Young Squatters (3 page)

He loosened his tie again, feeling hot and tired.  He had drawn the curtains in his large office, hoping that blocking the sun would help with the heat, but to no avail.  The air conditioning in the building had been out for the last couple of weeks, making things worse.  He wondered if the fat on his belly resulted in better insulation; maybe he needed to get some short-sleeved dress shirts, even though Nora said those made him look old.  He felt half tempted to take off his shirt completely, but thought better of it.  What would those young secretaries think if they came in here with a message for him and they saw his big hairy body?

“Nick, you still there?” the voice of William Powell, an important man in the lawyer world, interrupted his thoughts.

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat, trying to breathe through what felt like a stifling heat now.  “Yes, William.  Do go on.”

He tried to concentrate on the conference call, but his mind was on his wife now.  She had never understood the importance of his job.  He has lost count of the number of times he had told her he did not want any interruptions during the day.  “Come home.  NOW!”  She really did not understand him at all; did she really think he could walk out midway through a conference call?  He assumed she was angry about Sarah, or something.  Probably she had come home to a messy house and she didn’t like that one bit.

There was no way he was going to leave early.  What with the late start and his problems concentrating in the heat, he was in no position to call his own hours.

No, that was it; he was not going to let his wife distract him from his work.  He turned the phone onto silent so he would not be distracted anymore.  He was sure there would be further calls or texts throughout the day.

Nick put all thoughts of his wife out of his mind and started debating with the lawyers on the conference call.

Nick did not see nor hear the flashing of his mobile phone for the rest of the day.  Instead, all of the calls and urgent texts from his wife went unnoticed until he finished work hours later.

***

As Colin stared at the empty desk to his right in his Computer Networking and Systems class, he wondered what had happened to his friend.  It had been a week since he had seen Bradford, and he couldn’t figure out what had happened.  There had been no indication that his friend was sick, or that something horrible had happened to his family, or anything like that.  Bradford had just seemed to disappear.

When Colin had first met Bradford, he hadn’t been sure of him.  He knew that Bradford didn’t like to be called anything but Bradford; the first day he had tried to call him Brad, as the other boy grew dark and menacing at the mention of the nickname.  Bradford, he had corrected.  Bradford.  He had been different from the other kids in the school.  He didn’t slick back his hair like most of the boys did, and Colin could always smell a hint of smoke hidden beneath expensive cologne and mints.  Still, Bradford had never been unfriendly to him, and they had been paired up to work on a school project about social media sites, so they had gotten along.  In fact, once he got to know the mysterious figure a little better, Colin had found that he liked Bradford.

Colin couldn’t believe how interested in the class he had been, which was why he was so puzzled at him no longer attending; it didn’t make any sense to him at all.

“You’re so clued up on all of these social network sites, Colin.  I wouldn’t know where to start,” Bradford had said when Colin showed him all of the sites he was on and how easy they were to navigate.

Colin thought how strange it was for someone of Bradford’s age to be so out of touch with social networks, but he thought maybe he’d had a strange upbringing or something, and didn’t like to inquire.  Besides, Colin was happy to show Bradford how to navigate the sites.  Bradford always looked amazed when he went through the instructions so fast and efficiently, making him feel like a professional.

Colin would never say it out loud, but Bradford fed his ego, which was why he was disappointed he had suddenly left.  He hoped he was just sick or something and would be back soon.

“Ouch,” Colin felt a nudge to his left and was instantly bought back to the present day.  He looked over to find his friend Connor giving him an urgent look.

“Colin, are you going to answer the question or do I have to ask you a third time?” Mr. Steven Birk asked from the front of the classroom.  Mr. Birk was not known to be a kindly teacher.

“Sorry, sir.  I...uh...could you repeat it one last time?”

Colin realized he’d made a mistake in asking for the question to be repeated when he saw the look on the teacher’s face.  He felt Connor smack his forehead.  Duh. Colin resisted the urge to roll his eyes, already knowing what would happen.

“Get yourself out of this classroom immediately and down to the principal’s office.”

Colin stood up and promptly left the room.

It was something Colin had gotten used to, due to him being outside the principal’s office twice in the previous three weeks.  He and Birk just didn’t get along, as simple as that.  He knew he was a student, but that didn’t mean he had to be completely subservient to the grumpy teacher’s every whim.

Colin hoped he didn’t have to stay after school again tonight.  He knew his mom would be in a bad mood due to his dad working late.  He didn’t want to give her a reason to take her anger out on him like she did last time.  He always wondered if she and his dad would get a divorce.  Although they seemed friendly to each other most of the time, Colin hardly ever saw them just “hang out” or have fun with each other.  He didn’t know if that was how relationships were supposed to be or if they were just staying together for the principle of it all.

Colin needn’t have worried, as twenty minutes later he had the principal wrapped around his little finger.

“You see sir, I’ve been so worried something may have happened to Bradford, I wasn’t listening to the teacher’s question.  I’m really worried something has happened to him.”

As Colin looked worried and upset, the principal was full of sympathy and all thoughts of his bad behavior were quickly forgotten.

“Now Colin, why haven’t you aired your concerns to me sooner?  I could have quickly put your mind at rest if you had.”

Colin looked up at the principal with total confusion on his face.

“Bradford had some bad news about a relative and had to have some time off until the situation improved.  But he should be returning to school next week, so you needn’t worry anymore.”

Colin was relieved as he’d missed Bradford.  It was mainly due to him feeding his ego, but he also had to admit he had become fond of him.  There was something secret and intriguing about Bradford, but Colin couldn’t quite put his finger on it.  Just as cologne masked the cigarette smell on his clothes, Bradford’s strange upbringing and cluelessness about technology made him seem worlds away from Colin’s little niche in society, and that made Colin curious.

