Let's Not Meet Again

Mr Creepypants

A few years ago my partner and I moved from the east coast to the pacific northwest. We didn't know anyone in this city, we just saved up a decent chunk of money and hopped on a plane. It was exciting and we certainly haven't regretted it. The plan was to stay at hostels and cheap hotels until we could find work and an apartment.

Finding work was actually quite easy for us, we had new jobs within a week of getting off the plane. Finding somewhere to live though was a nightmare. Everywhere we looked had incredibly steep requirements for credit scores and minimum household income. We tried more legitimate sites at first but after two months of hopping around to different hostels, motels and Airbnb places we became desperate so we went to Craigslist. Many of the listings we tried gave us just as much trouble at first.

So one day I'm desperately scouring Craigslist for rooms and I come across one that seemed a little weird. The poster said that he had a very large house in a nice neighborhood and that he wanted to rent out a 500 sq. foot room for 600$ per month, utilities included. In this city that was suspiciously cheap. He also wrote it in a rambling sort of way. It was almost half ad for a room and half open letter to everyone that had recently accused him of being creepy.

Now obviously, if we weren't so desperate we wouldn't have even considered contacting this man. But we thought that we might have been at risk of running out of money before we could get in somewhere at this rate, so we gave him a call. On the phone he sounded relatively normal. He actually suggested that we meet up with him in a public place to talk about the room first. We agreed to meet him at a restaurant near the hostel we were staying at (though we didn't tell him which one of course).

He showed up late and looked surprised to actually see us there. He sat down and he talked for a long time. I say "he talked" rather than "we talked" because he rambled nonstop about himself and how he felt persecuted by everyone in this city. He claimed to be an artist and a collector. In between him repeating himself many times about how the locals just don't understand his "passions" he also told us that the room he had advertised was currently filled with his "collection" (he never once said what he had collected) and that if things went well he would have to hire people to move it into storage before we could move in.

And one point he stopped talking abruptly and ran to the restroom. We took this opportunity to discuss the situation. We knew at this point that he was probably a crazy person, but the threat of homelessness was looming, so we agreed that we should at least see the place and decide based on that rather than his "eccentricities". He came back to the table sweaty and flustered (we weren't sure why at the time but we figured it out later). Before we could say anything he blurted out "I want to show you the apartment right now!". We were surprised by this, but we had just discussed seeing it so we agreed. I asked him to text me the address and that we would take public transportation and meet him there. He insisted that he drive us there since we didn't have a car.

Now we were obviously hesitant to get in his truck (it was obvious even to him, I think). But the previously mentioned desperation was still a thing and we were pretty sure he wasn't going to try to hurt us (we were right but it was still a bad decision in retrospect). So we crammed into the front seat of his tiny, rusty, ancient looking pickup truck. My partner was pressed up against the door and I was uncomfortably close to the driver as he continued his babble about how this city had gone downhill and how everyone he used to hang out with shuns him these days. At one point I whispered to my partner to get ready for a possible tuck and roll situation. He saw me whispering but couldn't hear me over the wind roaring through the cab of the truck (one of the windows was broken out, really added to the vehicle's charms) and he said something about we were romantic together and that he envied our youth.