Chapter One
April’s thighs stuck to the cheap plastic seat of her faded blue Cruiser, and she groaned as she pulled into the narrow parking lot on her side of the apartment complex. The cars were randomly spaced, as though the lines didn’t exist. To be fair, the spaces were pretty difficult to see at night with the streetlight perpetually out. Either that or some of the drivers had been stoned.
April narrowed her eyes and coasted along until she could find a spot where she could slip in between the lines without bumping into another car. She couldn’t risk parking the way everyone else did. The complex periodically towed cars that weren’t properly parked, and there was no way she could afford to pay another impound fee right now.
“Hey-hey, girl!” a deep male voice called from behind her as she made her way to her door. April ignored the guy, since he probably lived a few blocks over. She hated the guys who rolled through here. Besides hitting on her and being unable to take a hint, one of them was probably responsible for the break-in last week.
“You have got to be kidding me!” April stormed toward her door as her eyes caught sight of the eviction notice taped to it.
“Can you believe it?” Rene said from his stoop.
“I paid my freakin’ rent two weeks ago!”
Rene shook his head and tapped his cigarette. “They had that kid from the front desk out putting those up all afternoon.”
“What the hell is their problem?” April pulled the notice off and began to skim it.
“Hate their jobs as much as they hate us, prob’ly.” Rene exhaled a long plume of smoke.
April considered going inside to change out of her work outfit first, but didn’t feel up to the hassle. So, wearing only a pair of black hot-pants and a very tight white t-shirt with “The Dog House” on the front, she hurried toward the front of the complex, the garishly yellow notice flapping in her hand. By the time she reached the office, her heart was in her throat and she felt ready to jump across the property manager’s desk and shake that bitch.
Instead, she found herself cooling her heels as she waited in line. Both desk workers were occupied and two other women, older than April, were waiting in the few available seats. A small older man who didn’t seem to speak English very well was trying to explain to the girl behind one desk that he’d been waiting for his roof to be fixed for two months. April wanted to tell the guy that he shouldn’t hold his breath; he should start looking for a new place to live.
Her ire had calmed slightly by the time she finally made it to the front of the line. That “kid” her neighbor, Rene, mentioned was at the other desk, and as April stood in front of him with her complaint, his eyes seemed to drift uncomfortably from his notes on the desk to the door to the right that sometimes contained the property manager. It was like the door that you had to pass to see the wizard: no tenant managed to get back there without an act of a wicked witch. No way, no how.
“Miss Lucas, the water company billed us incorrectly for several months,” Jacob said in a flat voice that spoke to a day full of complaints. “The amount you owe is the corrected total that should have been paid for each of those months.”
“Then shake down the water company! It isn’t my fault they charged you incorrectly.”
“You are responsible for paying for water and sewer services.”
“Yeah, and that’s fine, but I never got this bill before today. How am I supposed to have paid you for a bill that I didn’t know existed?”
“Look, it says you have fifteen days to pay the bill—”
“What is with that random amount of time?”
“That’s because the amount is about half a month late.”
“Again, because you never billed me for it to begin with! If you’d just sent me a bill, I would have arranged to pay it!”
“If you pay, then there’s no problem. It’s only $120.”
April knew the answer before even asking: “Is the manager in?”
“No.”
After a few more volleys, April headed back to her apartment. This was the last thing she needed. Maybe for some people it would be “only $120,” but chances were, if you lived on Imperial Valley Drive, you didn’t have that kind of money lying around. If you did, you’d be looking for another place to live.
“You go in there and tear that kid a new one?” Rene had finished his cigarette and was leaning back on his front door.
“Hell yeah.” April lifted herself up onto the ugly brown fence around the patio and sat on it for a moment. “Still gotta pay it, though. And by the time it’s due, I have to pay rent, too.”