I didn’t care. The next day, one of the nurses called me from the TV room. Avon wanted to see me. One of my online orders had arrived! I was so happy. The next day, I got more and more. I had bought 9 pairs of shoes and few tracksuits (sweat sets) for winter. Not too long thereafter, my stuff from Connecticut arrived. I was so in disbelief, I could cry! Reunited at last! Whew!

Immigrations officers and deportation

My boss had warned me that Avon’s health had already deteriorated and that I probably was going to be at the job for a month, tops. I prayed everyday for another job; of course I did apply as well, NOTHING! Most agencies require you to have a car. Which I hadn’t bought yet for a bundle of reasons. FYI I neither went clothes shopping nor Cellphone shopping. Mainly because I didn’t want to and because I never heard from T again. I was grateful for each day I had a job.

In October, my friend, Effie had to take time off work. An acquaintance found her a relief, She asked me nicely to help the new girl who we’ll call Liz. I remember, I was on my way shopping when Liz arrived. WE were gone for about an hour to an hour and a half. She and I talked afterwards. She seemed nice, she was Jamaican. My other Jamaican friend had left, she found a better offer. It was just this lady and I who were Private Aides at time, everybody else had left.

I love my friends but sometimes, I like to do my own thing, you know? Be in my head a little bit. Liz liked to hang out all the time, talking about how great a person she was, how great a friend, cousin, wife and all that she was. Her stories got tired FAST! I was ready to hide under a rock and never ever come back.

Out of desperation of wanting my clothes, I needed them, I was tired of wearing the same clothes for more than a month. I called N. She seemed happy to hear from me. The thing about N is, she seemed like a nice, sociable person, we had our fun times, she and I. When she wasn’t busy kicking me out of the apartment. T had told me never to talk to her again and not to tell her I had left those clothes of mine there, but turned around and denied it all. She was also not about to help ship the stuff to me. What I wasn’t going to do was to go to N’s apartment to get my stuff, AND SPEND THE NIGHT THERE, on T’s bed. There was nothing there for me! Everything had changed.

N was nice, she asked where I was and what I was doing. I needed a favour from her, the last person I thought I would ever ask for anything. She was happy to help. She told me she would do it as soon as she could. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t about to believe it until I saw the stuff on my doorstep either. I got a text one morning around 5 from T. It went something like this, “Brook, I helped you when  you had nothing in America, now that you have a job, you won’t even pay your share of rent for the apartment...” It was going to be easier for me to pay the money, instead of arguing that I was never there, not one day that month and she was the one who told me to leave some of my clothes. I prayed about it, and made arrangements with N as to how I was going to transfer the money into her account.

N told me T had paid a third of her share of rent. N texted her for the first time in months to find out what was going on. She told her Brook would pay the rest. Good thing I called N when I did. T told me to pay an additional $50  (R450) penalties for late rent. Great! Basically all the money I was getting for my first month was poof, out the window. Rent, gifting people for helping me with the job, shipping my stuff, birthday gifts. I had been talking to some man from New Jersey online. I asked him for a ride to run some errands. I also got a chance to deposit the rent money into N’s account. It came as a surprise to her, the whole thing did. She got to pay a bit less than she would normally have had because someone else was going to pay a third of the rent.

 

Weeks passed and N didn’t have time to ship me my stuff. My concern was that another month was going to go by and I was going to find myself having to pay rent again. It would have been better if I was renting an apartment in New Jersey, where I could go hang out whenever I had time. That one was just too far. I brought that up on one of our conversations, N said, you know you will have to pay rent this month as well, right? GREAT! WTF! She was doing a T on me. Promising to ship me the stuff, withholding it and then turning around and making me pay for it. I remembered an old “friend” of mine, Jack, remember him? Guy from the library, who took me out for  A SLICE OF PIZZA?

I called him, we talked about a few things. He offered to help me get my stuff to the post office. I would then pay him back whatever costs he would incur. When he had a chance, he liaised with both N and I and went over to the apartment to collect the stuff. Apparently N was at the library. Interesting because In the time I had lived there, N never went to the library, but okay. It was pouring outside. He called and told me he was going to WALK home IN THE RAIN, CHANGE  into DRY clothes and then WALK back to N’s IN THE POURING rain! I asked him to wait a few more minutes for N. He knew the library wasn’t far from the apartment, that’s where he and I met!

