Zombie Tales: Primrose Court Apt. 205 Read Free Page B

apartment 205 and that bastard
Mr. Grimly is right above me in 305. There… There… do you hear
that? It sounds like he’s using a jackhammer on the floor.”
    “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t hear anything. The
police are rather busy today, but they’ll be by to investigate your
noise complaint shortly.”
    That, apparently, was the end of our
conversation, because the rude woman with the monotone voice hung
up.
    I went back to my notebook and input the new
information, including both my call to Gus and to the police. With
any luck, there would be grounds to evict that fat bastard and his
slutty wife.
    By the time I finished my notations the
grinding had stopped and the shower in the grimly apartment came
on. I listened to the water run from my bathroom doorway and
inspected the ceiling. For some reason I was expecting water
damage, with all the noise from up there, I was concerned that he
had grinded right through the tub and water would leak down into my
apartment.
    While I was getting better with my
agoraphobia, even to the point of planning my first trip out, I
didn’t think I could handle having a work crew in my place to do
repairs.
    College was a very rough time in my life. I
attended classes during the day and work at a local corner store at
night. The few hours I did spend in the apartment I shared with
three other students, was divided between homework and sleep.
    The little gas station where I worked was in
a seedier part of town. The neighborhood was bad enough that the
shop owner wouldn’t let any of the girls work the night shift, who
says chivalry is dead?
    As you might expect there was an incident.
Three men in ski masks with guns came calling. I cleaned out the
register for the tall one with no qualms; $5.25 an hour wasn’t
enough to risk my life. The other two were busy filling pillow
cases with cigarettes and liquor, so busy in fact, that no one
noticed the patrol car roll up.
    The cops shouted something and the robbers
shouted something back and then guns started booming and all of the
shouting was drowned out with the noise. The shootout only lasted
about thirty seconds, but when it was over two of the masked men
where dead and the other was fatally wounded. One of the cops took
a hit in the vest and the other caught some pellets in the face and
neck from a shotgun blast.
    The police report stated that thirteen shots
had been fired by the assailants and the two officers had returned
fourteen shots. Of all involved, I was to the only one not to take
a hit. I went home that morning and made a doctor’s appointment. I
knew I would soon come down with something. It’s embarrassing to
admit, but my STD screening came back positive for Chlamydia.
    According to my alarm clock, it was 3:15. I
began to get ready for my big foray out into the wide, wide world.
I scrubbed the tiles in the bathroom and then took my afternoon
shower. My old brown suit was still in the bag from the cleaners,
the old cleaners. Bailey Dry Cleaning had gone out of business
about eight years earlier. I guess I didn’t have many occasions to
wear a suit and tie.
    The mirror on the back of the closet door
showed an old man, gaunt and pale. The brown suit hung loose in all
the wrong places. I had the look of a walking corpse. How had I
come to look so old?
    Little time was spent fixing my hair. I
didn’t have any gels or mousses or creams, I couldn’t have brought
myself to use the stuff if I did. I rinsed with Listerine and
brushed again. Strange how much we see ourselves with different
eyes when we plan on going into public. It had been years since I
had paid any attention at all to my appearance; I was committed to
good hygiene, but that is not really the same thing.
    Just as I was finishing up my phone began to
ring. I stopped for a new set of gloves before answering.
    “Oh good, Theodore, I was worried you might
be having second thoughts,” Dr Harriet said.
    “No, I was getting cleaned up,” I told him.
Honestly, I was