Chaos

Tonight I didn't have to work the night job. I was looking forward to getting a whole night's sleep. I got ready for bed, went to bed, was drifting off...

and there's chaos in my house.

I'm already stressed out because my stalker was at my house tonight (the really dangerous one; the one whose been stalking me for six years now). He is unusually agitated. I'm hyper-aware of every bump or noise. Every time the dogs bark or there is a loud noise in the house, I'm jumping out of my skin.

So I'm actually falling asleep in spite of everything and I hear booming, then banging, then screaming.

I leap from my bed.

Then I hear raucous laughter.

I go back to bed but the racket continues.

I know I'm not the only one trying to sleep. It's after 11pm and I know that my female tenant is downstairs trying to sleep. She also has to get up early for work.

I went downstairs and, in a raised voice that wasn't quite yelling, I said, "It's eleven o'clock on a worknight. What is going on?! Who is screaming?"

Guess who was screaming. .... There was a child in my house. If I had known that, I wouldn't have spoken in that tone. It was the child who was screaming.

Guess whose child it was.... It was the child of one of the managers at my night job. She was here, too. (She's having an affair with the male tenant downstairs)

Great.

She started apologizing and was making like she was going to leave. I told her she could stay but that they had to be quiet enough that people could sleep.

I turn around and guess who else was there... oh it was a regular flippin' reunion... The brother of my male tenant, who in the past tried to rent from me and I refused him because he was heavy into drugs and other criminal activity and had been kicked out of place after place. After I refused him, he called me repeatedly and tried every angle and every scam he could to convince me to change my mind.

Last week, my male tenant announced to me (at midnight, while I was at work) that his brother was staying the night because he had no other place to go. I didn't really have a choice there unless I wanted to throw the guy out at 3am when I got home. I was not impressed. I told the tenant one night and that was it.

The next day, the guy tried to con and cajole me into letting him stay again. I said no.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a sucker for a sob story, but let me tell ya', this one is no sob story. This guy is homeless because he victimizes people wherever he goes. He's a fire-setter, scammer, druggie... all sorts of things.. and feels no remorse whatsoever for anything he does to people. I'm not letting him stay one room away from my single female tenant who so incredibly oblivious and stupid when it comes to these things that it's phenomenal. This woman would hand a class of preschoolers over to a pedophile and then say, "But he promised he would be good."

Anyway.. this psychopath guy is not welcome to stay in my home. And no, I don't even give a crap if everyone thinks I'm mean for it.

So that guy called me at work the other day with the sob story about how he would have to sleep in the snow if I didn't do something for him. He just had nowhere to go, no one on this planet would help him. He would suffer and die if I didn't help him.

Of course this is after he sat on his duff at my house all day long playing video games, eating his brother's food, workin' the charm on the oblivious female tenant, and not lifting a finger to try to help himself or find a place when he knew he would need it.

My response was to give him the number for Victim Services and tell him to get in touch with Mission Services for shelter and help with a longer term plan. He did call those places. I guess those places have some rules, though. Miraculously the guy found a friend who he could stay with.

So tonight I find him in my home after 11pm. I was ticked.

I told him he wasn't staying here. You know, he had the gall to argue with me?! He told me his brother was leaving for the night and had told him that he could crash in his room.

I told him it was my house and I say who gets to sleep here and who doesn't. I told him his brother had no authority to invite someone to stay in this house when he wasn't here. I told him that he could march his butt (actually used a different word....) down to the hospital and cry to them for a place to stay, but he wasn't staying here.

So will I be able to sleep? No. I will be up to ensure that he leaves. If he doesn't, I will be up waiting for the police, because I will call them if I need to.

I will be listening for every noise, every door opening... is he sneaking back in? Is he mad because I refused him and now going to set my house on fire? Is my car safe? Are my pets safe? Is it my stalker breaking in to kill me?

I WANT MY HOUSE BACK!!!!

I want my home back. I want to be safe. I want to be able to earn enough to pay the bills and eat and go to sleep. I want to not have to pick up after everyone, to argue about noise and garbage and safety and every electrical appliance you can imagine being left on all the time. I don't want to keep replacing walls and carpets and floors and bathrooms because other people destroy them.

I'm not asking to be rich. I just want to be okay.

God, please... give me back my home and give me my safety.