Tenant 1

Knock, knock! "Who's there?" "Hi, I'm your neighbor from down the hall, Kelly, and this is my friend Seraphine." A man opens the door, "How's it going? Can I help you?" Now's my moment to get our first recruit. Let's be smooth, "You know how we had to change who we made our rent checks to? I've been looking into this new property management company." He's listening so I continue, "They buy up apartments so they can raise the rents and they always end up in shit condition. They own a hundred buildings in our city. They're probably responsible for rents going up everywhere like they have. We've got to do something about it." The man's eyes are sympathetic as he responds, "I knew the old owner before he retired and his nephew moved in as the landlord. He was great. The nephew's got a lot to learn. What can we do about the building though? We're just tenants. They own the place." "I've got an idea we can try. It's like this: we all pay rent every month in the amount we were told to pay by the lease. If I paid less in rent I'd get asked about it but if we all did, they'd get scared." "You think they can't do the paperwork to send us all delinquency notices? The law's on their side. We'd just get ourselves into trouble," he makes a good point. "Actually, that'd be fine. Think of the news headline, '15 thousand residents underpaid their rent by $150,000 last month to prove a point—Now the landlord wants what's owed.'" "We should talk later. Emilse and I are heading out. My name's Robbie. Come by tomorrow evening," he closes the door. Seraphine speaks up, "I think he's interested. Couldn't have gone much better than that. Good instincts on asking him first. He seems cool. Maybe that red shirt he wears all the time means something." ——— Knock, knock! Robbie answers the door quickly, "Hey! Come on in." To be polite, I ask, "Is now a good time? I saw the light on." "Absolutely, we just finished eating and were about to make tea. Sorry I couldn't talk more last night. We were going out dancing. We haven't be able to stop since we started. It's been the spark that moved us from friends to something more. Have you ever heard of modern jive?" This hits one of my sore spots, "I have not. I tried to get into contact improv once but some things in my life got in the way." He notices my flood of thoughts and changes course, "Emmy, this is Kelly and Seraphine who came over yesterday. Remember that thing I said about the change in who we pay rent to?" "Oh yeah. You really think we can do anything?" Emilse seems genuinely interested. Seraphine doesn't say much but when her nerves ignite she can go, "It's called collective action and it's not just about sending a message to our landlord. It's about showing everyone in this city who pays rent that we are bigger than the landlords. They need us. We don't need them. It's our sweat and labor from which they all depend!" "Phine, take it easy. You're agitating again. No need to start a riot yet," I have to keep her grounded sometimes. "Sorry, I forget that my 'overthrow the government' potluck isn't until next week on my calendar," she knows she does it and laughs it off. Robbie joins in on the fun, "What a coincidence! We had ours a few weeks ago." Emilse continue the lightness, "You remember that old gag?" She folds her napkin into a kind of bow shape and holds it on top of her hair and squeaks out in her highest cute voice, "I can't pay the rent!" She moves the napkin in front of her neck like a bowtie and belts out an angry, "You must pay the rent!" Then the savior comes in. She moves the napkin under her nose as if it were a burly man's mustache and gives her proudest, "I'll pay the rent!" The napkin returns to her hair, "My hero!" We're all laughing but Emilse just chuckles and adds, "Except we don't need mustache man. We won't pay the rent!" We chant in unison, "We won't pay the rent!" Eruptions of laughter carry us into the night.