A few minutes later, I got a call from N. She was at the apartment, Jack was nowhere to be found, awesome! She had been trying to reach him on the phone, he wouldn’t pick up. I call and texted him too to no avail. Well, that was close! I almost got my stuff.  T put in her notice. She was moving out. That could really complicate things for me. My stuff being there, and her being gone. I had to get my stuff before she moved. Apparently she packed all her stuff and took mine off the hangers and piled it up somewhere in the closed. I have no proof of that though.

While Effie was on her leave, the old lady she was taking care off was complaining to anyone who would listen about how Effie left her without saying goodbye That was not true. Trust me! I know Effie and I know that lady. Old lady also told her daughter, who was there almost everyday, that she didn’t want Effie back, she was happy with Liz. Initially, Effie thought she was going to need only a few days off, she had to extend, so she told her boss, the daughter that. When she did, the daughter told her not to bother returning. They fired her and replaced her with the lady she got them as her relief! That was a slap on the face if there ever was one!

It didn’t end there. I got a call from Effie asking me what Liz had been telling me about the job. I told her Liz had been complaining from day one about how she didn’t like the job and how she couldn’t wait to have Liz back so she could go back home. I bumped into Liz in the hallway crying her lungs out. I asked her what’s wrong, but she just kept running, completely ignoring me. Effie called again, I asked her what the heck was going on. She told me that Liz had stole her job and she wanted it back. She had told Liz to tell their boss that she didn’t want the job and to leave the following day. On asking Effie if she was going to be back the following day, she told me, she couldn’t, she was very busy with her personal stuff but wanted the boss to find her own replacement, not someone she, Effie introduced them too. I was like My Gosh, these people don’t play!

Everybody knew about that drama! I tried to stay as clear of it as I possibly could. Effie was my friend, Liz was an ok girl, we were getting along. Plus, I didn’t know who was lying of the two of them. The daughter tried to talk to me about the whole thing and how disappointed she was in Effie, I told her, I didn’t want to get involved. That I wasn’t going to talk to her about my friend and then turn around and pretend that I didn’t have that conversation with her to Effie. Liz had told me that she had been in the country for five years. She was a permanent citizen. In the midst of the drama, she came to me in the TV room. She told me she was leaving. WHAT? WHY? WHAT’S HAPPENING? “Effie and ‘er friends ‘ave been texting and calling me threatening to turn me into immigrations” But why? You shouldn’t care cos you’re legal, right? That’s what you told me! “Let me tell you something, I’m ‘ere on vacation, my visa will expire in November whereupon I will go back to Jamaica, me now uhm, very scared! They said immigrations will be ‘ere tomorrow to deport me”

LORDA MERCY! She said her goodbyes, told me to stay in touch, the whole shebang. I was confused. Effie kept calling Liz and I back to back. I put my phone on silence and ignored her because the whole thing was getting out of hand. I wanted no part of it. The next morning, I was in the TV room. That was kinda like my office, l my chill place. I was usually by myself in there, I could Skype and do whatever in peace.  Liz came in, she is tall and walks very fast, her steps are really long, she rushed in there bearing gifts; a pair of earrings: silver hoops with green ball like decorative things, three on one hoop and two on the other. Don’t ask! And a matching ring, you know the ones that are adjustable? If you know me, you know I don’t feel comfortable when someone gives me a gift, Half the time, I won’t accept it, or I will take if it you force me, then give it back to you. Apparently that’s rude, I’m sorry but It’s just how I am.

I refused the gifts (for more reasons than one), she put them on the table next to me and walked out. I was tempted to leave them there. I showed them to Avon and tried to regift them to her haha, she wouldn’t take them. A few days later, I heard that Liz might be returning to work. Crap! There goes my peace of mind! I called to confirm the rumour, she didn’t know what I was talking about. The old lady ended up without an Aide now that they had fired Effie too. One day, I had a strange feeling while waiting in line outside the nursing station with Avon (see I did work, I wasn’t just chilling at the TV station everydayJ). I called Liz to ask if she was back, she told me no, but while we were talking on the phone, I was walking around looking for her at the dining room. THERE SHE WAS! She was so happy, jumping up and down for joy. She ran upstairs to tell me she had something for me, GREAT, more  presents!