Michelle Ramos Author

Michelle Ramos Author of Whatever It Is

Exert... Always check back it will change!

               Chapter 1

                As I stood outside my townhouse in Tampa on a very warm early May afternoon, I thought about my life. My husband had died the year before from drinking himself to death and I just needed a change. I grew up in Tampa and had always lived here; however; I spent summers with my Papa in a small town called Waldon when I was young. Waldon is a rural town of about four square miles and a population of six hundred and fifty people. I loved my visits in the summer with papa and spending time on the farm. It was so quiet and relaxing. It has been three years since he passed away leaving the farm to me. I thought about all the fun I had at the farm growing up as well as the hard work, but also the rewarding evenings.

                 I looked over and saw my daughter Ashlyn walking down the sidewalk toward me. Her wavy blonde hair was flowing around her tanned complexion.

“Hey Ash, What are you up to,” I asked.

“Not much, I was just taking a walk down by the beach. What are you doing standing out here in front of the house staring off into space?”

“I am just thinking about everything, life and where I want it to go. What do you think about going to check out the farmhouse Papa left us a few years ago?” I said to her. 

We sat down and discussed our options. Ashlyn wanted to know if it was for the summer, or to move there. I explained to her that I didn’t know. I was just thinking about a change. It was something for us to think about. Perhaps we would play it by ear and start with the summer and see how it goes. I reminded her we had not been back to the farm since the funeral, so I could not guarantee what condition the house was in. I had recently become an unemployed single mom and with everything that had gone on in my life, I just needed something different. Even if it was only for a little while, perhaps if we decided not to stay long-term we could fix it up and just sell it.

My daughter, Ashlyn was fifteen years old. Moving to a place with a population of six hundred and fifty people seemed a little odd. However, maybe it was time for a change. After a few minutes Ashlyn blurted out, “Mom, living in a small town would be a good change. I am in for this adventure if you are.”

 “Are you sure Ash? It is a complete opposite life than we are accustomed to.  Are you sure you want to leave everything behind, friends, and school, everything you know?” I questioned. I think I was more nervous about the change than the move. I finally looked at her and said, “You know what, screw it, life is short we need to make changes, explore our options and see what is out there.”

                Ashlyn and I spent a week packing up the townhouse and separating out what we were not going to take with us. We carefully packed up my dead husbands belongings and brought most of it to goodwill. Our relationship had died long before he did. He wasn’t a father to Ashlyn. He ignored her and didn’t ever bother to do anything with her. He didn’t even know what school she went to or her teachers’ names. He was a constant drunk. He never spent time with her and we were all pretty much estranged. He hadn’t lived with us the months preceding his death. He had moved into an apartment building a few miles away. However, when he became very ill, we brought him back so I could help take care of him. I figured after twelve years of marriage that was the least I could do. I was very angry with him for a long time. I tried everything to help him - rehab, hospitalization, telling him to choose between the alcohol and us. He chose the alcohol, of course.

At first, it was just a few drinks, nothing out of the ordinary. It soon became an obsession; he had acquired a DUI and became very aggressive, not physically, but mentally. If he ran out of alcohol and I wouldn’t get more for him, he would become enraged. A point came when the doctor told him he would die if he didn’t stop, and he didn’t care. I told him that I was not going to sit around and watch him drink himself to death. I wouldn’t put Ashlyn through that, so he moved out. The irony of it all was when he came back for me to take care of him he couldn’t drink. The smell of it made him violently ill.

I put his stamp collection, a signed Mickey Mantle baseball card and a few other items that were of value into a special box, and marked it with Ashlyn Future. One thing he was good at was holding onto things, material things. I stood up and looked around the now boxed up townhouse and thought of the good memories we did have here.

 I looked at Ashlyn and asked, “Are you going to miss being in Tampa and the townhouse?”

 She smiled back, “I will kind of miss it, but it is only two hours north. We can always come and spend weekends.” I smiled and agreed with that. The house did belong to us. There was no need to sell it right away. We could always have one of our friends check in on it from time to time.

Chapter 2:

                 I rented a U-Haul online and we were on our way to go pick it up. When we arrived at the location we walked in and saw a man behind a counter. I stepped up to the counter. “Hello, my name is Monica. I reserved a U-Haul online for today and I am here to pick it up.” The man acted like he was confused, and then he repeated my name and finally found my reservation.

