House Case - Finish
After meeting with Delon and Ashley, Mrs. Chou receives a phone call from her daughter, Joanna.
Joanna: Mom, it’s me.
Mrs. Chou: Honey, how are you? I thought I was supposed to call you.
Joanna: I’m good - just finishing dinner with your grandson. How’s the apartment going?
Mrs. Chou: Well….Not bad, two people wanted to rent the apartment, it’s hard to meet a good tenant, you know.
Joanna: Why? Tell me more about them.
Mrs. Chou: The first one is a young lady; she’s a single mother with a little boy. The second one is a man in his early thirties. You know, whoever rents the apartment will live upstairs from me. I need a quiet life. The little boy must make lots of noise every day. But the man asked about parties. If he holds parties a lot, I will be crazy. I think he smokes, too. By the way, do you think leasing the apartment to a strong male is a wise idea? I think he will have the wrong kinds of people hanging around my house.
Joanna: It’s really hard to pick one. They both might make the apartment noisy.
Mrs. Chou: Yep, the other thing I’m worried about is whether they can afford the rent. The man seems to change jobs a lot while the young lady could also have some financial problems. Though I’m not sure about this, (sigh…). She seems nice but having a kid in that small apartment… I worry he will make a lot of noise and perhaps cause damage. You remember the last renter had two small children and they were always vandalizing something. I’m afraid children in general are just natural vandals. I bet she must have some troubles. I bet both of them will be trouble. Maybe I should add more items in the contract.
Mrs. Chou: I’m trying to be fair about considering them both, but I have to admit ever since your friend, Laura, was raped last year I’ve been more cautious around men, particularly Black men.
Joanna: I know mom. It bothered us all a lot. But he was white, not Black. And, don’t forget that news special on crime the other day when they said that most crimes are committed by people the same race as the victim.
Mrs. Chou: Yes, but that program also said that women are most likely to be victimized by men, and about half the time the man is someone they are close to.
Mrs. Chou: I’m also leaning against renting to Devon because he wants to me to repaint the living room and you know how that is, you do something nice for a renter and they just keep wanting more. Before you know it, you have no profit.
Mrs. Chou: Anyway, whatever the reason and whether it is fair or not, I’ve ruled out Delon, so I have to rent to Ashley.
Joanna: Don’t be too hasty, mom. Why don’t you keep the advertisement up another week and let’s hope you find someone you like better than both of these people. Remember how Aunt Esther took over a month to find a nice renter last year and ended up with her best renter yet. So taking longer to find a renter must be good.