Chapter 2
Ethan made the call the next morning and left a voicemail. She called back around lunchtime. He recognized the number.
"Hello, is this Miss Lena?" he answered.
"Why, yes it is, but please, just 'Lena' will do. Formalities are not necessary. Is this Ethan?"
"Yes," he said.
"My daughter tells me you just started a new job nearby and need to find a place to live."
"Yes, that's right. I just started Monday and I'm staying in a hotel until I find something. Your place sure sounds convenient." He went on to tell her all about the new job he'd landed.
"Well, I have a small apartment above the old garage. It's not much, and will need to be cleaned out, but it would work for a single person. I've thought about renting it for some time but just never seemed to get around to it. And of course, I need to make sure I have a good tenant!"
"I assure you, Lena, I would be an ideal tenant. I'll pay my rent on time and you'll probably hardly hear a peep out of me; they will have me working pretty long and hard at the office for the foreseeable future!"
"You sound like a bright young man. Your employer has a reputation for hiring the sharpest young recruits. Why don't you come over and we can talk and I will show you the place. How about tomorrow evening?"
Ethan said that would be fine. He was excited with the possibility, unless the place turned out to be a dump. With a little luck he might have a place by the weekend.
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They had set it up for seven p.m. With Daylight Savings Time in effect, there would be plenty of daylight left in which to see the place. Ethan found the property easily. It was much larger than he'd expected, perhaps two acres or close to that. There was a long driveway leading up to an old, brick ranch house. There was an attached two-car garage, and he could see another building about fifty yards behind the house. It was two stories with bay doors. He figured that was where the apartment was.
He rang the bell. Lena answered the door promptly.
"You must be Ethan!" she said enthusiastically.
"That's me. And you must be Lena!"
"The only and only! Come on in and let's sit by the pool and get acquainted. I have a pitcher of iced tea!"
Ethan followed her. She looked much younger than he expected, and he was quite surprised by how attractive she was. He knew Claire was a few years younger than his own mother, and Lena had to be in her mid-fifties anyway, but she looked ten or fifteen years younger than that. She was maybe five-five, with a healthy, sturdy look. Her hair was shoulder-length, light brown with a narrow streak of gray. You could tell she took care of herself. She wore blue denim cut-offs, had a shapely butt, and her white t-shirt hugged her upper body. Her breasts weren't large, but were perky.
"Please forgive me for the way I look," Lena said. "I spent some time working in the garden when I got home from work."
They walked out onto the screened lanai and sat in lawn chairs while Lena poured tea. Ethan glanced around at the kidney-shaped pool, at the fountain of water splashing into it, and at the adjacent hot tub.
"You have a beautiful home!" Ethan said.
"Oh, thank you, Ethan. It's kind of big for just one person though, and a lot of work!"
"And it looks like your garden is pretty big!" He could see it out back and it looked huge.
"Yes, that's a hobby of mine. I love to garden and I love seeing it grow and then picking the vegetables and canning them. I eat my own vegetables all year long! I rarely have to buy a vegetable at a grocery store."
They made idle chatter for a few minutes while they sipped their drinks. Ethan liked Lena already, she was very down-to-Earth and easy to talk to, which didn't really surprise him because Claire was the same way. But he was very relieved that they were already so relaxed with one another.
"So, would you like to see the apartment? Lena asked.
"Yes, I would love to."
"Okay, let's go." As they walked Lena told him what to expect.
"Now, don't expect too much, Ethan. It's a mess and needs a thorough cleaning, so I hope you can see past that. It's full of junk, most of which can be moved downstairs into the garage, and some I'm sure can be thrown out. But it has a full bath, a small kitchenette, a nice-sized closet and a very large room. And there are a few pieces of furniture which you are welcome to use, although you will need to bring your own bed.
They reached the building and climbed the outdoor stairway to the second floor. They entered the apartment, and it was about as good as Ethan could have hoped for. True, it was full of stuff that had to be moved—stacked boxes, old exercise equipment, record albums, odds and ends—but it would more than suffice for his needs. There was small sofa and chair, end table, and a table with three chairs. The kitchen was equipped with a sink, small fridge, a two-burner stove, microwave and toaster oven. There was a large walk-in closet—also full of stuff—and a small bathroom with a shower stall.
"You can see why I put off renting it!" Lena said. "It will be a lot of work cleaning it out!"
"I can take care of that," Ethan said.
"I will need to determine what gets tossed and what gets stored downstairs. And it needs a top-to-bottom scrubbing!"
"I'd love to rent it from you, Lena! How much?"
She gave him a number which seemed more than reasonable.
"The utilities are on the same meter as the house, but it shouldn't be that much, so I won't worry about that unless it gets out of hand. And you can help out in the garden."
"Okay, that sounds fine. But I don't know anything about gardening."
"Can you pull weeds?"
"Sure, I can pull weeds."
"Can you turn on the hose?"
"Yes."
"Fine, you're hired. The place is yours."
"Oh, thank you, Lena, thank you. What a relief. You won't be sorry!"
"Glad to have you, neighbor. Come over Saturday morning and we'll get to work. We could have you in by Sunday night."