Bubbles Always Pop, pg. 2.
Ed did in fact come over that evening, but I'm afraid to say SJ gave a resounding NO!! when I told her of Ed's request. "I DON'T want any neighbors," SJ said matter-of-factly of the request, "and by the way, Michael, what ever possessed you to invite a stranger into our home without at least telling me before doing so?"
I guess one sooner or later learns the first signs of angst in one's significant other when they address you by your first full name. Of course, I hem-hawed around with a "honey" here and a "sweetie" there, finally convincing her, with my fingers crossed behind my back, that Ed was okay as far as I could tell and that it would never happen again. About a month after I had moved in with SJ, our home was broken into. Later, we learned that it was some renters from across the hollow where it so happened Ed was also living at the time, so the response from SJ and the implied concern didn't come as any surprise.
From this, an innocent chance meeting, was begun an association that started as an acquaintance relationship from periodic chess games and eclipsed into a friendship which spanned the length of about four years.
Ed, as previously stated, lived down the road from SJ and I, but as the crow flies, he lived just across the hollow. He lived in one of the seven or eight smallish cottages or make shift living abodes my land owner neighbor has created for those who are once removed from homelessness. For a very few, it is a bottom from which to climb upward, but for many others it is the last bastion of affordable housing.
Ed was one of those forced into the latter type of situation, however, some of it was of his own doing. I don't believe I ever remember him living with anyone while over at what he affectionately called, "Jesse Haven" (the newest name being "Tatorville" denoting those who were so poor they could only afford potato sacks for clothing), although he did mention once, while living elsewhere in our little hamlet of a community, having had a female roommate. Being the nosy (I prefer the word "inquisative") type, I tried to pry more revealing details from Ed, but he would not relinquish. One thing about Ed, he could be unusually discreet at times. I suspect the girl he shared space with is a lesbian which is not an all together hyper leap of presumption considering the unusually high number of gays which live in a community with an official population of around two thousand and an unofficial population of about five thousand counting all of those who use our community name as a mailing address. The community has such a wide range of viewpoints and lifestyles, and, with the exception of San Fransico, I don't believe I've ever been to, lived in, or even heard of another such place. Given such a small population, I can't help but wonder if there is any other such place, however, not being widely traveled I really wouldn't know. The community has a uniqueness I believe is very much all its own.
Ed lived alone, and he worked , like so many others in the community, in the hospitality industry, his position being that of a night auditor. I suppose Ed's job, at the time, was one reason SJ enjoyed seeing Ed as much as I did because she also works in the same industry. They had a common subject with which to become quickly acquainted. Ed's was a live of working the night shift, staying up half the day, retiring sometime in the early afternoon, and then repeating the cycle again and again during his five day work week.
Ed was for all practical purposes a person easily lumped together with the working poor, or his own term, "wage slave". But having had the opportunity to have known Ed, I can vouch for his idealist and individualism which others might term eccentric.
One such instance was his own desire to represent himself in court over a parking ticket. Now most people, I would assume, would simply pay whatever fine was imposed and go on, but not Ed. Ed, believe it or not, researched the laws regarding the city's right to collect parking fees from meters placed on a street which was also part of the state's hiway system. If I remember correctly, the street where the meters were placed was still designated as being under the state's jurisdiction therefore placing maintenance of the street upon the shoulders of the state hiway department even though the street in question was also one of the city's main streets in not the Main St. After several go-rounds, Ed won, and the city then had to either stop collecting the meter fees, or ask the state to relinquish control of the street to the city which is eventually what happened. |
