Page 39 of Laid Bear

Damn. Now what?

~~~

Zora was surprised when Gavin told her Bernice had called and there was indeed a message from her cousin when she’d checked her phone. She ate something and took a walk around the estate before returning her cousin’s call.

Bernice picked up after the third ring. “Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Zora. I got your message. What’s up?”

“Who was that dude who answered the phone when I called?”

Zora paused, not quite liking the way her cousin asked the question as if she had the right to know. “My boyfriend,” she finally answered giving the safe response. And while she wasn’t ashamed of her men, it was a lot less complicated to call him that. Besides, it was none of Bernice’s business.

“Mmm, he sounds hot. It seems like you landed on your feet just fine, little cousin, so I’m not sure if it’ll matter to you or not.”

“What are you talking about, Bernice?”

“Well, I, uh…that damn tenant I let stay in my rental property got arrested for selling dope, and on top of that he and his junky friends trashed my damn house. It’s going to take a long time to get the house back to the way it was.”

“Your tenant did that in a month?”

“Yeah, the dirty ass bastard. There’s stains in the carpets that won’t come out and markings all over the walls. They broke most of the appliances with their wild parties. To make matters worse, either he or one of his friends took a shit in the vent.”

Zora gagged. “That’s disgusting. How did you find that out?”

“Well, after me and the cleaning crew did the best that we could cleaning, there was still this funky odor and we couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. I didn’t think to look into the air vent on the floor but when I was standing next to it, the air conditioning system kicked in and the smell got worse. So open vent and I found turds. Who even does that?”

“This was an adult?”

“Girl, it shocked me too. I can only assume that whoever did it was high at the time.” Bernice sighed. “I wish I would have waited for you to get in contact with me, but I figured since he was willing to pay in cash and you were MIA, I might as well rent the place out.”

Zora was still puzzled about why her cousin was calling. If it was to apologize, she bore no ill will. “Oh, that’s too bad. Sorry to hear you’ve had bad luck with your renter.”

“Well, even though you have a boyfriend, I was wondering if you still need a place to stay. I mean since I have an opening, you can move in right away.”

“But didn’t you say the house was a wreck?”

“Yes, but I figured if you had nowhere to go, you wouldn’t mind the mess.”

Zora bit her tongue to hold back a sarcastic retort. “Bernice, I’ve found other accommodations. I wish you luck in finding another tenant.”

There was another pregnant pause on the other end of the phone before Bernice spoke again. “Okay. Well, do you plan on coming to the family reunion this weekend?”

“Umm, no. This is the first I’ve heard about it, so probably not.”

“Oh well, I hear Uncle Darren and Aunt Rayna aren’t coming either. Not that we’re surprised. They haven’t been to any family events in a while, not since they got all religious.”

Zora froze at the mention of her parents. “They’ve always been religious.”

“No, they’ve gotten really weird from what I hear. They don’t really keep in contact with anyone. My dad calls Uncle Darren sometimes just to make sure he’s still alive. Dad thinks they’ve joined some kind of cult or something.”

This sounded strange, even for her parents. “Cult?”

“I don’t know if it was a cult per se, but from the little bit my father got out of Uncle Darren, it’s one of those really strict churches where the women have to walk two steps behind the man. Your mom is a better person than me because I wouldn’t put up with that mess from any man. Anyway, I’m really sorry about the way things happened. Things haven’t been going too well at the boutique and I was counting on that rent money so I got a little greedy. I meant no harm by it. And I would have helped with repairs of the house. I just thought if you still needed a place to stay, you wouldn’t mind so much.”

It was no excuse, but at least Bernice sounded sincere. Zora wasn’t one to hold grudges, besides one couldn’t pick one’s relatives. “I appreciate that. Maybe when things settle down for me, I can come up for a visit.”

“That would be nice. It’s been a long time.”

---