Antonia
“Antonia! Get in here!” Mr. Lee, Antonia’s boss called from across the room. Antonia felt the back of her neck get hot, embarrassed that everybody in the office turned to look at her as she got up from her seat to follow Mr. Lee into his private office. He didn’t sound happy.
“Sir?” Antonia asked as Mr. Lee slammed the door shut behind her, gesturing for her to take a seat. “Is something wrong?”
Mr. Lee sighed deeply, lacing his fingers together and pressing them to his mouth for a long, silent moment before he finally cleared his throat and spoke. “Look, Antonia. You’ve been a good employee here. Reliable. Polite. Punctual.”
“Thank you,” Antonia said softly, feeling her heart start to pound insistently at the base of her throat. This wasn’t going to end well, was it?
“But I got a complaint today from a customer who said that you were so rude on the phone to him that he will be taking his business elsewhere. I can’t let that happen.”
“What? Who was it?” Antonia asked, her jaw dropping open in shock. She was never rude to potential customers, even when they were mean to her. She knew that it was essential to be incredibly nice and helpful on the phone with would-be clients for Mr. Lee’s law firm.
“That doesn’t matter right now,” Mr. Lee said. “He said his name was Paul, I think, but it’s irrelevant now, isn’t it? We lost his business. Because of you.”
A cold chill settled over Antonia’s body, making the hair on her body stand up. She shook her head in disbelief, then squared her shoulders back and tried to speak as confidently as she could. “Mr. Lee, sir. Please listen to me. I think I know what’s happened here.”
“Oh, you do?” Mr. Lee asked skeptically.
“Yes,” Antonia said. “Paul is my ex-husband’s name. I’m pretty sure he called in a complaint about me just to piss me off. I’m sorry for that, and I’ll talk to him and make sure that it doesn’t happen again, so he doesn’t waste your time with his little stupid pranks, but—”
Mr. Lee cut her off with his hand, shaking his head at her. “Antonia. I’m disappointed in you. I know you want to keep your job, but this is such a pathetic excuse. Really? Blaming it on the ex? How many times do you think I’ve heard that one over the course of my career?”
“But it’s true!” Antonia protested, her voice unfortunately coming out much more high-pitched and squeaky than she’d intended.
“Sure,” Mr. Lee said, scoffing a little. “Listen, you’ve done a pretty good job here, before today. So I’ll tell you what. I’ll write you a letter of recommendation, but you’ve got to get your stuff out of here by the end of the day.”
Antonia wanted to protest further, but she could tell based on the firm, almost stern tone in Mr. Lee’s voice that there was no room for argument in his mind. He’d made his decision already, and there was nothing Antonia could do to convince him otherwise. “Can I get the full payment for today, sir?” she asked softly.
“Of course,” Mr. Lee said. “Just be sure that you turn in your badge and everything to HR before you leave. All right?”
Antonia nodded slowly as Mr. Lee walked around her to open the door to the rest of the office, clearly trying to get her to walk back out to her cubicle and leave him alone. But for a moment she was frozen on the spot, her body incapable of moving as reality set into her mind. This was really happening. She was losing her only source of income, and with all the bills this month she didn’t even have enough money to feed her son Daniel for a week. What was she going to do?
Finally, Mr. Lee put his hand on her shoulder, tapping his fingers on the top of her shirt until she finally summoned the will to force her body out of the chair and stumble back out to her desk.
She worked the rest of the day in a haze, her thoughts all blurred together as she entered numbers into spreadsheets and answered the phone and did the other mindless tasks assigned to until 5 o’clock. Antonia cleaned out her desk, her skin burning with embarrassment as other office aides and paralegals murmured under their breath around her, clearly gossiping about her inglorious demise, and then she dropped off her badge with the HR representative before bolting from the building as quickly as she could. She just wanted to get home, hug her son as closely as she could, and cry until she fell asleep.
By the time Antonia reached her apartment halfway across town, her whole body ached, every muscle tense and every bone aching like her body knew the tragedy that had occurred earlier that afternoon. Whatever, I’ll figure it out, she told herself, trying to summon as much inner strength as she possibly could for her son Daniel’s sake. She had to be strong for him.
But before she could get into her apartment, she noticed a white square of paper taped to her front door. Oh, Jesus Christ, what now? Antonia wondered, blinking several times before her eyes could focus well enough to read the writing on the paper. Eviction Notice, Antonia mumbled out loud, needing to speak the words audibly out into the air around her before her brain could truly comprehend them. “No. No, no, no!”
Antonia ripped the notice off the wall to read it more closely. “Due to circumstances in violation of the terms of your lease, you have two days to vacate the premises. Any possessions remaining after that time will be surrendered to the landlord.” Antonia crumpled up the eviction notice into a little ball, panting as she fought the urge to scream like a banshee and disturb all of her neighbors. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!” she hissed under her breath, banging her head against her front door lightly, just enough to cause a little pain to distract her from the reality of her awful, horribly unlucky life.
“All right, fuck this,” she muttered to herself, her blood surging defiantly inside of her as she turned on her heel and marched toward the landlord’s apartment across the hall. She banged on the door as hard as she could, tapping her feet impatiently as she waited for her landlord to get off his lazy ass and explain himself.
“What?” her landlord Craig said crabbily, barely opening the door to his apartment a crack before sticking his head out to glare at her.
But Antonia didn’t back down. She glared back at her landlord, a creepy old guy with wandering eyes and huge hairy hands. “What is going on, Craig?” she asked, trying to come off as imperiously annoyed as possible, like she was the one with the power here. “Eviction notice?”
