House Sitting in Florida

I was at a very down point in my life. My marriage of 15 years had just ended in divorce and my ex-wife had gotten half of my military retirement pay. The divorce proceedings had eaten up the majority of my savings. I had just started a new job, but a small fire in our building had caused major damage and the company was going to shut down for a week for the clean up. All of the employees were put on vacation or unemployment, but since I had been there such a short time, I qualified for neither. While most of my co-workers were headed out to nice vacations, I was stuck in the cold Northeast, facing the prospect of the coldest weeks of the winter. To make matters worse, I hadn’t been laid in over nine months and had no prospects for changing that.

Just when I thought I was at rock bottom, I got a call from Steve, an old Navy buddy. He was in slight predicament. His wife and he were scheduled to leave on a six day cruise. He had planned for his brother-in-law to come down and watch his house in Florida while they were gone. His brother-in-law, who lived near me, had cancelled out. He was stuck with the plane ticket he had bought for him and had not been able to find a replacement house-sitter. Because of some recent break-ins in the neighborhood, he didn’t want to leave his house empty for a week even though his neighbors would be keeping an eye on the place. He wanted to know if I could come down to Florida and help him out. They had a back yard pool, fully stocked bar and refrigerator, and I could use his membership at his golf club. All I had to do was hop the flight that he had already paid for and have an enjoyable week in the warm Florida sun. I couldn’t believe my change in fortune. I jumped at his invitation.

I caught the flight the next evening, Saturday and arrived about 10 in tht night. After catching up with Steve and his wife, Martha, I settled into the guest room for a good night’s sleep. Steve and Martha had planned a small barbeque the next day with their neighbors to introduce me so that everyone would know who was watching the house for a week. It was the typical suburban couples, everyone was nice. One couple stood out. Ann and Jeff were visiting Heidi and Bob, the next door neighbors.

Ann and Jack were also from the Northeast and lived about a half hour from me.