Friday, June 1, 2007

Yet more motel stories

This one's a little weirder than the rest, and I think parts of it might have to be swallowed with a large grain of salt.

So there's this guy, looks to be somewhere in his late 40s, who lives around back of my building, has been here seven years. I'll call him Nick, cuz that's his name.

He's a talker. One of those types you have to cut short or he'll jaw your ear off all day. Pleasant enough, has 3 cats, probably a lonely heart.

What I've learned: he's of Russian and German descent, studied philosophy and history at McGill University, and has an elderly mother.

I met his mom yesterday as I was heading out to the store to buy milk.

You know those wooden nesting dolls, painted to look like a stout Russian babuschka? His mother totally looks like a Russian babuschka, complete with handkerchief on head. She's so cute! Then, as it turns out, I'd met this woman and her son, last summer, at one of the beaches near rom's house. I remembered that she had told me about her problems sharing a well with seven neighbours and how the neighbours were blaming her for their chronic water shortage because they accused her of doing too much laundry. Well, whatever. They could dig their own wells, you know. Instead of picking on an old lady.

So this babuschka looks to be about 80 and she's all wrapped up in layers of completely mismatched colourful clothes and sitting behind the wheel of her car. We chatted for a bit.

But back to the weird story.

Nick tells me that the landlord has always had a dislike for him, even though he has (he says) been quiet and always paid his rent on time for 7 years. He thinks the landlord is racist, which is entirely possible, since Quebec has a strong historical racist streak in its collective provincial soul. Nick says he and his mother have been the victims of vandalism on this property in the past; once, someone left a dead raccoon on the hood of his car, and another time, someone splashed tar all over his mother's windshield.

THEN! Nick says a girl of 15 was murdered in one of these apartments and her body dumped BY THE LANDLORD in a nearby quarry. He says he saw the landlord carrying the body.

I Googled the girl's name and other details but haven't found anything yet. It would be very easy to ask one of the old-timers here if they'd ever heard anything about this story, though.

And tempering my attitude to it all is Nick's talk about THE JEWISH CONSPIRACY.

When you hear those words? You go uh-oh! It kinda, sorta negates the other half of everything else he says.



4 comments:

t2ed said...

I love the crazy characters at your hotel. It's not the Bates Hotel is it?

And if John Cusack and Ray Liotta show up at your hotel, you'd better get the hell out because you're in the movie Identity.

Chunks said...

If John Cusack shows up, you can call ME! hahah! I love him!

Anyway, I love the stories that are coming out of that place! I haven't met any of my neighbors and don't really want to, I'm enjoying the solitude THAT much. Is this normal?

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me like Nick forgot to take his meds.

lattégirl said...

Perfectly normal, Rox. :)