The Turin Manor

The turnout for my advertisement had been huge, almost thirty women responded, but I only had room for five. I decided that rather than picking five at random, I would do a round of phone interviews. I started by writing out a list of general personality and lifestyle questions. I'm not a big fan of big parties, so I'd rather not have any in my house. After compiling my questions, I began to make the calls, taking notes of each call, cutting people who were obviously not going to work and highlighting those I though would be a good fit. For fairness, I left messages with anyone who didn't pick up. After a little over 6 hours, I had gotten through half my list. I decided to take a break and made myself an early dinner. Dinner consisted of a ham sandwich, some potato chips and a bottled root beer from a brewery that I had found while wandering downtown the other day. I had bought a 6-pack on a whim, but I was getting the feeling I was going to be buying more than that next time I was in town. After dinner, I called for another hour before deciding that it was getting too close to dinner for everyone else, and that I would finish the rest tomorrow. *** Tomorrow came and I finished my call list. Three people had yet to call me back, but I decided to give them till the end of the night, just for good measure. I had cut off around 12 of the candidates already, but I needed to trim down to around 10 or so. With a notebook full of interviews, and another root beer, I retired to a comfortable chair in the library, puzzling over the best ways to cut down my list. The first to go were the freshmen. I don't have a problem with freshmen, but I was hoping to not have to do this very often, and with an average drop-out rate of 50% for freshmen, it wasn't worth the risk. This reduced my list by four or five, leaving me about a dozen prospective roommates. I still hadn't heard from the three who hadn't called me back, and I was about to cut them from the list and call it good when my phone went off. The number wasn't local, and it wasn't from back home, so I answered it politely "This is Alex." The voice at the other end of the phone was kind and bubbly. "Hi, this is Jean, I applied for one of your rooms? I'm sorry I missed your call, I was at the water park for the day." I nodded subconsciously, and proceeded with her interview. She was a sophomore in business with an average GPA. There was nothing outright wrong with her, so I added her to my list to be interviewed, and tossed the other two applicants. I hoped that I had given myself enough of a selection, so if a few didn't show or weren't what I had expected, I could fill all of the rooms at once. Satisfied with my choices, I headed for bed, planning to schedule on site interviews tomorrow. *** It wasn't until the next week that the first girl to be interviewed could make it out to my corner of the world. She had been a superb candidate, an Econ major with an impeccable GPA. I expected for her to easily earn a place at the house, but when she got there, it was obvious that we wouldn't get along. She rolled up to the house in a brand new BMW, parked diagonally in front of the garage and scoffed at my beat up Corolla on her way in. She rang the doorbell once, then just as I was about to put my hand on the door to open it, she rang the bell again, repeatedly. I opened the door and invited her inside, halfheartedly interviewing the bitch. I stalled it out long enough that it wasn't obvious that I wasn't going to pick her, then graciously lead her back from the study to the door. The next candidate was much better. Elizabeth was quiet, and a bit standoffish, but respectful and intelligent. Library Sciences wasn't the first degree to come to my mind when deciding on a college career, but it seemed to fit her well. She was taller than average, with an average build, accentuated by a tight black turtleneck sweater. Her makeup was slightly sloppy, giving me the feeling that she wasn't used to wearing it, but wanted to make a good impression. She was also constantly adjusting her contacts, which gave me a bit of piece of mind. Elizabeth was a simple woman, the kind that you would be more likely to find in a bookstore then a club on a Friday night, really my kind of girl. Apparently that was all the luck I was going to get today, as the next two were less than likable, but the next day came with more fortune. The first interview of the morning was with Tamera. Tamera wasn't very tall, but made up for it with a confidence that could almost be called cocky. She hadn't chosen a major yet, but she was a sophomore, so she had time to decide. The interview went exceptionally well, but she seemed to be focused on the amenities more than making an impression, which, in its own way made a good impression. I wasn't a fan of dumb formalities, and it didn't seem that Tamera was either. My second interview was equally pleasant. Sarah was an average height art major with a free spirit, but her grades were good and she was smarter than I would have expected. She had me laughing by the end of the interview and had earned herself a solid chance at one of the rooms. She was followed up by a sorority girl that had somehow slipped through my screening process and was knocked off the list quickly. With only one day of interviewing left, the first candidate of the morning was uninteresting. There was nothing wrong with her, but she didn't strike me as interesting in any way. The next candidate was far from disinteresting. In fact, calling her intriguing would be a disservice to her. Melody was probably the shyest person I had ever met. With most of her face hidden with long black hair, I could only gaze at her simple dress and small frame. Shy as she was, Melody was a creative writing major, giving her preferential treatment from a softy journalism major like myself. I don't think it took longer than a few minutes to decide that I was putting her in the house no matter what. The last candidate