Saturday, November 22, 2008

How to get rid of squatters

Thursday morning, I woke up and found a girl I didn't know sleeping on my couch. I didn't think much of it, since I have been known to have sleep overs in the living room. In fact, I just had one last night. Anyway, I figured she was a friend of Brittany's and maybe went to the concert with her the night before. Brittany didn't get in until after 2am. When Brittany left for work, the girl was still there. In fact, she asked if I had an extra clean towel, and took a shower and everything. A little later I was making breakfast, and I asked where she was from. She said she was from Heaven, and wasn't about to offer any other information. That's weird. She also told me her name was Plauci. So then, she started doing Brit's laundry, in return for letting her sleep here. She had to go run some errands, so she left a little before I did. When I came home, two of my room mates, Catherine and Heather, and my relief society president, Tamara, were in my kitchen talking about this girl. When my room mates found out that Brittany didn't know her, they called the Bishop to see what they could do, or where they could take her. Tamara had been waiting all afternoon in our apartment for her to come back. All her stuff was still in our living room. Apparently Brittany didn't know her at all. She came home and saw the girl on the couch in our lobby. Brittany figured she was locked out of her apartment somewhere in our complex. But she wasn't. She was just sleeping there. Apparently she sleeps there often now that its cold outside. She doesn't have an apartment, she doesn't go to school, she doesn't have a job. She's a wanderer, trying to find herself. She reads preach my gospel a lot. At least 3 hours a day from what I observed. And you can't even see that her copy of it has margins because she has written everywhere in them. From what we can tell, she grew up in the church, but has been away for a while until recently. She says her parents are in Salt Lake, but she can't stay with them. Even that is iffy. Most of the time when asked about where her family was, she said "I have family everywhere."
After dinner group, I left with my friend Amelia, Heather went to school, and Catherine and Tamara had tithing settlement. So we left our apartment locked and deadbolted. About 8:30, I got a call from a number I didn't know, but I thought it might be Tamara because it was a 702 number. I answered, and it was the homeless girl!!!!! I was a little freaked out by that, but I figured she just borrowed someone's phone and a ward directory. She wanted to know when we were going to be home. I called Heather, but she was still at class. When we got there, I didn't know what else to do, so I let her in. She had to get her stuff anyway. I ran in the back and called Catherine from Heather's closet so that I wouldn't be overheard. She said that she and Tamara would be right back, so Amelia and I just waited. Plauci still thought she was gonna spend another night on our couch. When Cathering and Tamara got back, they sat down and explained that Plauci couldn't stay because it would be against our housing contract, and we would have to pay fines. They asked if she had anywhere else to go. She pulled out a number for a "friend of a friend" and called them. Tamara and Catherine drove her to the address, which ended up being an assisted living home. So, that's how our apartment kicked out a homeless girl.
Later that night, some of Brittany's friends were decorating for her birthday. We were recounting our tale, and one of them said , "She sounds exactly like the girl I replaced in the Elms. The one who got evicted because she was schizophrenic." Her name was Delores, but I'm pretty sure that was the last name she gave when she talked to the assisted living place. So it might be the same girl after all. And it makes the story even better if the homeless girl on my couch was also schizophrenic.

3 comments:

Alisha Erin said...

yikes! scary!!

Alyssa Walker said...

Oooh my gosh... that's insane.

Poulsen People said...

That is crazier than the story of the girl who lived in the HFAC basement! I am so glad you are ok!