“So you wanted a 32 foot truck with a car hauler, is that correct miss,” the clerk snorted back at me. 

“That is correct,” I replied.

“Well, I don’t have a 32’ truck available at the moment. See, I rented it out earlier this morning,” he slyly reported. I was a little angry and disgusted at the poor business handling. 

I snapped at the man, “Let me get this straight, knowing you have a paid reservation for that truck; you went and rented it out anyway? Isn’t that what a reservation is for, holding an item when it is RESERVED.”

The man looked dumbfounded. It was like he wasn’t expecting me to challenge his business choices. “Well yes, I guess, but,” he started to say.

I interrupted, “But nothing; I reserved the truck 3 days ago. You had my reservation, I paid in advance and I expect to see a 32’ truck with a car hauler on it right now before I start making phone calls to the corporate office.” 

The man started to feel a little uneasy and stuttered, “I, I supposed I could see if there is one at another location.”

 We waited about 15 minutes while the man was talking on the phone. I just can’t believe how some people can be so incompetent and still have a business. 

The man came back and said, “There is one at another location off 97^th Street, so you can go down there and pick it up.”

I shot back, “OR I can pick it up at the place I reserved it at, here, that is closer to my home, like I wanted to do. If I had wanted to drive into downtown traffic to pick up a U-Haul I would have reserved one at that location.”

The man left again and came back, “They are bringing it right over,” he stated in defeat. I thanked him for his assistance, (and I use that word loosely) and informed him we will wait outside now that all of our business is done in here. The truck with a hauler for the car arrived a few minutes later. Apparently they didn’t have one of those here either. Ashlyn and I got into the truck and started our journey to our townhouse. Did I mention I have never driven a truck like this before? What an adventure.

                We had packed up everything and started to load up the truck.

A neighbor boy came by as I was putting a box in the truck, “Hey, are you guys moving?” asked the boy.

” No”, I replied, “We just wanted to see if all our stuff would fit in this truck.” Ashlyn and I swiftly loaded the truck as we prepared before we picked it up. About two hours later we finished loading, I put on my comfy green sweatpants and a grey tank top, Ashlyn changed into her comfy clothes, we took one more walk through the townhouse together to make sure nothing was left behind, then jumped into the cab of the truck and started on our three hour journey to the farmhouse. It is actually two hours but given how I have never driven a truck like this before and I would have to stop and gas up the truck, I gave myself an extra hour.

We stopped to gas up the U-Haul and my Toyota Solara on the car hauler, given that gas was twenty cents cheaper per gallon than where we were going. I went inside to pay for the gas, and the middle aged, thin and toothless cashier that I have become acquainted with over the years looked out the window, “I see that you two are all set and about to be off on your journey.”

 I smiled and said, “Yes we were off and we are kind of excited at the new possibilities.” I told her about the ordeal with the U-Haul.

She laughed, “It appears your day has been interesting already and you hadn’t left Tampa yet.” She wished us good luck and mentioned about us getting together when we come back down this way. I briefly said sure and that when we are settled we plan on monthly visits, for the beach since I still owned the townhouse and had not been ready to put it up for sale yet.

                After we got the gas and Ashlyn grabbed some snacks and drinks, we left the gas station. It was only two miles to the highway, which was great because this city driving in a big truck was making me kind of nervous. Once on the highway it was smooth sailing. I stayed in one lane making no changes and kept to the speed limit. If the entire way was highway I would be all set but, I knew that the highway was thirteen miles from the farmhouse, so there would be some stress on my part. We arrived at the exit we could take and I chose the first exit as it led all the way to Waldon with no turns. As we were getting off the highway Ashlyn laughed and said, “Well, that was easy.”

Chapter 3

                Arriving at the farmhouse, we jumped out of the truck, took a deep breath and stretched our legs out.  It had been quite an adventure driving from Tampa in a large U-Haul truck with a car attached to the back. We looked at the house; three years had taken a toll on the old farmhouse. I did notice that the farmer that I leased out the back fields to so he could use them for hay was certainly keeping up with them. I unlocked the car hauler and opened the door to the u-Haul to pull out the beds, which we had loaded last. I flipped through my keys to find the old key to the farmhouse and opened the front door. We were taken aback at the old, musty, closed-in smell. I looked over at Ashlyn who took a breath and said, “It looks like we have a long day ahead of us and it is already three o’clock in the afternoon.”

