Moorpark Palms - 18. Chapter 18

Vic finally gave up in early October, but not the way I thought. He unpacked his boxes, had his power turned back on, and admitted he couldn’t leave. “I like it here. I’ve got a great view. And it’s easy to ride my bike to almost anywhere. Besides, I’ve never wanted to live above the second floor. Not since Towering Inferno.”
“That’s been a long time,” I pointed out.
He shrugged. “Other people got scared by Jaws.”
“How much of that is his mother speaking?” I later asked Sally.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think she’d make him stay if he really hated it. But he does need some of her money.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be staying, either,” she went on.
“What do you mean?” This was a big surprise.
“My daughters want me to move to Las Vegas.”
“Could you honestly do that?”
She hesitated. “Easier than I could before.”
I laughed. “I just can’t picture you in Vegas.”
As we spoke, Vic carried his bike down our steps. “Going to Ralph’s,” he said. “Need anything, Sal?”
When she said, “No,” he turned to me. After I thanked him, he rode off.
“Maybe it’s my imagination,” I told Sally. “But he seems friendlier since his brush with leaving.”
“He’s always been kind to me,” she said, then seemed to think for a moment. “If I go, he’ll be the longest tenant living here.”
“Not Claire?”
“She came right after Vic.”
I was still the new kid.
“You want to go out for dinner,” I asked. “I think you need something to cheer you up.”
“We’ve never done that before,” she replied.
“Maybe it’s time to start.”
She got Lindsay, and the three of us went to a nearby Chinese place Sally liked. The food was just okay, but she was comfortable.
“When’s the last time you were in Vegas?” I asked at some point.
Sally needed to think. “Probably Christmas.”
“I’ve never been there.”
“I thought you drove cross-country,” Lindsay said. That surprised me because we hadn’t really talked much. I guess Sally had mentioned it.
“I stayed out of cities,” I told her. “I had too much in my car. Not anything really valuable. My computer. Clothes. But, just then, I couldn’t afford to be robbed.”
“Do you feel safer here?” she asked.
“In California?”
“No... With Mack?”
“He doesn’t bother me.”
That clearly wasn’t the case with Lindsay. “I wish he’d go away,” she said.
What could I tell her? That maybe he would? I didn’t think that would happen.
“I’d move to Vegas,” she went on. “I could transfer to UNLV. And everyone there loves Grandma.”
Sally laughed. “They have to. They’re my relatives. But my real friends are here.”
Unable to deny that, Lindsay opened her fortune cookie then giggled.
“What’s it say?” we asked.
“Don’t be hasty. Serenity will soon knock on your door.”
We all laughed.
In early November, Sally assured me she wasn’t going anywhere. “No matter what my daughters say, I’m not going to live forever, and I’m too old to start over. And I can live with a little noise.”
“And Mack?”
“Having Lindsay around helps. And you.”
I was flattered but pointed out I wasn’t around a lot..
“But you’re here every night. Right upstairs. I can depend on that. And you’re quiet.”
“If there’s anything I can ever do, just ask,” I promised.
She beamed. “You’ve already been wonderful.”
I felt like a Boy Scout.
Sunday, Donna took Kyle and Gini off for the day, and Lorelle and Harv went to Big Bear, meaning Tara and Trina were also gone. Only Edan played in the courtyard. Lately, Annie had been feuding with Mack, so Edan was forbidden to be near Gini – not that it stopped them. As soon as their parents were out of sight, they ran to each other. That afternoon, though their door was open, Ed and Annie didn’t seem to be around, and I noticed Joni only occasionally peeping through her window. Still, the Caddy drooled oil in the carport, so Mack must have been home.
With most of the kids gone, mainly Edan’s soccer ball made noise, ricocheting off walls and windows. I sat at my desk, stupidly watching the courtyard palm slowly sway off plum. I should have been doing anything else.