“Thank you, sir, for telling me, at least I can stop worrying now.”

After a few minutes, Colin left the room and walked back to his class, taking his sweet time and even stopping to get some watterat the drinking fountain.  He couldn’t wait to see the look on Birk’s face when he walked back into class, completely unscathed by the visit to the principal’s office.

***

Harper stood back and let Bradford do the talking.  She watched from inside, focusing on breathing correctly as Bradford had instructed her to do so she didn’t get into a state.  Her hands played out over the shiny countertops, feeling their smoothness as she witnessed the scene unfold.  Nora was freaking out, but Bradford just stayed calm, and kept his hands where she could see them.  He kept the two of them out on the front lawn, while Harper watched from the kitchen window.

“What do you mean this is your house?” yelled the woman, the mother to Colin and Clara, who Harper had never met but who Bradford knew a lot about.  Nick and Nora, Colin and Clara—she wondered if the similarity of the names had been done on purpose of if it was pure coincidence.

“We moved in today.  It’s
our
house now.”

“Listen, young man, I don’t know what game you’re playing, but this is most definitely
not
your house! When I left here this morning, I had the keys to this house, and….”

“Look, lady, we’re not playing any game.  I do not know what you expect to achieve standing here on my front lawn shouting at me and causing a scene,” Bradford calmly told Nora, which incensed her even more.

The woman, Nora, wore a pencil skirt that looked too young for her.  She had a dark purple blouse on, which loosely sat on her thin body.  Her hair was what caught Harper’s attention the most.  Harper had always wanted platinum blonde hair, like the models she used to see in magazines when Bradford would manage to get some for her, but looking at Nora, she wasn’t so sure.  The color, which obviously covered grey streaks on the older woman’s face, didn’t look right on her.  It made her look pale, and droopy.  Harper suddenly felt grateful for her looks; even if she was ugly, at least she didn’t look as fake and as old as this woman.  Besides, Bradford liked her black hair the way it was.

“I’m causing a scene! You wait until the police arrive and escort the two of you off my property.  Then you will see who is causing the scene, as I can imagine you won’t go quietly.”

The woman’s words did not have any effect on Bradford, who calmly replied once again the house was theirs and they had done nothing wrong.  Harper thought his shoulders looked very nice in this light; he always looked so strong to her.  He was about a foot taller than she was, and always dressed so smart, with a polo top and khaki pants.  Right now he wore his sunglasses, obscuring any view that the lady could have of his face.  She wished wistfully that she could look as smart as he did.  It seemed like despite everything she did, whether with makeup or with trying to style her mousey black hair, she could never live up to his looks.

Nora had called the police, but it seemed like it was taking them a long time to respond.  Harper looked at their boxes in the kitchen.  Some pots and pans, silverware and dishes. Not much.

***

From the moment Harper had laid eyes on Bradford she had fallen in love with him.  They were just starting out, she and Bradford; they’d just gotten engaged a few months ago.  He’d even given her a small diamond ring that looked straight out of Tiffany’s, although she didn’t know where the money had come from to buy such a beautiful piece of jewelry.  They hadn’t set a date for the wedding yet.  They wanted to find a place of their own first, someplace they could call their home.

They’d been living at his father’s house for weeks, but Bradford said they deserved a place of their own, someplace where they could raise a family.  He and his dad weren’t very good friends.  Bradford didn’t trust him at all with her, making sure that the lock on his bedroom door worked so when he was gone she could wait in there, safe from his father’s wandering eyes.  It didn’t help that Bradford’s dad was a drunk. He’d sit, day after day, opening can after can of Bud, watching people on the television and swearing.  He scared her.  Whenever she would leave Bradford’s room when he wasn’t home to go and use the bathroom or something, she could always feel the older man’s eyes on her, with a look that a lot of her mother’s old boyfriends used to give her.

Now they were in this house that was going to be
their
home, and she felt like she was living a dream, safe from everyone and with the love of her life.  They had discussed having a family early on in their relationship, and she knew what a great dad Bradford would be, with their children never wanting for anything.

“Baby, choose some names for our little ones, as soon as we make this home ours, I don’t want us to wait to look before we start trying for our first baby.  I want us to fill the whole house with laughter of children.  What’s the matter?” Bradford had thought Harper would be happy at his words, and couldn’t understand the look of fear on her face.

“Just how many are you thinking of having?  I don’t want to be pregnant for the next five or six years,” Harper looked at Bradford, who laughed, and she started to relax.

“Babe, I want as many as you want.  You know me, I just get carried away.  If we only have two that will be enough for me, but I would like to have a house full. Yeah, I know it’s your body so you get to choose,” Harper felt at ease, she knew how much Bradford wanted a big family, but was happy he was letting her choose how many kids they had.  He truly was the most caring person in the world.

***

There were more boxes in the basement, clothes and books, mostly.  And some furniture.  A desk, a dresser, their bed and a little round kitchenette table.  They had found a bunch of stuff at garage sales, and the bed was from a friend’s house.  The friend’s dad had been passed out when they took it. 

“Listen, Mrs. Donnelly.  I don’t know what the misunderstanding is.  This guy we communicated with said we were welcome to stay here.  You know, like tenants,” Bradford was staying calm.  He’d said that was the secret.  The cops wouldn’t do anything to anyone who wasn’t committing a crime.  So don’t make threats, don’t yell or get abusive.  Just be nice.  “We’ve already got our bed set up.”  As Harper watched Nora, she knew she was going to seriously lose it at any moment.