Free A Loop in Time by Clark Graham

frustrated. Her father was still affecting her after all these years. Why had she thought that every man was going to turn out like him? She could not sleep at all so she got up and grabbed a book and read the rest of the night.
    John lay down on the hard mattress. He had worn out his welcome and now he had to find a way to get out and leave her alone. Men were evil in her mind and he was a man.
     

Chapter Thirteen
     
    The next day, John sat in his bedroom listening to the noises of Susan getting ready for work. He didn’t come out until he heard the front door close and then he got dressed and left. The first order of business was getting a Social Security card. He used Lieutenant Granger’s trick and it worked admirably. He had one in less than an hour.
    He then went down and bought a newspaper to see how much apartments were. He also noticed the car ads. It only cost a little over two thousand dollars for a brand new Ford Mustang. There was no way he could afford one on his part time salary. He sat there dejected. He was so trapped. He then toyed with the idea of going to live with Susan’s nursing friend, but he didn’t even know who she was and he was quite sure he didn’t want to get into a bad situation with another woman.
    After throwing the paper away, he went over to the hardware store to show his boss his new Social Security card. When he arrived there his boss was glad to see him.
    “Hey, I had one of the girls call in sick. Do you want to take her shift?”
    “No problem,” John replied. He was actually quite excited to get some extra money. “Oh, by the way, do you know of an apartment for rent? I need a new place.”
    “Yes, across town. A friend of mine has a place for $200 a month.”
    “Can I afford that on my wages?” John already knew the answer, but he wanted Chuck to think about it.
    “No.” There was no hesitancy at all. “Wait, though, I have an uncle who has a small spot over his garage. He is looking for a renter there. Maybe he will charge a hundred a month or so. You can just squeak enough to get that place.”
    “Great. After work, point me in the right direction.”
    “Yeah, sure.”
    It was a long day for John. At the end of it, Chuck introduced him to his uncle Bill. Bill was a small man with grey hair and a slight limp. He had a lot of laugh lines in his wrinkled face.
    John looked at the apartment. It was small, only one room with a bathroom off to the side. There was a lot of junk stored in the one room and he just assumed that he would have to work his way around all of the stuff. Still he needed a place and this was all he could afford, if indeed he could afford it. “I’ll take it,” he said to Bill.
    “Great,” Bill seemed genuinely happy to have him there.
    After Chuck left, Bill got John aside, “He wanted me to pay him a finder’s fee for locating a renter. I told him to get lost.”
    John laughed, “He is a bit of a cheapskate isn’t he?”
    “A bit? No, he’s a cheapskate through and through. I don’t know how much he is paying you, but I know it isn’t much, so for the first two months the rent is free. After that, it’s fifty dollars a month, but there is one condition.”
    Fifty a month sounded affordable. John was happy. “What is the condition?”
    “I travel a lot and I need someone to kinda keep an eye on the house. In exchange for cheap rent, I need you to be a watch dog.”
    “No problem. When can I move in?”
    “Give me two days to get it all cleaned out, then you can move in anytime you want. Do you have a lot of stuff?”
    That was good news that he was going to clean out the place. John had to admit though, “All I have it three shirts and two pair of pants.”
    “Oh, dear, well it’s good that I have a bed up here then. I have an old couch I was looking to get rid of but I will put it up here instead. I guess it’s time to buy Mrs. Bill a new pot and pan set. I will bring her old stuff up here also. You should be all