was late, and I almost gave her up for the boring girl I had interviewed this morning, when I heard a car in the driveway. Jean had finally made it, almost 20 minutes late. I opened the door and let her inside. I could tell from the shaking in her hands, that she had probably sped here as fast as she could. Jean was obviously a bit scatterbrained, but as bubbly and nice as she was, it was hard for me to hold her tardiness against her. With all five rooms filled, I had to decide on how to distribute the rooms. I knew assigning rooms wouldn't be fair to the girls, so I called each of them the next day and asked them to rank the rooms from one to five and told them that I would try to get everyone one of there top three. I quietly congratulated myself on deciding to give them a tour, meaning that each of my new roommates had already decided on a favorite room or two. To my surprise, Elizabeth immediately asked for the bedroom in the daylight basement, I had figured that she'd want to be near the library, but I guess her solitary nature overtook her love for books. Melody ended up taking the room off the library, and Tamera took the one by the laundry room, right next to the stairs. Jean and Sarah took the last two rooms at the north end of the house. With all the rooms filled, it was only a matter of days before the first person came home to stay. I was in town when Sarah showed up, her green Subaru parked next to my Corolla. I wondered for a moment how she had gotten a key, but I assumed that Wane had lent her one until I got home with my newly made ones. I walked up to her room to find the door open while she struggled to put together her IKEA furniture. I let each girl decide what of the furniture in their room they wanted to keep, and the rest was put down in the basement and was fair game to the other girls. I knocked on the door frame and called out to her. "Hey, need a hand?" Sarah looked up at me, her brown eyes the same color as her long hair, currently in a simple braid down her back. "Oh, hey! Yea, I guess I could use a hand." She tried to get up, but fell back down when her leg caught on some of the slats that made up the head board. "Oops." I chuckled to myself as I got down on my knees, working out what parts went where, and began to put the bed together. Soon, the head and foot boards were done, and it was only a matter of putting them on either end of the side pieces. I heard another car coming up the driveway so I got up, reaching into my pocket to grab one of the freshly made keys. "I'm going to go help whoever just came in, but here's your key to the house. Also, welcome home." Sarah looked at me slightly surprised. She pulled a lanyard out from under her shirt, on the end was an old key, similar to the one that was in my hand. "The grounds-keeper gave me this, and said it was mine... Or did I misunderstand him?" she furrowed her brow, trying to remember what Wane had said. I nodded, "I'll ask Wane in a bit. Go ahead and keep that one for now. Either way, I'll see you later." I turned and headed downstairs, hoping to catch whoever had just pulled up to help her with her stuff. Downstairs I found Elizabeth carrying a box that looked pretty heavy. Right behind her was Phil from the university, also carrying a heavy box. Elizabeth merely nodded to my while Phil called out to me, "Hey, Alex!" I smiled at Phil. "What are you doing up here?" "Grandpa called me and said that people were moving in, so I came up to help." He hefted the box higher as he began down the stairs. I held open Elizabeth's door so he could set the box on her bed. Elizabeth had left the desk and bookshelf, but everything else was out. As we went back upstairs, I followed them out to the garage to find a car with a trunk full of more boxes that bulged at the sides from weight. "Do you need a hand?" I offered my help as I began to walk towards the trunk. "No, Phil is more than enough help. Besides, I think I hear someone coming." Elizabeth replied hastily. I looked up, and sure enough there was a taxi coming up the drive. "Did Wane give you a key?" Elizabeth grunted a yes as she carried another box inside. "Okay," I puzzled about how Wane had so many keys to the house, then I noticed something odd. "Phil, where is your car?" Phil laughed to himself. "This is my car, Elizabeth and I in the same major, and she asked me to help her move, that's why I wasn't hear earlier." I nodded quietly. He took another box inside as the taxi stopped next to Wane, who handed the passenger a key before it rolled up in front of the house. Behind the tinted window, I could see the passenger pay the driver before getting out. It was Melody, who reached in the trunk and began to struggle with a suitcase as big as she was. I walked up next to her and offered her a hand. She thanked me quietly and I pulled the suitcase out of the taxi. As I closed the trunk and nodded to the driver, he sped away. Melody had left all the furniture in her room, and I guess her suitcase had everything else she needed. A bit later, Tamera arrived with a small U-haul. After emptying it, she asked if I could go with her to drop it off so she had a ride back. I obliged her. On my way down, I asked Wane about the keys. He replied with his kind smile, telling me that several people had keys to the house after my grandfather had died, and he had collected them for my uses. I thanked him again and met up with Tamera. I got there just as she was finishing up the paperwork, and by the time we made it back, there was an old minivan parked past the other two cars. I came inside, and sure enough, Jean had finally made it home, and was unpacked into her room. I poked my head into everyone's room, except Elizabeth, who was in the living room, reading a book, and asked them what kind of pizza and drinks they enjoyed. With 6 people I ended up getting 3 pizzas. 1 cheese, a pepperoni and a supreme. We sat down at the breakfast table and talked till late in the night, getting to know our new roommates.