The Hammer Falls

Striding to the center of the lobby, Gloria Sykes barked out: “Listen you people. For those of you just hanging around, come over here. I have some important information to put out...And what’s all this food doing here?”

“It’s to celebra…” cutoff with a perfunctory:

“Get rid of it. There are some important people coming here later this evening and I don’t want them to think this is some kind of fast food joint. Looks disgusting, anyways.” said a disdainful Mrs. Sykes.

She continued: “As you well know, there’s been a lot of upgrades and renovations taking place here the last few months. A lot of money has been poured into this property to make this a place where quality people would want to live…”

“YES!! Thank you so mu…”

“Quiet, I’m talking.”

“At any rate, a new investment consortium, along with my family, will become the new apartment and country club owners. That change in ownership means a change in your rental status as these apartments will now be sold as luxury condominiums. As of today your leases will be terminated in two weeks. Read the “fine print.” And you’re dreaming if you think you can afford to live here.” she commented scornfully.

There was stunned silence at first. Then a chorus of shouts. The gist of which were:

“What are we going to do??!”

“You’re joking, right??”

“Where will we go??”

And a lot of: “You CUNT!”(ladies’ choice).

“Fuck you bitch!!” Mostly along the lines of the latter, with a variety of colorful suggestions, most of which would ordinarily be anatomically impossible.

Unfazed, Gloria pressed on: “You will all get the official notice and paperwork in your physical mailboxes and via email later TODAY. Period. Fill it out promptly and return it. For those who wish, that same notice will be distributed for immediate completion by my granddaughter, Nikki, in a few minutes. I see that someone by the name of ‘April’ has already done so. I strongly suggest you follow her example.” she said bluntly.

With that, said she dryly announced: ”Diana and I will be in my penthouse office finalizing the paperwork along with Ms. Van Dalen who represents the financial interests of the consortium.” As she gestured to the very pretty, but deadly serious looking woman with the brief case who came in with them.

Ah, yes. Ms. Tanya Van Dalen. Aged 28. Recently engaged. Brilliant. Moving up in the world of high finance. Aggressive, assertive, a no nonsense kind of business woman. She wore her white blonde hair short. Besides having a classic, heart throbbing 36-24-36 shape, her most imposing feature were those laser like, ice blue eyes.

If a man looked into them, he would see a woman capable unfettered sexual appetites and tremendous energy. If a woman did likewise, she could not help but surrender her most secret desires to Tanya in the most intimate of ways.

“Again, for those of you who were not paying attention, my granddaughter, Nikki, will have a list of the tenants’ names and those of you who are here can get their notices from her right now. Good day.” she concluded unemotionally.

Off they went. Gloria, Diana and Ms. Van Dalen, leaving Nikki to do the dirty work and begin handing out the documents.

“Alright. I suggest we do this up on the second floor commons. There’s more room and there’s a photo copier and shredder plus some tables. Anyways, my mother would think it bad optics to have a large group of people milling around in the main lobby wearing their work clothes, or whatever you people call them.” she announced.

“That was rather masterly. Should be no problems.” so she thought.

Once a good number of tenants had gathered up in the commons area, Nikki took up a position near the divide between the staircase and the ‘up’ escalator and began handing out the eviction documents to a few of the luckless casualties. After a few surly individuals had come forward, two women about Nikki’s age moved toward her.

“Emma St. James.” one of them announced.

“Hmm. Sounds familiar.” said Nikki.

Both Emma and her friend Hailey were considered cute, but somewhat ordinary. Certainly not the like the “beautiful people” that populated Nikki’s world. They had worked next door at the country club until they had gotten into trouble with management. Hailey, remained standing slightly to the rear as Emma got her papers. Once she did, Emma promptly rolled them up in her hands.

“You don’t remember us do you?”

“Should I? I doubt that you go to my school or are a member of our country club. And I know that you don’t live in my neighborhood” Nikki remarked.

Speaking loudly now: “It was a year ago. You had me and my friend Hailey here, along with our boyfriends, Vince and Alex, arrested for skinny dipping in the club pool. And I got also got charged for screwing my boyfriend in a public place ‘Lewd and lascivious conduct’ they called it. Cost me some serious money and job opportunities. So hey, tell me, miss fancy pants. How long did you watch us from the bushes before you called the cops? Diddle yourself a long time? I’ll bet you did. Nice girl like you” mocked Emma.

“It was disgusting. You two were disgusting. All of you were disgusting” Nikki replied.

A few chuckles erupted as the crowd started to move in closer. Not wanting to miss a single juicy tidbit. Nikki was becoming unnerved. She wasn't used to this. She started to lose here composure as the two girls began to press her backwards with nowhere left to go.

More rattled now: “Look, ladies. I think that we can discuss this in a civilized manner in the rental office. I have the key right here in my pocket. These good people don’t want to hear about such things.”

“Oh yeah, we do!!” came the shout.