Round 1
"Hey Jen this is a great condo."
"Mom you haven’t seen anything yet." I was so proud. This was my place; I had finally got a mortgage. Things were going my way for a change. A lovely boyfriend in Brendon, maybe he was a bit wimpy but he was cute, clever, rich and besotted with me. I had a promotion; I was a supervisor in the buying section. And now I had this new condo. Two spacious bedrooms and one smaller one, a good lounge room, a big and well-equipped kitchen, a garage at the side a full bathroom upstairs and a separate bathroom downstairs off the laundry. The unit even had a bit of a garden out the back. The block had a big common area, good gardens, and up the back a kids playground, a swimming pool and a paved BBQ area. The units- there were sixty of them- all two storey all with small gardens like mine were arranged in courtyards - with an internal road running through them up to the common area was at the end furthest from the street. The internal road was flanked by trees and garden strips. The complex was only a short walk to the L so I was really pleased.
And Mom liked it. She went through it and kept praising it. And that was so good. Mom hardly ever said anything good to me or about me. Guess I didn’t deserve it much, but still, I missed what other women had. I knew many of my friends- no better then I was- had their Mom’s praise. My Mom just told me I didn’t meet her standards, that I had wasted so many opportunities. And I knew she was right, but I thought perhaps with some help from her when I was a kid I might have done better. So to have Mom say she liked the view, the decor, that she thought the kitchen was well laid out, was to die for. And that first night I was there I asked Brendon round and Mom and Dad came for dinner was so good. We all sat on the balcony and chatted.
There were only two problems. They were both neighbours, both women, both older than me. The first Sheila Morris lived in the condo across the courtyard – she looked directly at the front door of my unit from her front door, my balcony from her’s. The second Michelle Riley lived near the other end- back near the street.
I first met Morris when my parents and I were sitting on the balcony drinking coffee when I first showed it to them. This thin woman –she must be about 50- kept looking at us. She was sitting on her balcony I called out "Do you mind? We are just having a chat."
She spat back, "I was trying to welcome my new neighbours. I was thinking of bringing a bottle of wine across. I'd been waving to you and trying to get your attention before."
I had to apologise and ask her across. But the damage was done. This Morris bitch just didn’t like me.
And the second problem was worse at least Morris kept her self out of my way most of the time. The other woman - Michelle Riley - was a real slut. The first time I saw her was one evening when Brendon came over. He parked his auto in the visitors' car park next to the street. This bitch had been doing something in the front of her apartment She made a beeline for him. When I came down the internal road she was standing so very close to him and chatting. She must have been 40 or thereabouts but very well made up and dressed to look way younger. She was talking about the theatre, about art films and things I knew nothing about.
But Brendon did and he seemed to enjoy talking. It got worse The bitch chatted him up right in front of me. And Brendon being wimpy Brendon just got red faced and was polite and kept talking even when she hooked her arm round his. "Come I’m sure Jenn wont mind, if I show you some of the condos. Let me be your guide." She pointed out some of the features. I stood glaring, furious. Brendon did try to move away and took his arm out of hers. But he kept on talking. And the bitch nuzzled up to him.. It made me so wild.
" Brendon come inside please, your tea will go cold, I’ve got some cookies and scones just ready, please come". I was begging him.
She just smiled at me. "Oh I'm just having a pleasant little chat; you can’t mind that, and surely you haven’t made the tea already, what if he had been late, you’d have had to make some more anyway its only a question of getting some more bags out."
That’s all you know, I make proper tea- with leaves in a pot." I snapped. I had started to do this after meeting Brendon's parents, they offered me tea, cake and scones a very English sort of thing, way out of my class. I saw how Brendon liked it and from then on tried to do the same.
"Oh but that takes longer, but its an art, the Japanese have turned into a ceremony the English have made a meal round it. " She was off again, talking about tea and meals and I’d given her the opportunity to show off again. And she was making it seem she had involved me in a discussion. And Brendon who knew so much more about these things than I did was chatting back. I was even more angry.
. I wasn’t going to have this bitch prattle on and get between me and Brendon. "Brendon please come inside, I really want to ask your advice about where some furniture should be. And I was going to ask you to help me move it. Especially in the bedroom."
Brendon blushed, he mumbled something. And as I looked at Brendon and at Michelle I knew I had made a big mistake. God, how could I have been so stupid! Brendon and I had never had sex, not even once despite every attempt I had made to get him into bed and I had made a lot of attempts!. And now Brendon was embarrassed and Michelle looked triumphant. I know she thought I was a tramp, just like my mother thought.
