A text arrived from my unwelcome lodger, the day after we went to court. It was somewhat disturbing:

You ready to talk text like an adult.. or you gonna still push the unnecessary drama that’s been going on…just soon as I figure away to get the truck out.. sooner I can get around.. problem is that you don’t keep your word .. you say message when I need help but u don’t reply and you didn’t Helpme as you said

Most of this I’m unable to interpret. Jack and I gave this guy our old truck (the one that came with the property he is now occupying) in late July. Sometime in early September he embedded it in someone’s lawn and went to jail overnight. It was impounded, and when he got it out, it couldn’t be driven.

Since it’s not ours, I am not certain where the truck is in play, but it has been consistently used as a reason he hasn’t done the ten hours per work we set up in our original agreement.

On the “you didn’t help me,” anyone got any ideas? We gave him a truck. We gave him a rent-for-work deal. We gave him food and we babysat his dog. The only thing I can think is in late October he called my phone at 10:58 pm. I tend to turn my phone off when I go to bed. He then called Katie, the woman who introduced me to him, and she went and fetched him from a tense situation involving the police at his girlfriend’s house. They loaded his worldly goods into her vehicle and drove them to The Wilderness (the nickname for our property).

Maybe that’s what he’s referring to, or maybe this is just one more element of the world he occupies in his mind.

It is intriguing to me that so many people find themselves in this situation, an unwanted lodger who refuses to vacate. Virginia is notorious for being friendly to those threatened with eviction, so I’m going to continue documenting this as the journey unfolds. Not every day, but it is so academically interesting. I just wish it weren’t so personal. Stay tuned.