Chapter 43 - A New Life In Denver
Chapter 43 - A New Life In Denver
It took three brutal days to get to Denver by Greyhound. Three days in a bus is murder. Thank God I talked with some beautiful girls on the bus during the trip. When I arrived in Denver, I called Jim, and he picked me up at the bus station, but he doesn´t know that I´m broke yet. Jim was very glad to see me and immediately took me out to dinner at Famous Pizza on south Broadway. We both ordered eggplant Parmesan. It was then that I told Jim that I was broke. It took Jim by surprise, but he is cool at these things. Jim could not believe that my money was gone and after detail discussion, he told me that he would carry-me for a month.
For the first time in my life I didn´t care whether I was broke or not. The issue never fazed me. All I knew was that I was free from the heavy burden of my family that chained me throughout my entire life. I was in a great mood, and I was planning for a new life. Wherever it takes me! I feel as though my mind was put into a washing machine and cleaned-out thoroughly. Wherever I go, or whatever I do, from now on, I am a free man. At least that is how I felt.
Jim is a vegetarian! I decided that I was going to eat everything that Jim ate. I tried to loose weight in Florida, but Tommy Napoli had to many barbecues. Barbecues contain meat, and although that food is tasty and delicious, it is extremely unhealthy and fattening. I was 225 lbs. when I left New York for Florida. I was 228 lbs. when I arrived in Denver so I needed to loose weight badly. Thus, I will try to follow Jim because he is thin and a vegetarian so I will eat the same a he.
Denver is a very depressed city. I love it! It is very quiet here and peaceful. Jim took me downtown to the lower city area. There were many old buildings boarded up. It was extremely quiet. Jim then told me the story about Denver. He told me that back in the 1970´s, there was an oil boom. Many oil companies´s from Texas and elsewhere took shop here in Denver. When the 1980´s hit, the oil shortage began. This sent everyone out of Denver. They all left their homes behind and left the city. The depression of Denver then began and it has been like that ever since. I arrived in 1992 and Jim told me that the city is beginning to come back to life. A $100,000.00 house sold for $25,000.00 with only $500.00 down as of now. There were no buyers; there were very few people, and very few jobs. A few years ago, the city built the 16th Street Mall. The mall went from Broadway to lower downtown. About eight blocks long! The 16th Street mall had many small shops on the route, and no vehicles were allowed except Mall buses. The Mall buses were free and they ran every five minutes, up and down the Mall roadway.
I began job searching and submitted many applications. I was willing to except anything, any kind of job available. Day after day, I walked the pavement looking around for work. I had a few prospects, but it seemed they were reluctant to hire someone from New York and that was where all of my references were, but the jobs in Denver are scarce anyhow. I thought that I would need to build some references in Colorado. How was I to do that? I had seen a newspaper ad for a job at a car wash just three blocks from Jim´s house. I applied and got the job. I was selling different kinds of washes to patrons when they arrived at the car wash. It was a type of job that required standing outdoors all day.
One month had gone by and by following Jim's diet I had lost 20 lbs. I was now only 205 lbs and I am very happy. I also stopped smoking and I stopped drinking coffee, and I stayed away from eating any kind of meat. I was working everyday except Sunday and I was earning very little money, about $6.00 an hour. The following month, I lost another 20 lbs and now I was at my ideal weight of 185 lbs. I looked and felt great!
On the job, I became a very close friend with one of the workers in the car wash. His name was Calvin. He was a young black guy. Calvin and I had some very good discussions about my past adventures. Calvin was very instrumental in guiding me, and placing me on the right track. I was living with Jim for almost two months now and Jim was putting extremely heavy pressure on me to move out and to get my own place, but however, I still didn´t have much money. I sold my drum machine and voice machine at a music store on consignment. I received $500.00 for both products and I now have about $700.00.
With continuous pressure from Jim, Calvin suggested I live with him. I thought about it for a moment, but I decided that I needed my own place. Then Calvin suggested that I find my own apartment in a neighborhood where he used to live, in the Capitol Hill area. Calvin took me to visit some of the apartment houses there, especially the apartment house where he used to live. We arrived at the Logan Manor, and the manager took us on a tour of the apartments he had available. One of the apartments was beautiful and situated on the top 4th floor. It was a studio apartment. The rent was cheep, $225.00 a month. It included free heat, air conditioning, and cable TV. I asked the manager if the top floor apartment was available. He said that he had promised it to a girl, but however, he hadn´t heard from her lately, and he asked me to call him in a couple of days. I suggested to the manager that he call the girl and find out if she wanted the apartment or not. The manager said that he didn´t have her telephone number, which I thought was a little peculiar, but he said that he had her friend´s number. Anyway, he reiterated that I could call him in a couple of days.
Calvin and I went back to Jim´s house. On our way back, Calvin told me that this manager, who was married and managing the apartments with his wife, liked student girls. He would hold an apartment for a girl who would want the apartment and use it as an exchange for sex. I thanked Calvin for teling me that information.
