She Lives at my House
A very weird thing
has happened. A strange old lady has moved into my house. I have no idea who
she is, where she came from, or how she got in. I certainly didn't invite her.
All I know is that one day she wasn't there and the next day she was. She's
very clever. She manages to keep out of sight for the most part, but whenever
I pass a mirror, I catch a glimpse of her there; and when I look into a mirror
directly to check my appearance suddenly she's hogging the whole thing, completely
obliterating my gorgeous face and body. It's very disconcerting. I've
tried screaming at her to leave but she just screams back, grimacing horribly.
She's really rather frightening. If she's going to hang around, the least
she could do is offer to pay rent. But no. Every once in a while I do find a
couple of dollar bills on the kitchen counter, or some loose change on my bureau
or on the floor, but that certainly isn't enough. In fact, though I don't
like to jump to conclusions, I think she steals money from me regularly. I go
the the ATM and withdraw a hundred dollars, and a few days later, it's gone.
I certainly don't go through it that fast, so I can only conclude that the old
lady pilfers it. You'd think she'd spend some of it on wrinkle cream. God knows,
she needs it. And, the money isn't the only thing she's taking. Food seems
to disappear at an alarming rate. Especially the good stuff - ice cream, cookies,
candy - I just can't keep them in the house. She really has a sweet tooth. She
should watch it; she's really putting on the pounds. I think she realizes that,
and to make herself feel better I know she is tampering with my scale, so I'll
think that I'm gaining weight, too. For an old lady she's really quite childish.
She also gets into my closets when I'm not home and alters all my clothes. They're
getting tighter every day. Another thing: I wish she'd stop messing with my
files and papers on my desk. I can't find a thing any more. This is particularly
hard to deal with because I'm extremely neat and organized; but she manages
to jumble everything up so nothing is where it is supposed to be. Furthermore,
when I program my VCR to tape something important, she fiddles with it after
I leave the room so it records the wrong channel or shuts off completely. She
finds innumerable imaginative ways to irritate me. She gets to my newspapers,
magazines and mail before me- and blurs all the print; and she's done something
sinister with the volume controls on my TV, radio and phone. Now all I hear
are mumbles and whispers. She's also made my stairs steeper, my vacuum
cleaner heavier, all my knobs and faucets hard to turn and my bed higher and
a real challenge to climb into and out of. Furthermore, she gets to my groceries
as soon as I shelve them and applies super glue to the tops of every jar and
bottle so they're just about impossible to open. Is this any way to repay my
hospitality? I don't even get any respite at night. More than once her
snoring has awakened me. I don't know why she can't do something about that.
It's very unattractive. As if all this isn't bad enough, she is no longer confining
her malevolence to the house. She's now found a way to sneak into my car with
me and follow me wherever I go. I see her reflection in store windows as I pass,
and she's taken all the fun out of clothes shopping because her penchant for
monopolizing mirrors has extended to dressing rooms. When I try something on,
she dons an identical outfit, which looks ridiculous on her and then stands
directly in front of me so I can't see how great it looks on me. I thought she
couldn't get any meaner than that, but yesterday, she proved me wrong. She had
the nerve to come with me when I went to have some passport pictures taken.....
Don't you love it??
I have since
found out who wrote this wonderful piece - her name is Rose Mula.
The Author's Page is at:
http://www.seniorwomen.com/rosestranger.htm