chain and a deadbolt. The door opened. The man looked at me with an annoyed expression, then held out a key in his thick hand. “Here is da key. I tell Mrs. Walszak.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m Joseph.”
“Balwan,” he said. “Don’t make much noise.” He shut the door in my face.
I exhaled. “Nice to meet you too, neighbor.” I turned around and unlocked my door, then grabbed my bags and dragged them inside.
The apartment was as plain as a boxcar—a small flat with an electric range and a miniature fridge that was circular on top like an antique. The walls were painted eggshell white but marred with nail holes and tape residue.
I turned on the light, which was just an exposed bulb. The room smelled of cabbage and mold.
It was cold enough to see my breath. “Welcome home,” I said facetiously. There was an iron radiator in the corner of the room. I walked over to it and turned a knob. It began to creak.
I checked out the bathroom. It had an old porcelain sink on metal legs, a toilet and a shower bath with a brittle, semitransparent plastic shower curtain imprinted with blue and green turtles wearing top hats.
I walked over to the bedroom and sat on the bed. The sheets were gray from age and the mattress sagged a little in the middle.
The landlady had told me that the apartment was furnished, which, in this case, meant a small round kitchen table with two wooden chairs, a cigarette-burned swaybacked sofa likely abandoned by a former tenant during the sixties, the bed and a small chest of drawers.
The apartment was cheap by Chicago standards but would still cost me nearly twelve hundred a month—four hundred more than my apartment in Denver. I had some money in the bank, around ten thousand, and the three thousand Rupert had given me, but that was all there was between me and the curb. I didn’t know what the Leo Burnett agency paid.
I unloaded my suitcases into the dresser. I had forgotten my iron, so I lay my suit coat on the bed and hand pressed out the wrinkles for my first day at work in the morning.
I walked over to the window and raised the blind. In spite of the cold, I opened the window and let in some fresh air. I stuck my head out to survey my new surroundings. The street was quiet. About two blocks from my apartment was a grocery store, and I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything that day. I put on my coat and walked out, locking the door behind me.
The market was on the corner of Lawrence and Austin, and on my way there I passed a hair salon, two bakeries (one Polish, one Sicilian), a dental office and a real estate office.
J&L European Deli
Wlasny Wyrob Wedlin
I guessed that the words under the market’s name were Polish, and my hypothesis was confirmed as I walked inside and was greeted by the pungent smell of meats and sausages and loud talking in what I assumed must be the Polish language.
With the exception of Coca-Cola, everything inside was Polish, including the periodicals on the magazine stands. The shelves were stacked with rows of foods with strange names. I bought some basic staples and a few housewares—they didn’t have many—some paper towels, dishwashing soap, a pan, measuring cups and spoons, a plastic drinking cup, a plastic bowl, a plate, and two sets of utensils. I wasn’t planning on entertaining anyone; I just needed an extra set while the other was waiting to be washed.
A young man walked out from behind the deli counter and met me at the cash register. He spoke perfect English. I paid for my purchases, then walked back home.
Once I was home, I poured myself a bowl of granola, cut a banana into it, then added milk. When I had finished eating, I went into my room and pulled down the sheets, then took off my clothes. I shut off the light and lay down on the bed.
My heart ached. I had too much on my mind to sleep, mostly things I didn’t want to think about. How was it that you could be speeding through life on a set course, then, in just one day, have the tracks changed beneath you?
As I lay there in my strange surroundings, my despair turned to anger. I had been banished. Banished from Denver. Who gets banished from Denver? Other questions loomed ominously, like powder