Eventually I managed to get Brendon to myself , but I was almost in tears.
And it got worse. I threw a house warming party. I did all the right things. I told the owners corporation executive and booked the pool and the BBQ area. I even invited Morris and Riley along. But it all went wrong with those two. Riley kept flirting with all the guys and my girl friends got the shits with me. Morris said she had to work early the next day so she only stayed a half hour or I saw her to the door and thanked her for coming. I was really pleased that she made the effort to show up. I told her so and then walked back to see Brendon looking wimpy again. He had a glass in his hand, standing almost backed into a corner and Riley was in front of him.
"Let me get you a drink Michelle, come on I’ll freshen your glass," I thought I’d drag her away.
"That’s so kind of you, I’ll have a gin and tonic, and you Brendon what will you have? I’m having such a converstation with him, you know Jenn he is such an intelligent man."
Brendon blushed, "Why thank you, but Jenn is a very intelligent lady, that’s what attracted me to her. I met her in a bar and – I don’t know how it happened –but within a few moments we were talking economic policy. And she opened my eyes- she had some quite unconventional views; she was able to back them up. Ideas about free trade and how bad it was. Ideas about politics too- at first I thought she was ranting. But when I got home I checked up on what she was saying. Most of it was dead right "
I smiled; I didn’t have too many people praise me. "Yes, you’d heard the neocon libertarian mantra so often it just became what everyone thought. No one asked, no one challenged it. And yet their ideas are so wrong. The libertarians hero - Ludwig von Mises- there’s a think tank named after him- destroyed the Austrian economy."
"Yes Jenn you and I may know the truth about von Mises. " Riley said, and I had thought that I’d score here. Almost no one knew about that Austrian idiot. But Riley did. She went on, “The libertarians say he fled Austria because he was a persecuted Jew. You and I know that is a lie. You and I know he fled because his policies had led to a civil war- to the Army shelling the working class suburbs of Vienna to impose the wage cuts he prescribed after his policies had caused the Creditanstadt to collapse. You and I know that he only fled when his patron Dollfus was assassinated. You and I, Jenn, know that Dollfus created what he called “Austro-fascism’ and von Mises was the economic mind behind Austro-fascism.
“You and I," and she turned to Brendon, "know that Jews like Richard Tauber stayed in Austria till the Anshluss. But what does politics matter, what does economics matter, they are ephemeral. Richard Tauber still sang. And he will be recalled by so many more than von Mises."
I wanted to spew. I thought I’d got back into this conversation, Brendon –bless him- had thrown me a great feed. But this bitch knew much more than I thought she would and she steered the conversation back to things I knew nothing about- hell I didn’t even know what ephemeral meant- I had to look it up in the dictionary afterwards. And she kept talking to Brendon and I got more and more angry. I was lost, I didn’t understand what they were talking about –what was a -Pre-Raphaelite, who was this Tauber man. I looked them up to later Pre Raphaelites were a group of nineteenth century painters, Tauber was an opera singer.
And I felt so stupid and dumb and I knew if I wanted to keep Brendon, I would have to learn all this. But right then I stood there feeling stupid.
She turned to me. "I thought you were getting us new drinks? You’d been so quiet I thought you must have gone."
"You get your own drink, you leave my guy alone." I stamped my foot. I was so furious. And yeah I was possessive.
She bent forward, Brendon turned even redder, he tried very hard not to look down the front of her blouse. Without straightening up she looked at me, " Hey sweetie he’s a big boy , let him make up his own mind." I saw she had nothing on under the blouse. And damn it all for her age she had a good set of boobs. I wanted to rip them apart. She just made it worse "I think he's enjoying my company something new and fresh hun." I knew she was goading me and I knew too she was loving it.
“Brendon!" I snapped, I glared at him then at her. "He doesn’t like old women." I bit my tongue; I had been rude to a guest. Brendon would not like that; he would say I had been bad mannered. Well so I had been but damnit so was she. I turned red, "I am sorry, I shouldn’t have said that"
"No you shouldn’t," she smirked. She wasn’t offended by my comment. She just used it to her advantage. Damn her. "Now you can redeem yourself by going and getting me a drink"
And so I did, and she kept talking to Brendon when I had. She left after a while. Brendon put his arm round my waist, he kissed me; "I’m sorry Jenn."
I bit my tongue. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was that he kept chatting to that old scraggy slut and didn’t have time for me- but what good would that have done? Just then the janitor came and told me off for having too much noise.
