We had a tenant once who we affectionately nicknamed "boots" because he wore those large, brown winter boots during the late fall, winter and into early June. You know the ones. They are kinda old school with the dark brown toes and sole with a lighter brown exterior and a huge tongue with white fuzzy stuff on the inside with laces that were striped dark brown and beige. They're huge boots. And these huge boots on a young guy with zero grace or awareness of himself made for a very unstealthy individual. Our office is on the second floor and you sometimes need to buzz up so that the door can be remotely unlocked. We would here the buzz, let the person in and then hear the tell tale, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP up the stairs. I had gotten so good that I would call it after the second THUMP; "That's Boots!" And for those of you that know me, I'm friggin' deaf. He wouldn't tie those things up either. The big 'ol tongues would hang open and the laces trailing behind. Plus he would wear either a big wool winter coat or a tweed sport jacket, depending on the day I suppose and who he had to meet. And he would typically pair the tweed sports jacket with a grubby t-shirt and over sized sweats. He was always a sight.
One day I was alerted that someone was in the office to see me. As I walked out my door I saw Boots standing at the front counter. Boots was never completely clean shaven but he didn't really have much facial hair either so he kind of looked like he got into a fight and someone threw Nair on his face. He was standing at the counter looking out of sorts.
"What's up, Keith?", I asked. "Shouldn't you be at work?" Boots had been working part time at McDonald's and was doing pretty well (or so I thought), cleaning off tables, emptying garbage, etc.
"I got fired!", Boots half shouted. Boots had an extremely loud voice. You always felt like he was yelling at you.
"Oh, that sucks. What happened? Did your supervisor explain why?"
"Ohhhhhh yeah!", he replied. Now he began getting pretty animated. "Yep, he told me alright and I just can't believe it." He began pacing a little and started swinging his arms. Boots was a pretty big hand talker when he was talking about menial things like TV commercials and parking meters. Now it was clear that Boots was a man becoming undone. "I mean, it just doesn't make any sense!!"
"Ok, Keith. Well, what reason did he give you?"
"TARDY!! He said I was tardy! Can you believe that?!?! I mean, I never, ever gave anyone a problem." With each sentence his hands got higher and higher and he began swinging his arms like he was defending himself from a swarm of wasps. "I never had a bad attitude. I was always polite! It just doesn't make any sense!"
As Boots gave me his rebuttal for being turfed from McDonald's it seemed that it wasn't matching the reason he actually was fired. Clearly, I need to clarify something.
"Uh, Boots do you know what being tardy means?"
"Yeah! It means having a lousy attitude and talking back and not listening to your boss. I can't believe I got fired for that! I never, ever..."
"Right", I cut Boots off. "Uh, Keith. Tardy means being late and not showing up on time. It sounds like you were fired because you weren't arriving for work when you were supposed to."
Keith slowly put his hands down to his side. His eyes went up towards the ceiling. There was a very pregnant pause and then Keith said, "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. Ok, see ya Wayne."
And that was it. With a big smile he turned around and walked down the steps; THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.
Keith had a severe learning disability, anxiety and a mitt full of other challenges. One of the biggest problems he had was the inability to say no to people. Unfortunately the users and the takers find guys like Boots to prey on. He had about 5 or 6 guys that would use him for him money, his apartment, his cell phone, etc. I remember taking him to pay his cable bill and he had over $350 for the month on his bill, most of the charges Pay Per View movies almost all of which his "friends" purchased. He received a personal injury settlement from MPI for a vehicle accident and one of the installments was $2500. We did our best to have him give us the money for safe keeping but failed. Out of all of that cash he spent about $100 on himself and the rest was spent buying clothes, food, booze and drugs for his buddies. At the end of his time at Uturn he just couldn't keep people out of his apartment that were doing him and others in the apartment building harm. I had to evict him. His ability to choose was so severely limited and at that point in his development it became clear that living in Brandon just wasn't a good option. He went back home to rural MB to live with his parents.
I've met a lot of people, many I won't necessarily remember. I don't think I'll ever forget Keith's big smile, goofy laugh, generous spirit and those gigantic boots. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. Thanks for letting me get to know ya, Boots.
No comments:
Post a Comment