The Three-Bedroom Apartment: A Continuing Stooooory. Act III: Misgivings

When last we left our heroines, they had overcome the disappointment of being rejected by a possibly homophobic or possibly just generally jerkish potential landlord in their school catchment area of choice, and were dancing with glee at obtaining that coveted prize: the offer of a lease on a 3-bedroom (or nearly 3-bedroom, anyway) apartment near the Skytrain. Now they are ready to meet the landlady to hand over half-a-month's rent as a security deposit.

III: i
The next day, at the Skytrain Apartment.

Landlady: Oh, hi! So nice to see you. Here, come on in. You want to look around again? Sure. Okay, here's the kitchen, and the bedrooms...

RW [sotto voce]: You were right. The other place was bigger.

e: Yeah, I thought so. It's okay, though. This place is nice.

Landlady: Now, there will be a deposit for the cat, too, but you can give it to me later...

Mermaid Girl, rushing over from her inspection of the bathroom with horrified mein: MAMA!! Mama, come see. There's something...something...you have to see something.

[elswhere and Landlady continue chatting in kitchen as a wail breaks forth from the general bathroom area]

MG storms out of bathroom and out to back deck, where she proceeds to sulk.

RW emerges from bathroom and shrugs.

Landlady looks quizzical.

elswhere [to landlady]: I think she's upset that there's no bathtub.

MG [from deck]: I HATE showers! Showers are the worst thing!

RW: It's okay. We thought she might be upset.

elswhere: She's taking the move hard in general.

MG [storming down pathway]: I'm going to call our friends and find another family to stay with!

elswhere, fatefully handing over deposit: Yeah. There will be a lot of transitions for her.

Landlady: Okay, well, here's your receipt! See you next week to sign the lease. Can you bring the first month's rent in cash?

RW and elswhere, with shaken and grieving MG in tow: Sure! Okay! See you then! Bye!

III: ii
The next day, in Seattle, where the family has returned for the weekend for a longstanding social engagement.

elswhere: We could get a storage tub that fits inside the stall, and fill it from the shower, and she could sit in that and splash.

RW: I don't know. It's definitely smaller than I remembered. There's no washer or dryer and no dishwasher. And I hate the paint. I'd have to paint the walls before we could move in.

elswhere: We can't let MG's being upset sway us too much, or we'll never get anywhere.

RW: I know. But it's hard not to.

elswhere: Well, yeah. But it is near the skytrain; she'll like that. And there's that deck...

RW: The mom downstairs smokes; I saw her ashtray outside. And there's not much in the neighborhood. No coffee places, not a lot of stores we'd go to.

elswhere: Well, yeah.

RW [looking around the Seattle house, as MG chatters merrily in the background, getting reacquainted with her old toys]: It's just so much more expensive, for so much less than we have here.

elswhere: I'm just not sure if we can get anything decent for cheaper. I mean, we might, but it's a risk. And we paid the deposit already...

RW: Frankly, if we just wrote off the deposit and decided to stay here, it would still be cheaper than renting there. We have this nice house here, in this beautiful neighborhood.

elswhere: And MG's so happy here.

RW: She loves it here.

elswhere: Why are we moving, again?

RW: I don't know!

[elswhere and RW weep, in turns]

To be continued.