"Hell we are only having a good time." I replied. I fought back tears; I had so tried to be a good neighbour, I had so tried to be friendly- hell I had even done some gardening around the kiddies playground. Some of the owners were thankful.
"The music is on the loud side." It seemed others didn’t like what I was doing.
"People want to dance and have fun" I tried to explain.
Brendon came up and slipped his arm round my shoulder, "Jenn dear, remember this is a new area for you maybe they like their quiet here." I knew he was trying to sugarcoat the pill but even so it still made me mad.
"Heck its only just 10. Time for quiet things later." I squeezed Brendon's waist.
The janitor shook his head. "I’m sorry you’re going to have to turn it down"
After that the party sort of fizzled.
A week or two later I went to put out the trash one night and there was that Morris woman again. I itched to tell her off. She had been so rude that night when I tried to please everyone with the house warming. But I was going to be polite. I was going to be a new person; a good neighbour. I was going to fit in. I turned to her "Hi there, pity you couldn’t have stayed at the house warming. We had a good time." She sorta looked at me, I can’t tell you how her face looked, it was darkish but she made me feel about the size of an ant. I couldn’t help adding "For a while anyway."
"Well I had to go to work the next morning."
"Yeah well so did I, so did the other people who came to the party, hell so did the other residents here who came. None of them complained about the noise. "
"None of them lived directly opposite either."
She made my blood boil but I wanted so very much to be liked here. And that was a new thing for me too. In the past I didn’t care if people liked me so long as they respected me. Brendon had tried to explain that respect built on fear wasn’t respect. He had told me he had got hot seeing me trash that Sharon at the yacht club but he didn’t want to see it again. So I wanted this woman to like me. I smiled and asked her "Care for a cup of tea and some cake?" I had a bit of food left over from when Brendon had come round the weekend before and Rita and her husband had come round too.
"Yeah ok I will come in thank you."
But that was a disaster, I had forgotten I hadn’t cleaned the kitchen-well it wasn’t that bad, just that I hadn’t done the dishes and I had left my washing out not folded and put away. "I am sorry, this was a sorta spur of the moment thing, pardon the mess," I said when I came in and the woman glanced round. I could see her thinking that the place was dirty.
"No its ok, not everyone can work and keep house too, I guess you have a busy job, I don’t see you much round here. Well not alone anyway."
Hell she was picky; she was really getting on my nerves. I didn’t have many parties or anything but she made me feel as if I had them every night. And maybe she meant more. Hell Cassie had been around a bit. Maybe it was this old woman’s way of calling me a tramp and a bi one at that.
But no, perhaps I should have realized that she was older than me. Was her idea of a get together a church social? But she didn’t have to look round the condo. Hell it was like when my Aunt Marie had come, when Aunt looked like this woman did, I knew that Aunt wanted to clean the place from top to bottom. Nothing was clean enough, nothing was good enough, yeah Aunt didn’t work she had time to arrange flowers and all that. She riled me and this woman was doing the same.
"Just a sec while I clear the table, I only just finished dinner." I picked up the dishes and put them on the sink. I made some tea. "Sit down please"
She did so and we chatted for a few moments but it was strained. And what made it worse was she asked me where I came from and I said "The south side –near Gary."
She looked at me and said, "My you have done well," She was so patronizing. And she got worse when she went on "And who is that tall man I've seen around here."
"That must be Brendon," I sort of gushed "he’s a future trader we are dating and we go sailing in his yacht on weekends."
She looked at me and said again "My you have done well."
I tried to smile and bit my tongue to stop a biting comment.
"Well Jenn," she said. "I must be off, but would you like me to help you with the dishes before I go."
That was the last straw "No" I snapped, "I can do them myself thank you very much."
That had been one horrid start to the evening. So I wasn’t in the best of moods later that evening when I set about organizing a farewell party for Cassie for the next weekend.
I should have known there would be trouble when Cassie told me she wanted to invite Rachel Beaverbrook and Rachel Northcliffe to the party. I have no idea how Cassie kept on being friends with both these girls because they hated each other so much. The two Rachel's as everyone called them were both very much alike and opposite at the same time. They were the same age- 23 at the time I am telling you about- a few years younger than me. They lived in the same trailer park Cassie came from, and they were truly trailer trash, no they were what gave trailer trash a bad name. They drank heavily, they fucked like rabbits- they were loud mouthed and they fought even more then I did. They both hung round on the edge of the Outfit. Beaverbrook was blonde and Northcliffe was brunette. And like I said they hated each other.
