I drove out to my storage unit today thinking that it would be a typical trip to stow some more of my life away for safekeeping. It certainly didn't turn out that way.
A little background first: I used to live out on the South Fork but after my divorce, and after the real estate boom, I could no longer afford to live there. As an example, when I bought my waterfront home in the 1970s, it cost me $85,000 which was a tidy sum at the time. When my ex sold the house seven years ago, she pulled in over $2,000,000.00. The nice little house I rented on the bay was $1800 per month. Suddenly, my landlady jacked it up to $25,000.00 per month, May through September. And she got it! Rents went sky high and I couldn't find a place.
I had no choice but to move up-island and was fortunate to find a little room behind someone's garage where my dog and I could live. I rented a storage unit in a nice, secure, air-conditioned facility in East Hampton. That's where my life, my history and nearly all my possessions reside today.
My current landlord got remarried last month and gave me thirty days to get out of Dodge. I haven't been able to find adequate housing yet and I have been putting more stuff into the storage unit so if my dog and I have to live in my car, we can travel light.
So, on this day, I stuffed my car and we headed east. It was a beautiful October day, warm and cloudless. I stopped first at my dog's favorite beach so he could run and romp for a while. Then, sadly, we headed over to the facility.
It took me about a half hour to unload the car and pack everything into my space. I strategically placed my stuff knowing that I had one more trip to make. As I was finishing up, I heard the freight elevator making the trip to the basement. This was unusual since, over the years I have been using this place, I have never seen anyone down here in the basement before. I continued about my business until I heard a female voice grunting. I turned to see my dog at the hallway entrance wagging his tail, an indication that we had company. I heard the grunt again and walked out to the small lobby where the freight elevator lands. There was a young woman struggling with a loaded cart as her items kept spilling off the side.
I immediately offered to help her and we packed up the cart which I then pushed as she led me to her unit located just down the hall from mine. This was obviously her first trip because her unit was whistle clean and empty. She held a shiny new lock in her hand. After I showed her how to unlatch and open the corrugated garage-type rollup door, she inspected the space to see where she was going to place everything. While she walked the space, I inspected her.
I figured her to be mid-to-late twenties. She was not very pretty, in fact I would describe her as plain. Her black hair was in a mid-length ponytail and held together with a pink clip. She had a nice body though. It was well conditioned but, in her small frame, not particularly strong. I guessed that she was a yoga or pilates devotee. She was wearing a red jogging suit but as we unloaded her cart, she doffed the jacket revealing a torn Bruce Hornsby tee. I watched her move around and took in her nice rack stuffed into a sports bra. I figured them for 36C which seemed especially nice on her small five-foot-two body. A nice package. With make up, she might even be attractive. Oh, yeah, she introduced herself as Janie Warren.
We made some small talk as I helped her store her boxes of books and some random loose items like lamps, hangers and bags. As I wheeled the cart back to the elevator, I stopped at my space to close it up. Janie walked into it as glanced around, inspecting the contents.
"Wow. You have a lot of stuff in here...a lot of cool stuff."
"It's the accumulation of my whole life with the exception of what my ex took."
"A lot of cool stuff...a Martin guitar, a couple of electrics, a Marshall amp, gee, Woody Allen movie posters..." She seemed to be taking inventory and I wanted to close up the room so I ushered her out, pulled the gate down and fastened the double locks.
"I wish I had a place to keep that stuff with me but, for now, here it stays. But I come back and forth to get whatever I need." We walked back to the freight elevator, I loaded it back up and sent it back up to the first floor. As we walked out of the facility, my dog trotted into the woods to relieve himself. I unlocked my car and opened the back door for him.
Janie called to me. "Do you have a few more minutes? I could use your help unloading the rest of my shit."
I looked over at her SUV and there were at least two more loads. "Sure. Let me just get him in the car."
I got another couple of carts and after about a half hour, her SUV was empty and her storage unit was full. We were both sweating and we sat down on a couple of boxes. I pulled out a joint and asked her if she was interested in partaking.
"Oh, that's a great idea." I lit it and passed it over to her. She toked up and coughed. "Mmm. That tastes good."
