Read Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories of Shirley Jackson for Free Online Page A

sub-sublet the apartment and I suggest you keep the check .
    Sincerely ,
    Marian Griswold
    Shax, Asmodeus, Baal, and Co. Realtors
    Dear Miss Griswold ,
    Enclosed please find your check for $65.75 to cover the rent for one month on apartment 3C at 101 Eastern Square. Since you are not the legal resident of this apartment it would not be legal for us to accept this check. Mrs. Tuttle is mistaken. Her lease gives her every right to keep mockingbirds, but none whatsoever to sub-sublet .
    Most extremely cordially ,
    B. H. Shax
    P.S. Please consider this as second warning of notice to evict .
    101 Eastern Square
   Friday
    Dear Mr. Shax ,
    If I am not the legal resident of the apartment you cannot evict me. You cannot evict Mrs. Tuttle, who is the legal resident of the apartment, because she is not living here. Unless you accept my check you are not going to receive any rent for the apartment at all because you cannot rent it to anyone else while I am living here because you cannot evict me so they could move in. Mrs. Tuttle will not pay the rent because she is not living here .
    Sincerely ,
    Marian Griswold
    95 Martin Lane
   Friday
    Marian dear ,
    I’m really awfully sorry, but I’m afraid we’re coming back. To the apartment, I mean. They definitely won’t let us stay here with Butchie, and they don’t much like the dog, either. We figure there’s no use fighting just to keep an old apartment we’re not crazy about, so back we come. I’m really terribly sorry about your moving and all, but you do understand, don’t you?
    Love ,
    Helen
    Shax, Asmodeus, Baal, and Co. Realtors
    Dear Miss Griswold ,
    I am not a hard-hearted man, and even though the real estate business is one of dog-eat-dog you must try to understand that it is only because the real estate business is like that, that we frequently seem to be unpleasant and hard-hearted. I could not sleep nights if I put a young girl out onto the street to starve. I am not really a hard-hearted man, so you may keep the apartment. Will you please forward by return mail your check for last month’s rent on apartment 3C at 101 Eastern Square plus your check for next month’s rent and a signed statement to the effect that you will not sub-sub-sublet. I assume that you have no intention of opening a sidewalk vegetable stand, keeping dogs or children, hanging pictures on the walls, making unnecessary noise, leaving garbage in the hall, blocking the stairway or the elevator, putting scratches on the floors, renting rooms for money, or opening any business for profit on the premises. As I say, I am not a hardhearted man, and I could not sleep nights if I had to forcibly evict you .
    Most extremely cordially ,
    B. H. Shax
    101 Eastern Square
   Tuesday
    Dear Mr. Burlingame ,
    This is a terrible thing to do, but I guess I will have to have my old apartment back, and just as everything was all right here, too. The people I got this one from want it back because they can’t stay in their new place with a baby. So don’t bring over my furniture. I’ll probably be wanting to come back next week sometime .
    Sincerely ,
    Marian Griswold
    36 Elm St.
   Wednesday
    Dear Bill ,
    Never mind about the stuff. The dame wants the place back .
    Al
    10 Oliver
   Thursday
    Dear Timmy ,
    I won’t be needing my furniture for a while yet. Al got kicked out of his apartment by the dame who’s coming back.
    Bill
    1249 Jones St.
   Friday
    Dear Mom ,
    It’s O.K. about the furniture. Hope you haven’t already sent it, because I won’t be needing it now. Will write soon.
    Love ,
    Timmy
    36 Elm St.
   Friday
    Dear Felicia ,
    I am sure you will forgive my taking this method of asking you this question, when you realize how much it means to me, and how whenever I am with you I find it impossible to gather my courage to speak. I know that you have for a long time been aware of my feelings for you, and if by some lucky chance you feel the same way about me, it would certainly be