As I said I should have known there would be trouble between them but I didn’t know how much, or how it would involve me, until an hour or so after the party started.
It began when Beaverbrook, a drink in her hand, walked towards the door to the garden. Northcliffe was standing in her path chatting. They had been bickering before. Beaverbrook stumbled- or perhaps she pretended to. Whether deliberately or by accident she spilled her drink; it splashed all over Northcliffe’s skirt. Northcliffe started screaming, calling Beaverbrooke all kinds of names (most of them true) and then they started brawling.
Things just got worse from there and the two Rachels went out to my little garden and fought.
My party was ruined. I meant it as a quiet thing, for me and some friends to say farewell to Cassie for a while and it had turned into a brawl. And the neighbours were at the door and telling me off. I was red faced and angry but hell they were right. There was no way this should have happened.
And of course that bitch Sheila Morris was to the fore. "This was a quiet neighbourhood before you came here, now you come here and you have trash fighting in your garden you have noisy parties you have mess everywhere. We don’t want your kind here."
"Well you got me, I bought, I don’t rent. And thanks to Shorebank I am staying right here. Get used to it!"
"Jenn, Jenn, calm down," Brendon tried to soothe me, "they do have a point."
"Yes I know they do" and I turned to the neighbours, "Look believe me I am sorry about what went on I didn’t expect it either."
"You didn’t stop it either did you," Sheila snapped.
I flushed because it was true- well almost. I did make one effort but was howled down and anyway I got hot watching the two bitches fight, it was like old times just that it wasn’t me fighting. I could have if I had wanted to. "Look I am sorry, but I didn’t do any damage to the place nor did anyone here. Lets leave it at that." I turned to go inside, I was almost crying with humiliation and rage.
And Sheila just finished me off, "Running away are you girlie."
About a week later I was putting out the trash again and again there was that woman. I itched to tell her off. She had been rude when I had the house warming, she had been catty when I invited her round for tea, she had been a complete bitch when those two sluts wrecked my send off for Cassie. But what had made me madder then spit was that I one of the neighbours told me that this bitch who ticked me off for having fights at my apartment had once been a fighter herself, and a real nasty one too.
But I was going to be polite. I turned to her, "Hi there, look lets try to be friends. And thanks for your bottle of wine, its still there you know would you like to come and share it?" I tried to smile at her.
She smiled at me, some bogus patronizing smile. "Look honey, I kinda appreciate your effort at being social. But in all honesty, I'm about twice your age and I did my time partying wild and crazy. I would just like some peace and quiet now. So I really don’t want to take part of your wild parties. The wine was just a effort at maybe keeping your parties more mature and low-key....you know honey...mature like?"
I ground my teeth, I was asking her to have a glass of wine with me, not to come to some orgy. "Hell I didn’t think my parties were wild. They aren’t they were quiet- well mostly yeah the one last week went wrong, that’s why I’d like you round for that glass of wine, so I can say sorry properly. Hell all you need to do is loosen up and let me be your friend." I felt like I was at school again when no one had wanted to have anything to do with me. My answer then had been fighting , but this, I told myself, is the new Jenn. I told myself I wasn’t going back there again. I wasn’t going fighting any more. My dark side wondered how long I would keep up my good intentions. I tried one more time. "Heck come and have the wine. Come on I am mature."
"Yeah....right! I stop over to have a nice glass of wine and you and all your little slut like friends are drinking beer and jack daniels. And I sure as hell know what happens then. Either everyone is crawling on top of everyone else or it turns out to be a free-for-all fight...sorry...no thanks!" Then when I thought I had been completely insulted she went on more yet. "Look I was young once too. I know what happens. I’ve been there...done that. You kids aren’t doing anything new, nothing that hasn’t been done before and in all honesty it was probably done better back then too."
I flushed, this cow was insulting me and I had nothing to say back, I mumbled "Hell ..what do you mean? No I know: you mean I have orgies and all that. Hell, I don’t, you cant say something nice shut it."
This old bitch turned on me saying "Yes...its nothing new. We had orgies and fight parties too deary. And from what I could see and hear ours were much better than yours too." She took a few paces towards me "And sweetheart, I'll shut up when i'm damn good and ready...and guess what...I’m not quite ready to shut up just yet.
I growled, "Fuck you bitch."
"You can try, tramp. But I don’t think that you’re woman enough to do it". She mimicked my voice. "Fuck you bitch." She chuckled and went on in her normal voice "Hell, I’m probably the only one here in town you haven’t so no thanks, I don’t want a disease. Go away girl."
