A Room In The Sky 1

The sun was already beginning to set when I saw the room.  It was tiny with a double bed taking up much of the space, white walls, a brown carpet and windows everywhere.  I had never seen so much window in one room.  From the roof of this tall four storey house I could see the world.  The fading light painted vivid strokes of red, magenta and carmine on the clouds and I was conquered.  The day after I phoned the landlord (a Pakistani slumlord), signed the lease and moved in to my new habitation.

The move was difficult.  Richard had become attached to me and didn't want me to leave.  So much the more must I get out of there.  He tried to convince me to rent a room in the house of one of his Czech compatriots as a way of maintaining connection and control over me. An untenable situation in a small garret room with a small window beckoned me and no bathroom access except for a shared facility in the basement. The bathrooms downstairs were strictly for guests in the bed and breakfast the house doubled as.  The bathrooms on the main floor were for the family only.  I saw visions marked only with horror, terror and impending disaster.

My friend Patty Perfect, soon to be ordained an Anglican priest helped me move but on the first round only.  We were threatened by a nasty case of road rage, she panicked and decided that there were limits to her friendship.  Richard was so kind as to help me move the rest of my stuff, mostly large paintings.  He also cheated me out of half of my damage deposit, accusing me of leaving paint stains on the walls and regaling me with the spectacle of him and his aged mother scrubbing the walls clean.  Of course he was lying, or exaggerating, and simply showing his true colours as a miserly cheat.  I never saw him again and honestly can't say that I've ever missed him.

I went to sleep that night looking up at the stars through the uncurtained windows and woke the next morning to the glory of white cherry blossoms surrounding my room in the sky, this first day in early spring of the year 2000.