At one point, a woman came to look at an apartment. Just a quick in-out, then she smiled at Joni and left. Evidently not her taste. Donna told me any number of people had checked out the place. Though no one stayed.
“Is it always this loud?” one guy had asked me. I’d just come home, it was nearly eight and getting dark, but Kyle and the demon twins had been roping a protesting Gini to the palm.
I couldn’t lie, so I’d shrugged.
“Fuck it,” he’d said, then crumbled his application and tossed it in a flower bed. I picked up the wad, sure Mack never would. Suddenly, Edan shrieked, and Annie rushed out the door.
“I told you to play alone!” she shouted.
“But Mommy!”
“That, or no Barbies!”
A threat no little girl could refuse.
“Awful, isn’t it?” Claire had called down from her window. “Be glad we’re not here all day.” She cranked her casements tightly shut.
I didn’t know much about Claire, but sitting at my desk, especially in the evening when her lights were on, I could see directly into her living room. Both our sets of blinds stayed open on our room-wide windows, in my case to let in the great light. Like Mack, Claire watched a lot of TV, but mainly news and talk shows. He preferred sports.
By Thanksgiving, all the empty apartments had finally been “refurbished” and personally inspected by The Golf Pro and the Prepster. “That should help them,” announced the latter.
As he left my apartment – he’d never seen it so wanted to “inspect”– he noticed the Mickey Mouse on Vic’s door. He tried to peel it but barely dented an ear.
“It must be epoxy,” he grumbled.
“Your painters tried to cover it. But Vic rubbed the latex right off.”
“I could tell Mack to touch it up. But who wants to talk to him?”
He suddenly looked at me, sharply, as if asking, “Did I really say that out loud?”
I smiled, and he gave Mickey one final thrust with his fingernail. Then he retreated.
Late New Year’s Day, after being east for two weeks, I came home to discover yet another surprise – a new manager living in apartment 8, one of the empty one-bedrooms.
“Name’s Dennis,” he said, smiling in an easy California way. He seemed younger than I was.
“What happened?” I asked. “I wasn’t gone long.”
“Mack and Joni couldn’t fill the place. The owners need the bucks.”
“They get evicted?”
“Nah – just canned. They’re still here.”
Lucky us.
“I work for the owners,” he went on. “Maybe you saw me in the office. I remember you. This time we’re going with someone we know.”
“Good luck!” I told him.
“Is it really that bad?”
I smiled. “How long have you been here?”
He checked his watch. “A couple hours.”
“And you’ve heard the kids?”
“Nah. It’s been quiet. Everyone’s gone.”
I smiled again, and again told him, “Good luck.”
Still, the kids weren’t his first test. Just before midnight, there was an explosion of music in the courtyard. Then screaming. Rough sex again? No – guys’ voices, one of them Mack’s. But who would he be dumb enough to fight at that hour? By the time I found shoes and got downstairs, it was already a brawl.
Part-shouting. Part-fists. Mostly insults. Dennis – a blond light-weight in tank-top and shorts – had taken on drunk, naked cowboy Garth.
“YOU LIMP LITTLE PRICK!” Garth taunted.
“Put something on!” Donna ordered. “There are kids!”
And there were, no matter the hour. The twins stood on the balcony, peering through the rail. Kyle cheered near the palm. Edan and Gini were sitting halfway up the center steps, holding their Barbies high, so they could “see.” Everyone else was there, except the Hungarians. Claire stared out her window. Sally, Lindsay, and Lonnie were at their doors. Harv, Lorelle, and Helen were also on the balcony, and Vic stood right beside me.
“Garth!” Donna calmly said. “Stop it!”
“TURN DOWN THE STEREO!” Dennis screamed.
“SUCK MY STEREO!” Garth returned.
“TURN IT DOWN!”
“MAKE ME, SHITFUCKER!”
“I’LL CALL THE COPS!”
“OOOH! I’LL WET MY PANTS!”
“You’ll have to put them on first,” Donna said, laughing. She seemed to be having fun.