I was boiling "Make me bitch." I glowered as I stood on the pathway my body tense, my face working.
"Look you really don’t want me to make you anything So back down little girl." She shook her head. "No, make that, back down fatass."
I snapped. "Oh shut it" I moved towards her. "Shut it or I’ll shut it for you. How dare you speak like that, you old bitch." I slapped her face hard.
She took a deep breath. I knew this bitch had been here before, she had provoked fights before, she was like me once, she fought to get her own way. But what I didn’t know was why, whether it was because like me she just couldn’t cope any other way or –and I thought this was the truth -she just liked it. Well she was gong to find that I fought because it was the only way for me-and I liked it too. And I was younger and probably fitter then her. For the first time I really started to notice her. She was an inch or two shorter then me maybe 5ft 4, she was slim, she had a lithe healthy looking body, she looked like she still worked out even at about 50 years old, her dirty blonde hair went down to her ears, no longer.
She hissed at me "You fatass tramp" She held her face, I am sure it stang her. She looked thoughtful, she was probably remembering her fighting days. I hoped she remembered it had been awhile now. Then she spoke again "Look, you don’t want to do this...trust me" She stepped back and continued. "So I'll just make that didn’t happen and not embarrass you. So go away...," she paused and went on, "and my guess is....eat"
" You boastful bitch! Don’t tell me to do anything!" I slapped her again even harder. I heard the crack my open hand made against her cheek.
She hissed "Damn it, ok, now that’s it you little whore! I gave you plenty of warning! She stepped back and raised her fists "Now you're gonna learn how this is done, tramp!"
"Come on bitch, I’ll show you how its done alright!" I launched a sweeper kick at her legs, I aimed to knock her off her feet.
And it did, she might have been a fighter once but she was older and out of practise and her reactions were slow. My kick hit her calves she fell down on her butt on the grass near the path. She struggled to her feet still angry, still spitting at me "oh! .You bitch. So you want to play that way."
"Oh yes I do bitch" I didn’t waste any time, moving quickly in as she struggled, I tried to shove her back to the ground before she was fully up by slapping my hands on her shoulders trying to use my weight to control her.
Again I did it! My weight and leverage forced the older woman down on her ass again, she shuffled sideways trying to make room to get away. She knew it was madness trying to fight me with my age and weight advantage from where she was on the ground.
And I knew it too so I wanted to keep her there. I brought my knee up trying to knee her under the chin. It was a move that I knew worked if successful, I hoped it was successful for me. I wanted this bitch, I wanted her cold.
She got her head back but I still caught her where I wanted and sent her sprawling, her skirt rode up. She pushed herself up to sit. I tried to get a quick kick at her tummy but she was too quick. She was out of my way in time. I launched another kick and it got her in the gut. She was back on her ass. I almost giggled, this was proving too easy.
She rolled and got to all fours. She was wheezing. I was sure I had her. I yanked at her hair, I wanted her up on her feet so I could knee her in the gut but instead she slammed a wild house punch right into my tits. I squealed let go of her hair and dropped back in pain. I thought I had had her, and then she attacked, I wasn’t prepared at all. Once again I had been overconfident. For what seemed a very long minute all I could do was stand there gasping for air, my whole body shaking. But thankfully the bitch wasn’t much better off.
She recovered quicker than I did, she launched a kick to my tummy, If I hadn’t been gasping and hurt I'd have seen it coming in plenty of time. As it was I only stepped to avoid it at the last moment and instead I stumbled back. She came on with another kick hitting my knee, it hurt so much I lost my balance. She was onto me faster than I thought an old bitch like her could be and we rolled on the ground trading blows. Her punches hit , she was a real professional, I was sure she had done well on the fight circuit-so much better than me. All I had was my younger age, my weight and- I hoped - my endurance to beat this bitch.
After what seemed an age of us rolling and trading punches, Sheila straddled me. I gasped as she reached for my hair, she was going to slam my head into the ground! I bridged and she tried to stabilise herself, I rolled, she swayed a bit, I brought my knees up into the small of her back, they connected, she grunted and rolled off. We both got to our feet.
Again she came at me fast, I backed away, I wanted to tire her out, I needed to regroup. She surged forward with short jabs aimed at my mid section. They weren't hard, I blocked a lot of them, but those that got through hurt- she'd already hit hard there and I'd have bruises tomorrow. I realised she was dictating the fight, that Sheila had me off balance, reacting to her. But there wasn't much I could do about it, She came on with more jabs, a barrage of punches to my face and shoulders and again all I could do was block them.