                We went through the house, opening all the windows, letting in some fresh country air. I took the down stairs and Ashlyn went upstairs and in no time the farmhouse started smelling like the wild clover which was throughout the fields surrounding the house. I did notice while opening the windows that a few screens would need to be replaced and a couple of the window panes were cracked. I sat back a moment to think and laughed, as I had never thought at age 32 I would be starting a whole new life. I looked around the room we were standing in and let out a long sigh. Everything was covered in a layer of dust from the dirt road in the front, and I assume from the fields being worked in the back of the property. The only calming thought was none of the furniture would be staying so I didn’t have to be worried about getting that steam cleaned.

                Ashlyn came pouncing in the room, and excitedly announced, “I found which room I want!”

I laughed, and said, “Let me guess, Is it the one with the bathroom in it?”

Ashlyn jumped up and down, “No, well, yes at first but then I found one with a balcony on it on the second floor and I’d like that one.”

We walked through the house together going room by room noting all the things that needed to be done, and went to check out the bedroom she picked out. I agreed to let Ashlyn have the room with the balcony that was located upstairs; however, before going out onto the balcony we needed to have someone to come and check the safety. I decided on the bedroom downstairs that seemed to be the master suite.

                The first thing that needed to be done was to go to the local store and get some cleaning supplies and other items before we got started. We drove up the main highway about ten miles and found a small city there with a Super Wal-Mart. “Mom, we should get groceries while we are here.”

“I would rather wait until we get the cupboards and the refrigerator cleaned out and then come back, but we could grab something for dinner,” I told her.  Ashlyn said she would go find dinner and I told her I would meet her in the cleaning supply aisle.

 I went and picked up some Windex, floor cleaner, tub and tile cleaner, bleach, kitchen cleaner and a few other supplies. Ashlyn came with dinner - microwave lasagna. I looked at her and she laughed and said “what, we don’t know what the stove looks like and I am sure we won’t want to unpack everything tonight.”

I laughed and agreed with her. We walked around and I saw some new door locks for the exterior doors and tossed a couple of those in the cart. Ashlyn wanted to get some things for her bathroom while we were there, “Yes, we should definitely do that. Grab me a shower curtain and new bathroom rug set.  I am going to go and look at some candles we can start burning to spruce it up.” We agreed we would meet in that area as we may want to get some new curtains as well. Ashlyn nodded that she heard me and went bouncing off in the direction of the bathroom supplies. We got all of our shopping for now done with new curtains and candles, and checked out.

                When we returned to the farmhouse and unloaded our newly bought items, we started cleaning the two bedrooms we were going to be using and the bathrooms that went with them. I figured that would be as far as we got today so we should start with our bedrooms and bathrooms for a good night’s rest! I started with my bathroom as Ashlyn worked on hers. We scrubbed the tub/shower areas, hung our shower curtains and laid out our décor. I went out to the truck and brought in the boxes marked bathroom and we divided the items up. Next we began cleaning our bedrooms. We washed the walls, windows and floors. You know this place could use a good paint job, I thought to myself. After cleaning we went out and started bringing in boxes marked for our bedrooms, as well as the beds. We took turns helping each other set up our beds. We had removed all the old furniture we decided we were not going to use and put it all in the garage. Ashlyn decided to keep the dresser as it matched her bed, so she washed it up, dusted, and put new shelf liners in the drawers.

                When we looked outside again, it was dark.  I yelled up to Ashlyn. “Hey, if you would start the lasagna, I will run out and lock up the U-Haul. Is there anything you need out of it tonight?”

She called back, “Can you bring in a couple boxes of clothes? I won’t be able to go right to sleep and since I have my room clean I wanted to put some clothes away and have clean clothes for the morning.”

 I giggled and said, “of course, we should grab a couple boxes each.” I locked up the U-Haul after we brought our couple boxes in for the night.  After we ate and talked a while, we showered and settled down to rest for another long day ahead of us.