“YOU’RE GOING TO JAIL!” Dennis threatened.
“NOW YA GOT ME REAL SCARED!”
“TURN IT DOWN!”
“Garth,” I tried calmly.
He suddenly grinned. “Hey, there, guy! How ya doing?” As if nothing was wrong in the world.
“Come on inside,” I coaxed. “It’s late.”
‘I CAN HANDLE THIS!” Dennis yelled at me.
Wrong choice.
“YOU CAN’T HANDLE YOUR LITTLE WEENIE!” Garth yelled right back.
“Donna?” I asked.
She grinned. “Nah. Let it go.”
“Joni?” I ventured.
She shrugged.
Dennis foolishly tried to punch Garth, though Lonnie – suddenly lunging from nearby – held him back.
“You’ve had one too many beers,” he advised.
“Harv?” I asked. The burley carpet-layer waved me away. Though Ed – maybe manfully trying to prove himself, made a move on Garth. He took a punch and Annie stepped in to protect him.
Bordeaux began to growl, and I heard sirens.
“Did someone call the cops?” Donna asked.
“NO!” Dennis shouted at her. “I’M IN CHARGE!”
“Should I call?” I asked Garth.
“FIRST, GET THE BOYO AN AMBULANCE!” he said. Then he laughed. At that point, he had Dennis by a clump of his now-torn tank top. That seemed unfair, since Dennis had nowhere comparable to grab.
Lonnie – and then Ed again – tried to separate the pair.
“I’ll phone,” Claire volunteered from above.
Donna was laughing, now almost out-of-control. Bordeaux was barking fiercely, and Kyle – as hyped as Garth and Dennis – was practicing Kung Fu and accidentally kicked Mack in the crotch.
“JESUS!” Mack yelped.
“Go for it, kid,” Vic encouraged.
“KYLE!” yelled Joni.
“Do it again,” Vic whispered.
By then with Lonnie and Ed holding Dennis, Garth had no opponent and quickly wound down. “I need a beer,” he told Donna.
She slipped into her apartment.
“Turn down the music while you’re there,” I suggested.
“Sure thing, Babe,” she replied. “All anyone had to do was ask.”
Garth strutted the courtyard like Mighty Joe Young. Harv, Mack, and I probably could have held him, but as long as Dennis was restrained, there seemed no reason.
Unfortunately, when Donna came back with the beer, Garth took it, shook it up, popped the top, and hosed Dennis down.
“YOU STUPID MORON FUCK!!” the manager screamed, trying to free himself from Lonnie and Ed.
Garth grinned like an innocent and offered his hand. “Happy New Year’s, kid,” he tendered.
Everyone laughed. And Dennis – dripping, tattered, and half-naked himself – was bright enough to smile. The music was gone. The ogre was tamed. He’d won.
They shook hands.
“I play tennis, you cretin,” Dennis yowled, clutching his hand. But he was grinning.
“Oh... sorry, bud,” Garth mumbled. “Didn’t mean it.”
Then he did maybe the only thing he knew of as surrender. He spread his arms, completely exposing his well-worked abs. “Hit me!” he pressed. “I swear I won’t hit ya back.”
As Dennis seemed to consider, the rest of us prepared to lunge.
“Nah,” Dennis decided. “I’d only hurt myself worse.”
Garth laughed. Dennis laughed. And everyone started inside.
“Beer, buddy?” Garth asked before I could ease away.
“Sure thing.”
“Call your friend.”
I shrugged, mock helpless. “He’s too far away.”
“You’re one lucky man.”
I knew exactly what he meant, but there seemed more interest in there than compliment. Still, he plopped his arm around my unprepared shoulder, so he must have intended to be nice. Donna offered him jeans, but he merely draped them around his neck
“No hard feelings!” he called as Dennis slipped away.
“No feelings at all,” Dennis returned.
“Happy New Year!” Claire called from above.