Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories of Shirley Jackson Read Online Free PDF Page B

listed under the name of J. T. Maloney, which is the name of the people the Tuttles subleased from, and of course no one liked to have the phone changed because the landlord never really liked having the Tuttles sublease from the Maloneys .
    As a matter of fact, it’s just me and the telephone here now. I managed to wear two blankets in under my coat when I came in so I can roll up in them at night, and I had my toothbrush in my pocketbook and I’ve sneaked in a towel and a cake of soap, but otherwise it’s sort of empty. The Tuttles took their furniture out piece by piece and put it into the back of their car covered with a rug, and yesterday the bed went and I must say it looked like the janitor was going to catch us taking the springs down the back stairs .
    If you know of any way you can sneak some kind of a folding chair up to me, I’d appreciate it .
    Yours very truly ,
    Marian Griswold
    36 Elm St.
   Monday
    Dear Miss Griswold ,
    Sorry to hear of your roughing it. There is nothing I would like better than turning over all your furniture to you right away, since my friends think it is sort of funny my sleeping in a bed with a pink canopy and keeping my watch and loose change on a dresser with a gauze skirt thing on it. I finally found the telephone under that little doll effect you had , and would call you instead of writing except that the telephone book is holding up one foot of the bathtub and I can’t get it out. I also wish you could get some of your clothes out of the closet partly because I could use the hangers and partly because my aunt brought me over a chocolate cake yesterday and when she went to the closet to hang up her coat I had a terrible time explaining to her. Can you think of anything?
    Sincerely ,
    Allan Burlingame
    101 Eastern Square
   Wednesday
    Dear Mr. Burlingame ,
    I am having enough trouble getting in and out of my apartment myself without trying to carry a dresser with a gauze skirt. If you don’t like it, move. I have to go up the stairs one flight at a time, hiding in the shadows on every landing for fear someone should see me and tell the landlord there is someone strange living in the Tuttles’ apartment. I gave the janitor five dollars and I told him I was visiting the Tuttles and they never came out of the apartment because they all had influenza, but I’m pretty sure he knows they moved out and I am living there because I think he saw the living room chairs in the elevator, and I know he saw me moving in the cot, but I told him it was because the Tuttles didn’t have enough beds, and then I gave him the five dollars .
    At any rate I have a place to sleep now and I hope to get in a coffeepot tomorrow or the next day. As soon as I tell the landlord that the Tuttles have moved and I am leasing the apartment I will be able to send for my furniture .
    Yours very truly ,
    Marian Griswold
    Shax, Asmodeus, Baal, and Co. Realtors
    Dear Mrs. Tuttle ,
    In reference to the apartment 3C at 101 Eastern Square, subleased in your name from Mr. J. T. Maloney, we are sorry to be in a position to inform you that your sublease having expired, we have no choice but to inform you that your sublease on apartment 3C at 101 Eastern Square is no longer valid, and we shall expect to recover said premises on October 1st of this year, that being the date upon when your sublease expires. We are sorry to inform you that if you do not vacate said premises before said date we shall have to service upon you first warning of a notice of eviction .
    Yours extremely cordially ,
    B. H. Shax, Executive Vice President
    101 Eastern Square
   Monday
    Dear Helen ,
    This just came. What shall I do?
    Desperately ,
    Marian
    95 Martin Lane
   Wednesday
    Dear Marian ,
    Hang on, if you can. Because we have trouble enough of our own — it turns out the owner of this apartment can’t stand children and just because some old grouch complained about Butchie’s tricycle in the halls, and anyway it’s their own