You haven’t paid 6 months’ rent!!!

Act 1.

Scene 2.

What???

That was the first word out of my mouth when I heard my phone chime. I turned my feverish head and groped for my iPhone on the bed.

The message was:

“ you have not paid your rent for an entire six months. why? are you gonna pay? when will you pay? how will you pay it? it’s a big number!…”

“What the hell?”

I think the agent that had helped me find my apartment was suffering from a severe case of anxiety disorder; or maybe he had fever too, and was delirious. It could be a hangover from last night’s boozing; was it Friday yesterday?

No! today is friday. Was.

It’s freaking 10 p.m!

You!….., have had a flue and are still suffering the aftermath; You have muscle pain, undrained pus in your chest, your breath is short, your throat is sore, your head is aching, and you are fatigued for you have been working your ass off cleaning and tidying up the house, for more than 10 hours, only on processed orange juice whose label says natural (God knows the truth), your family are coming over after a whole year of no visits, and now you are dying of pain and hunger and lack of sleep and too much cold pills and antiallergic sachet has made you heavy headed, and the icing on the cake is, you are NOT asleep and this nightmare is an inseparable part of the pure reality of your life!

“what?” this one, I screamed at the top of my lungs; “ No rent for 6 months???”, and I dialed my favorite contact saved as “sweetheart”.

“hi!”

“Hey honey!”

“How are you?”

“fine honey.”

“where are you?”

“ in bed honey.” and a long yawn followed.

“we have been paying my rent for the last 6 months, haven’t we?”

“yes honey.”

“And YOU, are sure!”

“of course honey.” He paused for a moment and asked: “well, why?”

It burst out: “ They say I haven’t paid! for 6 months!”