It was a relief for me when we were able to move into the airbnb. There is a housing shortage going on in Boise, so I had to pay an arm and a leg to get an airbnb on short notice that would accommodate all of us plus two dogs.
Biska was going through a very active puppy stage and would continually launch herself at Callan’s dog, Kira, in an attempt to play. Kira doesn’t like other dogs and didn’t want to play. Kira would snarl at her, but Biska wouldn’t heed the message and kept right at it, thinking it was all a game. We kept waiting for the dogs to sort it all out themselves, but in the end we had to keep the dogs separated. This created a logistical challenge, with one or both dogs whining behind doors, gates, and make-shift barriers.
I don’t know what I would have done without the fenced backyard.
The play structure looked a bit dubious (we never tried it, lol), but the backyard enabled Biska to run off some energy and gave me a place to retreat.
I had a bedroom in the airbnb, but during the workday Laura used it for her video conferences. I coached my clients and talked with attorneys on the phone in the backyard. That worked for a couple of days until it started to rain! At that point I moved my operations into the master bedroom walk-in closet. It sounds bad, but that has become commonplace post pandemic, as multiple adults all work from home at the same time. Closets are the new offices! Most of my work is by phone but most of Laura’s is by video, so it made sense for her to have the desk. Plus, I only work part-time.
For the eviction proceedings we needed to prove that Callan had expected rent, and that the roommates knew they were supposed to pay and had agreed to pay rent. That was easy. We had a Venmo record of rent payment with the note, “for the house :)”.
We also had lots and lots of text messages about rent. “I would never not pay my rent”, she says.
And then over the months there were many more requests and promises about rent.
Meanwhile, for the misdemeanor battery charge against Callan, we needed to demonstrate the hostile and abusive environment the roommates had created. That required going through hundreds and hundreds of pages of Facebook messages and text messages.
It was gut wrenching work. We selected the most egregious 130 pages to show our attorney. If he thinks any of it is relevant then we will provide court-admissible screenshots of those sections. Laura and I were working feverishly all weekend to have it ready in time for an upcoming meeting with the defense attorney.
Laura did the brunt of the work, categorizing the messages into 7 categories and highlighting each in a different color. For court we have to use Callan’s legal name, Darren, so that’s why you see it here.
A lot of the text was so upsetting I could barely read it. Over and over again the roommates threatened, cajoled, taunted and played all kinds of passive aggressive and openly aggressive mind games while Callan responded in brief acquiescence and appeasement. At one point Callan even bailed one of the roommates out of jail.
Here are a few examples from September, where the roommates are trying to get Callan on their side against Chirstina after Chirstina had told me about the misdemeanor battery charge. But there were many other incidents earlier in the year that had the same disorienting love-threat content. Don’t worry if you can’t make sense of it. It’s nearly nonsensical and I’m only providing illustrative portions…some of it rambled on and on.
I was particularly surprised by the frequent use of endearments such as “I love you.” There was never any type of romantic relationship between Callan and Heidi or Kylie. The roommates, Heidi and Kylie, are a lesbian couple. Their endearments are apparently supposed to convince Callan of the deep level of friendship they were claiming to offer Callan. The “she” whom Heidi and Kylie are complaining about is Chirstina, Callan’s live-in girlfriend, whom the roommates were bullying.
In this example, the roommates are angry with Chirstina for telling me about Callan’s misdemeanor battery charge.
For an entire year Callan (Serenity), true to their nickname, would invariably respond calmly, either reassuring or appeasing or sometimes admitting feeling confused. Callan was very confused by the roommates’ mixed love-threat messages.
Once Callan and Chirstina had left their house and were safely at their aunt and uncle’s house, I suggested to Callan and Chirstina that they not reply to any of the texts anymore. Just let it roll in. If we needed to communicate with the roommates, I could text them from my own phone. And roll in it did. The roommates quickly started including me in their hateful and misguided messages.
For example, we put a hold on the mail to the house, which enabled us to be able to pick up Callan and Chirstina’s mail at the post office. We would have just put a hold on Callan and Chirstina’s mail only, but that wasn’t an option. We figured the hold was the best option for everybody, because that way everyone could go to the post office to get their own mail. I explained it all carefully to the roommates, so they would know where to go for their mail. But they misunderstood and accused me of stealing their mail and threatened me with police action.
And she goes on in that vein for awhile. I tried to explain and reassure her that we did not have her mail, and she could pick it up at the post office, and that it was safe there. But who knows. She wasn’t comprehending. I assume she eventually figured it out.
After we started working with the attorneys, we were instructed to stop responding to the roommates’ messages altogether. If a message needed conveyed, we could do so through the attorneys.
One time the roommates even called the police and told them I was harassing them. The police believed them and called me and lectured me about things I had never done. Our eviction attorney was unsympathetic and unhelpful, but our defense attorney instructed us in the future to refuse to speak to the police without him present. Just like in the movies! OMG.
As the eviction dragged on, the roommates dropped the lovey-dovey stuff and were simply hostile, threatening and untruthful. Here’s what they sent Callan after they called the police on me. I don’t know how much of it is true. I assume not much. If it were true, then the police officer was way out of line.
I tried to keep our spirits up by sending the kids pictures 4-leaf clovers I found in the backyard. 4-leaf clovers are a little bit of an inside joke in my family. I always seem to find them. It’s a useless superpower. Although there were so many 4-leaf clovers in this backyard, it was not a challenge.
At first I picked them, but then when I realized there were so many, I just took pictures. We needed all the luck we could get.
Here’s one that has tons of leaves, like a little clover flower.
Clearly there was a mutation in the local clover!
There were also cherry tomatoes in the yard. We ate them ripe, and then picked some of the green ones when we saw that there was several days of rain in the forecast. Tomatoes will rot on the vine in the Pacific Northwest in the rain, but are likely to ripen if brought inside.
We missed whatever Halloween plans we had back home, but Laura had brought her skeleton sweats. I joked that I was “Satan Mother” for halloween (taken from one of the texts from the roommates).
Here Laura is baking protein bars, with Biska photo-bombing in the background.
No, Biska is not supposed to be dragging that bag across the floor, lol!
Biska was in the height of puppy mode, and she was running me ragged. I didn’t regret bringing her though – she was a great source of comfort during a very difficult time. I was also extremely grateful that Laura was there to help us too.
One of Laura’s many superpowers is in the supermarket:
So there we sat – with two pending court cases and not much to do except worry and wait. Not that we weren’t busy – we were all doing what we could to keep up with our jobs. Tensions were rising in our little airbnb.
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