“Yeah,” Craig said, licking his teeth before spitting on the ground next to Antonia’s feet. “You broke the rules, you’re out. That’s what you agreed to when you signed the lease.”
“What rules? I haven’t broken any rules,” Antonia said, furrowing her brow in frustration and confusion.
“How about threatening the safety of another tenant in this building?” Craig said, narrowing his eyes as he stared hard at Antonia, who felt herself tremble a little as a result of his tangible rage.
“Did…did my ex-husband come by and talk to you or something?” Antonia asked tentatively, even though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer to that question.
Craig snarled at her, scoffing and shaking his head. “You’re a fucking piece of work, lady. Coming here playing the victim, trying to get my sympathy. Well, it isn’t going to work. Two days!”
“Wait, I—” Antonia tried to say, but before she could get anything else out, Craig slammed the door in her face. “God fucking damn it!” Antonia screamed, barely holding her herself back from punching a hole in the door. She inhaled deeply, sucking in as much air as possible to ground herself back to reality before slowly walking back to her apartment, only exhaling again after she closed the front door behind her.
“Something wrong?”
Antonia looked up from the floor and saw her babysitter Michelle sitting on the couch next to a sleeping Daniel.
“You heard that?” Antonia asked. She sighed as she put her purse down and tossed the eviction notice into the trash.
“Was that you howling out in the hallway?” Michelle asked as she got to her feet, repositioning Daniel on the couch so that he wouldn’t be disturbed. “Yeah, I think everyone on the whole block heard that one.”
“Fuck,” Antonia muttered. She walked over to her kitchen and pulled out a bottle of whiskey she kept around for “special” occasions. “You want a drink? I’m having one. Or twelve.”
Michelle smiled and shook her head. “No, I got to go see my boyfriend soon. I’m sorry. I wish I could stay and help out more.”
“No, no, it’s okay, I understand,” Antonia said as she poured herself a glass full of whiskey, taking a deep drink and gagging a little at the thick, bitter taste. “Anyway, I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep paying you, Michelle. So this might be goodbye for a while.”
“What happened?” Michelle asked, putting her backpack back down and walking over to sit across from Antonia at the kitchen table.
“Lost my job. And then lost this place. What a fucking day, right?” Antonia said with a bitter laugh, tossing more whiskey down her throat.
“Jesus,” Michelle said. “Look, I can cancel with my boyfriend and help you look online for jobs and other places if you want.”
“No, no, go,” Antonia said, waving her hand as if to physically push Michelle away. “I’m sorry I can’t keep paying you to watch Daniel for me. But we’ll be okay. We always are.”
Michelle looked like she was struggling to say something, her young face wrinkled up as she stared at Antonia with visible pity in her eyes.
“Go on, get out of here, kid,” Antonia said, getting to her feet to lead Michelle to the door. “I’ve got something I got to take care of, anyway. I’ll see you later, all right? Whenever I get a new place, I’ll come get you so you can say hi to Daniel.”
“All right, I’d like that,” Michelle said as she grabbed her backpack again, pulling the hood of her sweatshirt up over her head to protect herself from the cold outside. “Goodbye, Antonia. And good luck. I know you need it.”
“Goodbye,” Antonia said as she shut the door softly, barely suppressing the urge to curse and scream again. It was a miracle that Daniel had slept through it once. She didn’t want to tempt her luck again.
She stared down at her beautiful son, who had his hands folded neatly under his head, his mouth curved upward a little bit even in his sleep. He was a good kid. Smart, too. He’d catch on fast that that they were in trouble, even though he was only five years old. And of course I’m creating another minor trauma in his life by firing his babysitter, Antonia thought sadly as she pulled a blanket up from the side of the couch to drape over her son. He’s known so much loss already, just because of that loser asshole who helped me create him.
Antonia finished drinking the rest of her whiskey, putting it down on the coffee table and cracking her knuckles for a minute to prepare herself for what she was about to do. “I got this, I got this, I got this,” she whispered to herself, leaning over to grab her phone out of the inner pocket of her purse. She scrolled through her contacts list and hit Paul’s name when it popped up on her screen, tapping her feet anxiously as she waited for her ex-husband to pick up.
“Yeah?” Paul said in a surly tone of voice as soon as he answered the call.
“What the fuck, Paul?” Antonia said, careful to keep her voice low enough not to disturb her sleeping son. “You called my boss? And you did something to piss Craig off? Are you trying to get me to kill you, or is this your sick idea of doing something fun?”
“I didn’t do shit,” Paul said before yawning right into the phone receiver. “Listen, you called at a really bad time. I got to work in a few hours, you know, on the night shift, so I need to get sleep while I still can.”
“Oh, cut the crap, Paul,” Antonia said. “I know what you did. If you hate me so fucking much, you can take it out on me in another ways. Call me a bitch, spread ugly rumors about me to your friends. But don’t fuck with my livelihood. All it does is hurt Daniel.”
“Don’t lecture me about my own son,” Paul said, sounding wide-awake now. “Your life is fucked up. That’s your fault, not mine. If you can’t take care of our son, that’s on you. And hey, maybe it’s time he spent a little more time with his father anyway.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Antonia said into the phone before hanging it up, groaning in frustration. Her ex was such a fucking loser, a total waste of space. She couldn’t believe that she had ever loved him.
But after a few moments, her anger faded away, replaced by the heavy blankness of despair. She had no money. She had no friends. And she had a son, a son who needed to be fed and clothed and kept warm in the winter.
What was she going to do now?