Hidden Depths

1st Day in Skaneateles

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Shut UP!" I yelled at my alarm, expecting it to magically knew what that meant.

Groaning and rolling my eyes I got up, slamming my hand down on the alarm and doing a morning stretch. Looking over at my nearly bare wall, I noticed I left my calendar up.

There was a circle around today. The reason for that? It's moving day.

And not even two feet away, there were boxes stacked up as tall as the ceiling. "I got my work cut out for me," I breathed.

It took two hours of non stop heavy lifting and going up and down stairs, but miraculously, finally, I got all of the boxes in my tiny Toyota Corolla.

Straightening out my hair and my shirt, I took a deep breath, glanced one more time at the shitty black mold infested apartment I was leaving behind, and I got in the car.

Setting the GPS to the new house, I pulled out the Red Bull, and started the 8 hour drive.

Having almost fallen asleep about 6500 times, almost taken my hubcaps off the same amount of times, and consuming more than the average person should in one day of energy drinks, I was finally here.

In this sought after city, called Skaneateles, NY.

The house was much prettier than I expected, a very nice baby blue, the windows a flush white. There were flower boxes in the windows that were dated, but the house was a good price. One that I couldn't turn down. Especially being in a black mold infestation before finding it.

I remember the landlords exact words. "It'll take about 6 months to completely detox and remove all of this. It's your best bet to find a different apartment in this complex, or find a different place altogether. After this one is done, we will have to do major renovations for it to even be livable."

Finding the job as a reporter, much less the house, strangely just fell into my lap, if you will.

I found them both when I wasn't really looking, while I was scrolling through my socials. I researched them over and over and over again, waiting for it to say somewhere that it was scam, but the only thing that kept popping up was, "this house will go fast! Act now or forever hold your peace!"

I had to do it. So, here I am now. They only gave me one interview for the job through zoom, I showed them my degree and my skills, and was hired on the spot. Again, almost a little too good to be true. But alas, I took the plunge. There was absolutely no way of getting out now. Skaneateles was my new home for at least the next 10 or so years.

To be fair though, it really was a beautiful town. The parks, the pier, the restaurants. It's a very old timey, mixed with partially modern, comfortable feel. It's almost tavern like. But it was perfect. From the structure of the houses, to the sound of the waves crashing down on the rocks, to the busy mumble of peoples voices in every direction, happily taking strolls down the walk, it was all I needed.

Smiling to myself at the memory, I got out of the car and removed the house key from my pocket. The doorknob turned without any hesitation.

I took two or three boxes out of the car and set them in front of the door, finally opening it myself for the very first time. The door swished quietly, stopping halfway, leaving enough space for me to get through. It was exactly as the pictures had shown.