A week or two ago I wrote about our handyman gone wrong. It gets worse now.

He won’t leave our property, the little house in the woods we call The Wilderness. He’s claiming we promised him three years of occupancy. And he’s refusing to do any work for it.

Now many of you will come piling in with opinions about this, but let me tell you, Virginia has specific laws and doesn’t care about our opinions. And they are not friendly to landlords. Even nice little elderly lady landlords who in good faith opened a place for a homeless guy to enjoy recovery.

Because the guy has brought his girlfriend to the place, and someone is doing lines on the coffee table. And pooping all over the rug. (We hope it’s the dog.)

I filed for eviction, but did the paperwork wrong so have to file again. Meanwhile, leaving court after the judge dismissed the case, the guy and his girlfriend were so jubilant.

Which struck me as odd, because I went to the courtroom despairing that I was going to have to evict someone in winter, determined to offer help moving and applying for homeless help.

Some people want something for nothing, sure, but this was deeper. He WANTED to hurt me. He was happy he had. Their laughter as they departed, their sidelong glances….

They were kinda terrifying.