i have been wanting to talk to the property manager in person for a while about some issues we’re having with the utilities in our apartment. the water is really unpredictable temperatures and we’ve had the power shut off twice in the last week. i’ve lived in this city for years and i’ve never had the power just shut off without the utility service sending an automated email saying there’s an issue, so i know its just this building being crap again.

the leasing office in this building is at the side entrance and there’s this funny split top barn-style door. when they’re in the office they’ll open the top. they think it makes the place folksy but actually they are much too hated for it to matter. anyway i went down there trying to get a hold of them. i didnt see anyone in there and i didnt hear anyone working so i actually did the thing and leaned on the open door like some farm boy arriving to ask for a bottle of sarsaparilla. no dice, there was no one inside.

i got home early today just so that i could come talk to these people and of course they left the office unattended during normal office hours…

i waited for a long while, and i have to tell you, this building is absurdly quiet at this time of day. for all of the issues i’ve had with noisy upstairs neighbors, banging pipes, unexplained sounds outside the window… it felt like a completely different building. it was an uncanny quiet

i suppose it’s worth a brief aside before i go too much further. i started the previous thread because things have been getting stranger and stranger by the week. all of the issues i just mentioned have happened over the past couple of years, very sporadically. now its all happening at once. the pipe one i was trying to figure out in particular because it seems like it should be related to this new hot water issue, but there’s never a correlation… it sounds like its right underfoot, and we can feel the floor vibrating every time these pipes start banging. its incredibly loud in the bathroom…

well, its annoying to say these least, but i thought it might be a fun little spooky thread to start… the ‘fun’ part is kind of dripping away in the last couple of days.

so… the office. i’m waiting there, hoping to talk about a few of these issues, when the phone rings. i figure someone will come traipsing out of the bathroom to answer it and i can finally get some service. nothing. this phone rings eight or nine times and no one appears. no voicemail? nothing?

so… i did the snoopy ass thing and i answered it. i wish that i hadn’t. i should have just sent home office an email and called it quits

i greeted them like you normally would, and told them they had reached so-and-so apartments. there was a really long pause. i introduced myself, and told them it was so-and-so apartments again…

there was a LOT of feedback. and just as i was about to tell them i couldn’t hear them, this sputtering started up on the other end. i thought it sounded exactly like an old car exhaust. it was, in fact, a man’s voice

“whho is this?”

i instantly regretted my little stunt.

well… let’s see… presuming that the camera works, the office people can figure out it was me… but hey, maybe its a would-be tenant on the other end of the line? maybe i can still get away with this without some awkward conversation. at this stage i was still worried about talking to the property manager

“what are you calling about?”

i could barely hear myself speak as the feedback climbed.

i couldn’t hear a word. i was listening intently for this horrible voice. i wondered if this person smoked a lot, or if we just had a bad connection.

the feedback took on a warmer tone and then suddenly completely dropped away. i heard the man’s voice as clear as day “would you like to meet me outside tonight?”

this isn’t happening. in my head, the first place i go is the horrible sounds i’ve heard outside my window. but i’m just jumping to conclusions, right? i don’t even want to think about it. i’ve been avoiding thinking about that for months… it doesn’t matter, it’s a weird question anyway. i tried to play it off.

“are you calling the right number? this is an apartment building… the manager is named-” the man interrupted me

“you aren’t supposed to be there, and you shouldn’t be speaking to me right now”

yes. the voice is right. i should just hang up and leave.

“you shouldn’t even think you can talk to me… you don’t deserve it… i think you’re going to have to meet me outside tonight. which window do you like?”

hang up and leave.

“you aren’t supposed to be there”

i tried to hang up the phone, but i basically just dropped it onto the desk and bolted.

i was going to go out for dinner tonight. operative word being ‘was’. i made the laziest, fastest dinner i could. i told my partner i needed to take a nap. the moment i hit submit on this post i am going to try to take a nap.

at 11:30 the pipes are going to start banging and they’re going to wake me up. i’ll be awake all night again tonight… this time intentionally. and i’m not going anywhere near the windows