Rent Free
“You think you can leave me BITCH WHEN I FIND YOU, YOU DEAD”! Ricardo yelled over the phone.
“Autumn, he’s ready to read the will would you come on”! My cousin Denise yelled from the threshold of my grandpa’s house.
“Fuck you Ricardo catch me if you fucking can nigga” she gritted through her teeth before hanging up.
Autumn was never planning on going back to New Mexico to her abusive ex-boyfriend Ricardo. The last six years with him in Mexico have been a living hell for Autumn. He made her fall in love with him, then he uprooted her far away from her family just to beat and downplay her self-esteem for years.
The last fight that had her in the hospital for the seventh time where he almost killed her was the last straw. She snuck out the hospital, caught the first bus to Texas and then from there called her close cousin Denise. There Denise broke the news to her their grandfather passed and that the family had been trying to get in contact with her for days.
Autumn and her grandfather were so close. He took her in and raised her along with his wife when her mom was sent to Afghanistan. After being stationed there for four years her mom was killed in combat so a temporary stay became permanent.
The news broke Autumn’s heart but she found this as a sign that it was time, she headed home to Chicago instead of running somewhere else. Ricardo was all talk, and his cheating ass wasn’t going to come after her, especially if that meant he had to step foot back in Chicago to many people wanted his head, that’s why he ran in the first place.
Autumn walked up the steps of the brownstone building when she noticed a light was on in the downstairs apartment.
Ever since she could remember her grandfather would rent out the bottom half of his home out to make extra income on the side. It was basically a little studio apartment, one bedroom, one bath and kitchen and a living room, with a separate door for entering in and out through the back. The door leading to the main house had been cemented in so the only way to get access from the basement was throughout the back.
Once Autumn walked inside the house, she asked Denise “who’s renting out the downstairs apartment”?
She shrugged and said, “poppa never said who the person was, they just moved in like a year and a half ago”.
Autumn found that so strange. As they walked into the living room there seated was the rest of the family.
“Finally, it’s about time” her Aunt Treva said. Autumn rolled her eyes and sat down alongside Denise. She was just here to see if she got the house but as he read the will and got to the house, everyone was shocked to find out that ”and for my house, I leave it to my granddaughter Autumn S. Browne”.
“WHAT”! Aunt Treva yelled before storming out. I quickly said, “wait you sure that’s what it says”?
He nodded and continued as the rest of my family headed out leaving just me and Denise and her mom, my aunt Clair.
“Yep, it says the house is completely paid for, you just have to keep up the bills. And that Mr. Johnson downstairs is to continue to live downstairs rent free for however long he feels like it no questions asked”.
“Rent free, what wait why”? Autumn asked.
Her aunt Clair replied, “daddy never said why, so I know he didn’t leave information on why. That’s who called nine one, one when daddy had the heart attack. By the time the EMS had daddy in the back of the truck and on the way to the hospital the guy had slipped away, nobody knows who he is only daddy “.
The guy replied, “he didn’t, the home is your ma’am”.
He stood up and Autumn looked over at Denise “my luck huh”?
Denise chuckled and said, “girl look at it as a blessing that you definitely needed”.
After everyone was gone and Autumn was getting herself together in the home she was raised in, everything just still seems so unreal still. Being in the house alone as she looked around memories played over in front of her like a movie. From the time she walked in with her suitcase and her mom telling her on the couch in her army uniform that she would be back in no time. To the kitchen table where her grandfather broke the news to her the afternoon when she came home from school that her mom was killed. This house had so many memories that she didn’t know how to feel being here right now.
She then hears the backdoor from the basement close and hurries to the kitchen window to see who was living in the basement. By the time she had gotten to the window, all she could see was a tall silhouette of a person. From the walk it was definitely a masculine man. He walked to the back alley and up to a nice all black up to date Mercedes.
“Poppa why is this man living here rent free, driving a Mercedes” Autumn said to herself as she walked away from the window as he drove off.
The next morning Autumn got up early did her hygiene and went downstairs to pack up somethings that some of the family members said they wanted. As she was making her way to the living, she heard Jagged Edge “Let’s Get Married” softy playing in the basement through the vents.
As she started packing up some things, she found herself singing out loud. Before she knew it towards the end of the song the loud playing of the music had turned down as if he was listening to her sing. As she slowly stopped singing the music slowly went back up a bit before she went back to packing no longer singing but humming the R&B songs that she heard coming from the basement.
After being done with the packing she grabbed her phone and scrolled on doordash for some breakfast spot close by. She didn’t go grocery shopping, so the house was on E and she didn’t have no money to besides thirty dollars on cash app that Denise sent her for food last night. Next thing on her list was to find a job because she needed money fast.
“Welcome home Autumn” she said to herself after sighing sitting her phone after making her order. Realizing that the music had stopped she got up and walked to the kitchen window to see the car was gone. Looking up at the clock it was nine in the morning she was indeed an early bird and so was he, did he have a job? Autumn wanted to know who this man was badly and later on today she was going to find out.
