As Real As It Gets | Volume 1 | Chapter 1 (Part 2): The Leaky Basement

Leaky Basement

Amy’s spent the last year cooped up in the Adams’ tiny basement. It didn’t extend the whole length of the house like a newer basement would; it was a tiny corner basement beneath the guest bath and halfway under the kitchen. This space wasn’t big enough to accommodate all of her belongings, so she had most of it in crates and boxes surrounding her bed and along the walls. The stuff cluttered her area, leaving a foot-wide path from the bed to the exit at the base of the stairs.

The ceiling had been leaking water from the pipes rusting away even before she moved in. Now, almost a year later, the leaking has made its way to the bed where her blankets would get wet at the foot. She told Clyde when she first noticed it. Although Clyde was out of work, he wouldn’t fix it. He even knows people who’d fix it for him, and yet he doesn’t do anything but agree that it needs to be fixed.

As the weeks rolled into months, the water was pouring in the room. Amy had taped saran wrap to the leaking pipes, giving the water direct paths to buckets below. This prevented the water from splashing up on all of her things when the water reached the buckets. Amy didn’t know why the Adams’ would allow this room to get to this point.

"It seems like you’re just waiting for the floor to rot out from beneath your feet,"

she commented months ago.

"One day someone’s gonna be using the toilet and fall right through the floor below onto all of my things".

Before Clyde and his family were robbed at gunpoint in their living room, he was making over $5,000.00 a week selling weed, E pills, and Perks. They had so much money that they were inventing things to spend it on. They totally redesigned both the children’s rooms along with the formal living and dining rooms. Hell, they even went the extra mile and built a rather large patio area in the backyard. There was nothing wrong with these rooms; they just totally redid them.

Amy even helped by stripping and painting most rooms. She also designed and helped in the construction of the patio in order to compensate for her living there and not having all of their rent money. However, once the renovations were over, Clyde just sat back and played the Xbox 360 on his new 52-inch flat-screen TV instead of finishing the renovations in the basement. He didn’t even bother to fix the guest bathroom, which had the rotting floor from the leaks below.

Do take the poll for "As Good As It Gets"
at the following locations:
COMING SOON
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Totally pissed off, Amy went back to the shelter of her wet basement to calm herself down before getting on the phone with her sister Paulette to tell her all about the selfishness that she was faced with yet again. Paulette calmed her down, as she normally did. Afterwards, Amy went back to packing her shit, more eager than ever this time. She needed to get the hell out of the nightmare that was the Adams’ home before she’d showed them how ungrateful she could really be.

The Decision to Leave

Amy was definitely looking forward to getting out of the Adams' home. She’d been talking to a few people but had decided on one person she met from the internet: Gilbert Simpleton. Gilbert had all the accommodations she desired. He needed someone to handle his paperwork from his rental property and other labor work that he thought Amy would be perfect for.

In return, Gilbert would allow her to move into his five-bedroom rental house where she’d live alone while she worked for him. This was an arrangement they had been working on for the past two months. Amy decided to give him a call after the all-too-emotional conversation over quitting her courier service job.

Sign up for future chapters on this book

The Request

After discussing a few more arrangements with Gilbert about their tenant/landlord agreement, Amy sat down with her laptop to make the final changes. Afterwards, Amy decided to continue typing and write the love of her life, Dwaine, to tell him about the day's events. Dwaine was the one Amy always turned to when she felt bad and depressed about something. Writing him was therapeutic. Dwaine always knew what to say to kiss away the many bruises in Amy’s life.

They had been writing each other for almost five years, and she felt that Dwaine was the only one who truly understood her. She told him everything that happened in her life and was content with Dwaine not saying much about his. Dwaine was sentenced to life in prison and was serving his time in Colorado.

For those who are in love check out our Love bird collection

Subscribe to get updates on new Shop.Zebellz.net products.

Enjoy exclusive special deals available only to our subscribers. Get $5 off your first order!

The past few letters had Dwaine wondering where Amy’s bubbly yet troubled personality really came from.

"I need to know more about you, Amy,"

Dwaine said.

"Please allow me to get to know who you are, from as far back as you can remember. I want to know how you became you".

Amy then sent Dwaine a list of topics pertaining to her life so he could choose one. However, Dwaine simply stated,

"I want to know the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of you. Tell me everything."

Amy looked down at the letter, her thumb tracing the ink on the page. When they spoke, she warned him through the static of the prison line—those precious calls that cut off strictly at the 20-minute mark—that a request like that was a heavy undertaking. It would take a lifetime of stamps and ink to tell it all.

As she stared at the handwritten words on the page, his voice echoed in her mind with that slow, steady weight she knew so well. She could almost hear him whispering through the receiver, his tone gravelly and deep:

"Listen, Sweety,"

he seemed to say,

"behind these cold-ass walls, time is the only thing a man like me actually owns. They can take my freedom, but they can't take my minutes. And there ain't a single thing in this world I’d rather do with all these years I'm sitting on than spend every damn one of 'em getting to know you better."

In the quiet of her room, Amy realized this was her opening. She decided that this was the perfect moment to start what she now calls her book, The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Me.

Visit The Living Book Hub, if you missed any part of the book

Audio Commentary: The Master’s Outro

"As we have come to the end of chapter 1, I want to say thank you for staying to listen. Thank you for stepping into my world and sitting with me in that damp, leaky basement. It’s not a pretty place to be, and it’s definitely not where I belonged, but you being here to listen means more than the words on the page can say. You’ve seen the struggle, the frustration of the 'Couch Confrontation,' and the weight of being surrounded by people who’d rather buy a 52-inch TV than fix the floor beneath their feet.

But listen... you didn’t think the story ended in a corner under a kitchen, did you?

We’re about to move away from the mold and the buckets catching water. We are moving into a space where the truth gets a lot louder and the secrets get a lot older. You heard Dwaine’s voice in my head—you heard him tell me that time is the only thing he owns. Well, he’s not the only one. I’m taking my time back, too.

In Chapter 2, I’m taking you back to where the 'Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' actually started. We’re heading to Nowhere, Delaware. And let me tell you, 'Nowhere' is a place filled with people you’ll never forget—starting with a man named Oscar. You think you know what family looks like? You think you know how a ready-made life can be snatched away in a single afternoon?

You haven't seen anything yet.

Before you click over to the next chapter, ask yourself: How far back do the roots of your own story go? Because mine go deep into the Delaware soil, and some of those roots are tangled in things I’m still trying to unearth.

Stay tuned. Don't go anywhere. Chapter 2 is where the mask really starts to slip, and I promise you, the 'Ugly' is just as captivating as the 'Good.' I’ll see you in over there in Nowhere."