Apartment For Rent

Norma moved to a new building closer to her place of employment and she had to pay more for rent. She knew in the winter time, she would love to walk the four blocks to her apartment when before she had to walk twelve blocks. She considered herself lucky that she saw the sign in the window reading “Apartment for Rent”. Enjoying the feeling that she would be home soon, she started to look around at the place to eat on her walk home. There were all different types of business that offer everything from A to Z on their menus. She knew that she would like some of the menu choices and hated some of the choices that were offered. What should she take home tonight for dinner of one while she unpacked more of her belongings?

She settled on Chinese with Orange Chicken, 3 eggrolls, and some crab ragoon which was her favorite meal from a Chinese place, but she also ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken plus some of the appetizer to try. She would put the sweet and sour chicken in the refrigator for a later day when she would buy something her stomach didn’t like. As she walked the rest of the way to her new place, she could smell the wonderful smells drifting up to her nose which made her stomach rumble with pleasure on what was to come her stomach’s way.

As she entered the building, she saw one of the other tenants over by the bank of mailboxes opening her box to see what was in there. Smiling as she walked up to mailboxes, she said, “Hello, my name is Norma and I just moved into the building.” She watched as the lady looked her up and down. With an look of sadness in her eyes the woman replied, “So?” Norma was so surprised, so shocked that someone would answer her simple statement with a question like that she stood there with her mouth slightly open. Norma continued by saying, “I was just trying to be nice and introduce myself.” The woman looked at her and said, “Oh goody, another friendly person to completely ignore in the hallway.” She walked off by shoving Norma to one side and continuing on her way.

As Norma looked back on that situation, she wondered what she had done wrong or if that lady was stuck up to everyone. She ate her Orange Chicken watching a movie about dogs and was about to decide on what type of appetizer she wanted. She thought she would at least eat one of the eggrolls and pick out a couple of the appetizer to forget the rude woman earlier. Having unpacked for several hours, she felt like she had made a giant jump into cleaning up her apartment and taking her evening shower made her feel human from all the struggling she did to figure out where to put her belongings. Smiling to herself, she thought maybe the next person will explain about Miss Rudeness to her.

Soon, she would have to go into the little market she notice on her walk home to buy extra supplies for her apartment plus some food that she could make herself. She was not the perfect chef, but she could make a mean omelet and a delicious meatloaf that gave her days of leftovers. She settled back onto the couch to watch a movie about dogs and forget totally about Miss Rudeness until the next time she met her in the hallway.

As she got out of work, she noticed a small hedge of not wanting to hurry home to see if that woman was getting her mail. If so, she was going to complete ignore her in the hallways or maybe Norma thought to herself that she would just walk up to her to say “Hello!” again to see how mad she would get about it. The woman acted like she was, so much better than anyone else that lived in the building with her. Maybe the next tenant would be nicer to her than Miss Rudeness was.

Opening the door slowly to see who was in the lobby, she smiled with relief that it was empty. As she was getting the mail, she heard the door slowly open and hear the voice of none other than Miss Rudeness say to her friend, “Oh no Mildred. It is the friendly person I was telling you about.” Norma heard both of the women laughing at her as they climbed the stairs away from her which was fine with her. As she stood there sorting the mail she had got, another tenant came in and before he could get to the stairs, Norma said, “Hello, my name is Norma. I just move…..” She watched as the man walked up the stairs without even showing any signs that she had talked to him. What kind of apartment house is this that no one is friendly here?”

She sat in her apartment eating the hamburger, fries, and a Coke that she had got from the nearby restaurant. The fries were delicious, warm, and crispy. The hamburger was delicious with ketchup, onions, and pickles on it. She had picked a good place to eat tonight and that restaurant would go on her positive side. She even knew what she would order the next time she stopped there. Saturday, she was thinking of making her killer meatloaf since she didn’t have to work the weekend.

Norma knew that it was the matter of finding the right person to be her friend and then that person would show her who to be friends with. She would also show her to completely ignore like Miss Rudeness and Mr. Ignore Man.  She liked her apartment which had surprise Norma when she looked at it and took it on the spot. After paying her monthly rent, she carried over boxes with her when she walked to work. She left a little earlier in the morning, so that she could drop off the boxes at her new place. On the weekend, she carried over clothes for the closet and she even had a friend with a car carry over more than what she could carry walking. 

The only thing that she didn’t like was the people that she had met, so far. Miss Rudeness and Mr. Ignore Man were not her ideal roommates to live in the same apartment building with. The place had a lonely feeling to it and she wished she had met some of the people before hand and maybe she wouldn’t have moved in. Now, that she moved in, she would try to make the best of it and make some new friends that lived in the building. The place was lonely for now, but she would have friends in that building before she knew it. Friends that help her drive Miss Rudeness and Mr. Ignore Man crazy.