Gerry didn't turn out to be much of a conversationlist. But he was a hell of a good listener, and many were the hours I spent pouring my heart out to him when the sun went down. He was, in some ways, an even better confidant than my mum, and I found myself telling him things I'd never told anyone before. In fact, whenever I was around Gerry, I felt as if I could lower my barriers and just be myself, without having to put up a facade.
And Gerry held up his end of the deal very well. He paid me £10s and £20s for every bug and nasty creepy-crawly he caught and ate, and I was able to make rent very comfortably after that, more comfortably, in fact, than I had for a while. My landlord wasn't happy, and more than once he threatened to have the police come over and search the flat for illicit drugs.
I told him to go right ahead.
I was only visited by the police once. And they looked very embarrassed when they returned from their search of the flat. "We're sorry to have wasted your time," the officer in charge said sheepishly. "But Frank was adamant you were doing something, well, sketchy, and we had to investigate. By the way, is that spider waving?"
I turned, and laughed when I saw Gerry in his usual corner, and he was indeed waving. "Don't ask me," I said, turning back to the officer. "I'm inclined to believe someone up there likes me."
The officer shrugged. "I can't complain," he said with a grin. "We'll go ahead and tell Frank he's wasting his time. If he calls us again, just give them my badge number, and I can tell the responding members not to bother."
I duly noted his badge number and thanked him, and once he and his fellow officers had taken their shamefaced leave, I turned to Gerry with a raised eyebrow. "I've got a ,million questions," I said, "but I guess you're not going to tell me where you're from, are you?"
Gerry shook his head in the second human-like gesture I'd seen him use that day. "Fair enough," I said, "but seriously? Thank you. I appreciate you being here, and you're doing more good for me than you know."
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Frank, of course, was less than impressed by the failure to turn up illicit drugs, so he decided to show up at all times of the day and night. He did have the master key, after all, and I couldn't get the locks changed in any case. But Gerry warned me whenever Frank was about to drop by; during the day, he'd drop a note in my lap, or if I was asleep, he'd tap me twice in the face to let me know I was about to have company. Which meant Frank never caught me by surprise, which pissed him off even more. "Have you been doing things to my flat?" he demanded after yet another failed surprise visit, glaring at me with the beady little black eyes I'd always called "fish eyes".
I shrugged. "You know me," I said. "I'd never touch anything you didn't want me to touch. And God knows you've combed the flat inside and out enough times. Which reminds me; I'll have my Playstation back, please. It was a present from my father just before he died."
Frank looked startled, before sneering. "Consider it restitution," he said coldly. "It's going to fetch me a good price at the pawn shop to make up for all the rent I've been missing ever since I fired you."
I raised an eyebrow; not at him, but at Gerry, who was looking like he was about to do murder on Frank. I wouldn't have blamed him, but I didn't want to have to explain death by spider to the police. I was, of course, wildly angry about the theft of my Playstation, but something in Gerry's stance told me I had nothing to worry about. So I let it go. "Fair enough," I said, suddenly much more calm. "If that's the way you feel, then you go right on ahead."
Again Frank looked taken aback, before he stormed out of the flat, slamming the door hard enough to make the walls rattle. Gerry looked even more pissed, if that were possible, and I had no doubt then and there he was swearing in spider language. "Never mind him," I said. "But how the hell am I going to get my Playstation back?"
"You had it engraved," read the note Gerry dropped into my hand. A second followed. "I told you to do that not long after I moved in."
I blinked, and then smiled. "I like you," I told Gerry, who would have grinned from ear to ear - or at least, what passed for ears on a spider.
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