A Landlord Seeks Forgiveness
What was in that life-changing rent break?
Vancouver Expo, 1986. I didn’t have enough money to pay the rent for my small studio apartment, and was still owing for half of the month before. The building manager lived upstairs in the building — as was the way then — and was not much older than I. He advocated for me. He seemed to believe I was good for the rent; the owner did not. The manager was told to give me notice to move as quickly as possible.
Uno
To soften the blow, he invited me to his apartment: “Friends are having a little game of Uno,” he said, his face open and kindly. “Join us.” Uno, the kid card game. I’d never learned to play big-people cards; how did he know?
I met a table full of friendly people, played the game, and returned to my — could I still call it “my”? — apartment with a pocket full of coins and those one and two dollar bills we used to have. Altogether enough to buy food for a week if I stretched it.
A couch
A friend offered the couch at the apartment she shared with a room-mate. They’d been thinking to leave. Maybe I could keep it, she suggested. Their rent was absurdly low: two hundred and fifty per month, for upper-floor, two large bedrooms, yard access, in a more-than-comfortable neighbourhood. The…