Chapter 4:

                It has been a week since we moved to the farmhouse. The place was coming along very nicely. It was mid-May and getting very hot. I needed to get the air conditioning looked at soon. We went room by room this past week and took out all the furniture we didn’t have use for, along with kitchen items as we had brought our own. We mopped all the floors and I rented a carpet cleaner for the carpet areas, washed walls and windows. We cleaned out and relined all the cupboards in the kitchen. We went back to Wal-mart and went grocery shopping. Four hundred dollars later and we were stocked on food for a while - one less thing to worry about. We put the unwanted furniture and stuff in the garage against one wall. There were a couple beds, an old desk, a hutch, a couple foot lockers, the couch and loveseat - all things we had no use for.

We did keep a couple beds in the two spare rooms upstairs as well as the dining room set. We couldn’t figure out how to install the door locks, so I set them aside for later. Since we have cleaned the entire inside of the house and unpacked all of our belongings, we decided we would take a break today and go check out the local flea market, and possibly find someone to buy all the stuff in our garage. Tomorrow we would work outside.

We pulled into the dusty parking lot of the flea market and once the dust settled we opened the doors and got out. We looked at each other rolling our eyes, laughing. We hoped it wasn’t this dusty inside the market as well. We walked into the entryway of the market and wandered through a few buildings. We noticed some people selling dollar store items, garage sale items and stuff that seemed like it should be illegal.

                In the outside areas I noticed people selling furniture type items. So we went over there to see what they had and if they were possibly interested in buying our stuff. I was about to talk to a man when Ashlyn grabbed my elbow, “Mom, maybe we should come out and sell the stuff ourselves.”

 I looked at her and smiled, “I appreciate the fact that you want us to make more money however, I am not about to sit out there amongst all this dust and grime all day.”

Ashlyn thought for a moment, laughed and said, “Yeah, I really didn’t want to either.”

                As we were about to turn back to speak to the man about buying our furniture we over heard a woman yelling at the officer that seemed to be doing security for the flea market. She was loud and obnoxious. She looked to be in her 40’s with dark cracked leather like skin, but dressed like she was a teenager with super tight low rise pants and a shirt that barely covered anything. She had brushy straggling jet black hair and wore way too much makeup. She was screaming about receiving an eviction notice from her landlord and that he had only gave her three days to move out or pay the back rent. The officer told her it was within the landlords’ rights if there was no payment made. Ashlyn and I pretended not to hear the conversation, even though it was very loud. The woman was ranting like a crazed lunatic.

                The officer told her, given her history of eight recent bad check charges she may want to either pay or quietly leave the rental property. I mumbled under my breath that the word quietly didn’t seem to be something she could handle. It was apparent to me this officer knew this woman and had previous dealings with her. She told the officer that she kicked in the glass door at the house and broke it because she was mad. The officer informed her that the landlord can still bring her to court for property damage. The woman walked away in a huff. Ashlyn and I rolled our eyes and laughed.

 I finally spoke to the man about coming to purchase the items in our garage. The man seemed interested in some of the items when I told him what we had and he agreed to come by the farmhouse around three thirty to have a look. He went on to tell me to not let the owners catch me out there asking people to buy stuff. “They are money hungry selfish people and they charge fifteen dollars to walk around there asking for people to buy items. They call it a roaming fee.” I thanked the man for the information and walked away, shaking my head.

                We walked around some more when Ashlyn pulled my attention toward a building.  I glanced over and there was a building of animals. I looked at her, “With everything we have to do we really don’t have time for ANY animals right now, and we don’t even know what condition the barn is in.”

 She told me, “I am really liking the farm and being in this location, even though it has only been a week. You know mom, a dog would be good protection for us, and maybe when we get into the barn and repair it and clean it up we can get some chickens and stuff to live off the land.”

 I laughed, “As spoiled as we are we have no ability to know how to live off the land.”

Then a couple vendors, a husband and wife, explained that they go to live animal auctions all the time. They said they can get us anything we want cheaper than the prices at the market. I thought a while and the wife told me to just let them know what we are looking for and how much we want to spend. I smiled, “That is very nice of you,” and introduced myself and my daughter Ashlyn.

