Evangeline Sablier is not broken, but please (handlewithcare) wrote in rooms,
Wren and Evie in the Dustbowl
[Five flights of stairs above a 24 hour Dim Sum restaurant in Hell's Kitchen, halfway between Daisy's daycare and the fire station, was an office. Well an office that had been converted into an apartment sometime around 1960. Or at least what someone had called an apartment.
And it was huge. Evie probably had the only apartment in New York City with a living room that could have been it's own lobby. Because it probably had been it's own lobby. The apartment itself was very large. Very open. Big windows (badly in need of cleaning and probably some curtains of some kind) that opened out onto a fire escape. There was a kitchen with too much counter space that didn't look like it came with the stove that had been installed (because it had been an office kitchen). The bathroom had a large mirror, two sinks, a toilet and a claw foot tub (also badly in need of scrubbing). The apartment features like showers and tubs looked like after thoughts (because it had been an office). And the two bedrooms, and one "den" (offices) were simply that. A "corner office" and two smaller "offices." There was even a desk in the middle of the room. Some dusty boxes that didn't belong to Evie, but did now(!), some office chairs, some other...Things. Daisy's suitcase, pack'n'play, Sleeping bags, inflatable mattress (for now), a few boxes with Evie's name on them, and her suitcase. And a good five years worth of dust.
Evie loved it. Even though there were weird poles in the living room from floor to ceiling. And even though the radiator made weird noises. And even though at 4 AM it REALLY smelled like pork. She was on the top floor, the fourth floor were the actual offices for the restaurant, the third floor was where the landlady and her entire family lived, the second floor was where they had storage for the restaurant. And she lived upstairs in a place that hadn't been touched in forever. Why they let it go, they explained, was because they had people they hated in there all the time. At least they were honest. And they didn't seem to hate her. Or Daisy. Or the dog. Who was tentatively lying on his bed near the window having worn himself out sniffing everything. Five or six times.
Evie was dressed in her jeans and her tee shirt, and while she'd gotten the essentials cleaned up, like the toilet. It had a long way to go. But she had a home. A real one. That was all hers. And she had signed a lease. In her name. That said she could stay for at least a year. And the only reason they could make her leave was if she did something that went against what it said in the lease, and she wouldn't do that. Obviously.
But no one else could make her go. Or tell her it was time to leave. In fact if she wanted to tell someone to get out, she could. Not that she would. Well maybe she would. But so far she hadn't. And Wren was her next guest and she wouldn't do that ever. She had Dim Sum, of course, coming out of her ears, because she'd already been deemed worthy of being fed constantly, and she was not going to say no. And even though she was putting things in the tip jar - they hadn't made her pay for a meal in few days since she'd started the whole process. Oh yeah. She was definitely about to get super fat.
Daisy was chewing away on her own dinner, she didn't think waiting for Wren was as important as eating right then, and Evie wasn't going to force manners on her. It was too exciting. They weren't in a crappy motel. Maybe she didn't have a yard, but she had a...Lobby living room.]