During the next couple of days, I decided to check another building close by Logan Manor called, Sherman Towers. They showed me a great studio apartment on the 10th floor. It had a wonderful view of the Front Range Rocky Mountains. The building had everything, including a pool on the roof, and a work-out room with lots of equipment. It went for $320.00 a month with no extras. I filled out the application and waited at Jim´s house for a response. They had contacted me and told me I failed their credit check which caught me by surprise that they were doing a credit check for an apartment. I guess this is part of the New World Order that the government is talking about. The management company for the building told me that I needed to get my credit record straight unless I could pay them for a year in advance. I was very disappointed that I could not get that apartment. I t would have been a cool place to live. In the near future, I will have to see what my credit report says.
Another day had passed, and I called the manager of Logan Manor.. He had not spoken with the girl yet, and asked me to call back in another two days. The manager then abruptly hung up the phone on me. With the constant pressure from Jim to move out building getting stronger and stronger, I got very pissed off that the manager hung-up the phone on me. Jim had become uncontrollable with his move-out pressure, and he can get that way when he decides he wants something done. He began complaining about everything I was doing. That is his technique. He pounds on you left and right until you can not take it any longer. I decided to give that manager a personal visit. I went to the apartment house and buzzed the manager´s bell. He came to the entrance to open the door. In the little entranceway, we had a discussion. I said to him, Look. You asked me to call you in a couple of days because you had promised a girl the apartment. I waited a couple of days and called you back and you told me that you didn´t get in touch with the girl yet. I have the money for the apartment right here. [I showed him the money.] Why not give me the apartment now? He replied that he had told me that he had promised it to a girl. I said, You don´t even have her phone number. The manager replied that I will just have to wait. Pissed, I then told the manager, tomorrow morning, I will call the authorities, and tell them that you are discriminating against me on the basis of sex and age. I have the money here now, but you won´t rent the apartment to me. The manager suddenly became furious. He replied, "You´re going to take me to court? I´m a born again Christian. You´re going to take a born again Christian to court?" Then the manager began to quote passages from the Bible and throwing them at me. I replied, "Did not Jesus say whose picture is on this coin. The reply was Caesar. Then Jesus said, Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar." I continued that Caesar has rules and regulations, and he was breaking Caesar´s rules. Therefore, you must be held accountable. The manager stunned, did not know what to say! The manager told me that he did not want to talk with me any more and with that he stormed downstairs to his apartment while saying, "I can not believe you´re going to take a Born again Christian to court." The manager quickly disappeared into his basement apartment. I then left to return to Jim´s house. As I was heading back to Jim's house I thought that Calvin had given me valuable information about this managers action and that Calvin was right on.
As soon as I arrived back at Jim´s house, the telephone began ranging. I thought for a moment that hey, that might be the manager, but then I thought no. I quickly answered and sure enough, it was the manager. He told me that he decided to rent me the apartment. He told me to come within a half-hour and he would have all the paperwork completed. I returned back to the apartment house, paid the manager the money, and received the keys to the apartment. I apologized to the manager and held out my hand for a handshake, but he refused to shake my hand. This was the first time that I had had my own apartment by myself. This would be the first time in my life that I would be the only one paying rent. It was a very weird feeling.
These Born Again Christian´s (BAC) are something else. Every BAC I had ever met was a horrible person. My brother was a BAC. These people will fuck you over in a heart beat. The BAC people must believe in Jesus as their savior. Once they have this strong belief in Jesus being their savior, they can do any thing they want to do. They don´t have to live by the Bible. They believe that Jesus will forgive them for their sins, regardless. They follow the opposite. Born Again is supposed to mean that you give up all your past contradictory habits to return to the love and peace of the Bible. I will not ever trust a Born Again Christian.
Jim and Calvin were both very happy that I had my own apartment. However, the next day, I was fired from the car wash and Calvin quit a week later. After paying the rent, I now only had $300.00 left to my name. I had spoken with some of the cab drivers who came to the car wash. They had told me that they were doing a good business. I decided, under my situation, to visit the cab company and give it a try. The cab company, Metro Taxi, was very nice and helpful. It cost me about $150.00 to get all the paperwork approved. The cab company gave me my first day of driving for free. On my first day, I had earned free and clear, $185.00. In my first week, I netted $850.00. Within one month, I had completely furnished my apartment beautifully. I was now netting about $900.00 a week. I was very proud of myself. However, the apartment manager had begun taking revenge against me. He began doing a lot of little shits against me. He would constantly turn my front door-mat upside down and lean it against my apartment door. He was truly an evil BAC person. He kept on doing these little shits against me, and I eventually called the police on him but the police did nothing except scare him a bit, but the next day the management company contacted me and wanted to know what was going on. I told the management company the true story about acquiring the apartment with all the details just as it happened and the next few days they fired him and his wife. Peace at last!
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