The Messanger

" Next Track"

After a day, I finally make it to Jasper, Alabama. It's a town close to Birmingham so I'm not too far from the city. I get off the bus and I head straight towards the nearest grocery store and buy a quick lunch. As I go to sit somewhere and eat my food, I sit and just take in my environment. I start to reminisce on everything that's happened up to this point and I can feel my chest burning from all the emotions that I'm feeling. As I finish my lunch, I head out to go look for a place to stay, after an hour of walking I've seen this ad for a roommate wanted. I asked for directions and found out it was a five minute walk from where I was currently at. So I immediately head over to the place and start to scope the scene out.

So far from what I can tell, the owner of this place is a clean person for sure. Lawn is mowed, house is painted, and the trash and recycling bin are not overflowing. So I knock on the door expecting some elderly person and a woman in her late twenties came and answered. I looked at her and said, " Oh I apologize I must be at the wrong house. I was trying to find this person that needed a roommate ". She then replies, " Yes you're at the right place, I'm looking for a roommate ". I look at her a bit confused and puzzled. She then asks me, " What's wrong, is everything alright?". I correct myself and reply, " Yea everything is good, it's just unnatural that a woman, especially of your age, is just willing to find a roommate with someone you barely know.

She then chuckles to herself and says back, " Trust me, I can definitely handle my own. Plus I have dogs to back me up if anything as well". I then proceeded to hand her the money she wants plus enough to cover four months. She looks at me a bit puzzled and says, " That's a lot of money, you're not a drug dealer or anything like that right?". I laughed a bit and replied, " No I'm just really good at saving money ". She shrugged it off and let me inside to check the place out, it's a two bedroom house and it's very clean. Her dogs come out one of the rooms and they sniff me for a while and they start to lick my hands as if they trust me. The woman starts to laugh as I ask her what's funny, she then says how her dogs don't usually warm up to people that quickly.

She then takes me to my room and I start to put my bags down as she explained to me the rules of the house. After she was finished, I asked her, " By the way I never got your name, I should've asked earlier ". She replies, " Nah you're right it must've completely slipped my mind. My name is Samantha but everyone calls me Sam for short ". I reach for her hand and say, " It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Stephen but you can call me Steph for short".