The lady looked at me, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Jennifer Grey from Dirty Dancing?” I smiled and thanked her for the kind compliment.

I explained, “We have a lot of work to do before we get any animals. We have not even been out to look at the barn yet. In a couple weeks, we will certainly get back to you once we decided what we were going to do.” I then told Ashlyn, “It is not right for us to be thinking about animals when we came here on the possibility of not staying long-term.”

She put her head on my shoulder as we walked, “But I love it at the farm and want to stay and make a life here.”

I put my arm around her, “I like it too.”

                As we were walking out of the market we noticed the crazy black-haired woman walking around the animal area. She spoke very loudly and was pretty rude in the way she spoke to people.  It sounded like she decided she would walk around the flea market to sell some pigs. She must have noticed people selling other animals and thought perhaps it would be good to sell the pigs out here as well. If they didn’t allow them she told a vendor she figured she would just go to the back of the parking lot and sell them in the corner without anyone noticing, and perhaps make a little extra on the side. I couldn’t believe how bold this woman was to state the things she did out loud.

Walking back toward the exit I noticed the office. They had a “Help Wanted sign up. I shrugged my shoulders and looked over at Ashlyn, “My savings and inheritance isn’t going to last forever, especially with the repairs that need to be done. Maybe this job could be our entertainment money. Perhaps, it is cleaner in there.”

 Ashlyn giggled, “For some reason I doubt it. While you are in there I am going to go check out the Avon store, I will wait for you there.”

                As I walked into the office I saw a very high counter with a computer off to the side. There were two desks in the front office area side by side. There were two women sitting there, an elderly, rather large woman who appeared to be napping and a young woman that came up to me, “Can I help you?”

“I would like to apply for the position they are hiring for,” I explained.

She had me fill out an application and then told me the owners would speak to me now. There was a large back office with two older think people sitting back there with a sliding glass door between the offices that was shut. I couldn’t figure out why they would want to be shut off from everything.

As I was interviewing for the office position I noticed the black-haired crazy woman went into the office. I turned my head away from her so I wasn’t looking in her direction. The older lady stayed sleeping in a chair while the other office person standing in front of her asked her if she can help her with something. The office person’s name was Nikki, she had dirty blonde hair, and she looked to be about five foot seven inches tall. She seemed muscular yet womanly and was looking the black-haired woman up and down rolling her eyes.

The woman said, “My name is Catin and I would like to sell my pigs and wonder what the cost was.”

Nikki looked at the customer long and hard, “It is fine; the cost is ten dollars outside space only. No pigs are allowed in the buildings.”

                Just then I came out of the back office. The lady that interviewed me, Suzette, yelled out, “Monica, I forgot to get your phone number to call with the hours I will be having you work.”  I gave her my phone number and left. Catin thanked Nikki for the information. As I turned to leave I thought she heard Nikki say something about Catin putting some clothes on.

                Back at the farmhouse, I heard vehicles pull in at three thirty-five. I called to Ashlyn, “I am going out to meet the man from the flea market for the stuff in the garage.” The man was already out of his vehicle and explained he brought some friends on the chance they want to buy the items I mentioned.

I nervously shook the man’s hand and said, “There it all is on this side of the garage.”

The man from the flea market hollered out, “Woo wee miss; you have some nice pieces in here. Is everything on that side included?”

I nodded, “Yes it is.” He then offered me seven hundred for everything. I gladly accepted his offer and they started loading the trucks. Another thing off my list, I thought.

                After the men left my phone rang. I answered it with a Hello. The voice on the other end said, “This is Catin, I saw you at the flea market today.”

 I was a bit thrown off and asked, “Do you work in the office?”

 Catin explained, “I do not work in the office, I was just in there asking questions and heard you give your number so I wrote it down.”

I became a little upset and asked her, “Exactly why did you do that. It seems very off to me as I don’t even know you.”

She explained, “I just thought you was new in town and needed a friend.”

 I took a deep breath and firmly told her, “I am good thanks, I make friends the old fashion way not through blindly stalking people. I feel it is rude and an invasion of my space that you write down people’s numbers you don’t know and call them. Please do not call me again.” Then I hung up the phone.