Evicted

Several days later, Jake entered Lumen Ater's room.

"Your mail," he said, shoving it in her face.

She took the stack. "Thank you. I wasn't expecting you to drive down."

Jake grunted then left.

"That wasn't very polite," the nurse said, setting the tray holding her lunch down.

"For him, that's polite," Lumen Ater said.

She shook her head.

The nurse helped Lumen Ater sit up so she could eat then left the room.

Lumen Ater ate before she started to sort through her mail.

Adds, junk mail, an envelope with just her name on it. She opened the envelope and pulled out a three page eviction notice. Jake was evicting her on the grounds that her condition left her unable to maintain proper care of the apartment. Not entirely true. It would be difficult getting up to her second floor apartment, but not impossible. She could afford home help to assist her with shopping and trash. Cleaning was not outside of her ability just because she couldn't feel her legs. But Jake was not one to consider these things. He acted on impulse. Which also explained why he only left her three weeks—the time she was paid up to—to "quit the premises".

If what the PT had told her yesterday was true, there was no way she would be out of the hospital by then. Even if she was, she still had several weeks of rehab to look forward to. Lumen Ater set the eviction notice on her lap. She closed her eyes so she could mentally walk through her apartment, make sure there was absolutely nothing she needed. If there were any important documents, flash drives, etc. that she had not yet returned to her safety deposit box. Anything that would warrant finding someone to go get it so the information wouldn't bite someone it shouldn't in the rear end.

She was just finishing her mental walk through when several nurses came in to lay her down and leave her bolstered by pillows. One of the women gently removed the mail from her hand and set it on the rolling tray. Once she was situated, they left. Lumen Ater let her body settle more fully onto the bed. She was glad there was nothing of significant import that needed extraction from her apartment. Nothing that warranted trying to pull others away from their work.

Aqua had moved to Nebraska to pursue her Masters in Mechanical Engineering. Yen Sid had returned to Japan to take over the books for his father's business. All of the other KH friends were so scattered, and nowhere near close enough in friendship, to warrant talking them into coming out for a visit. And asking Sora was out of the question because he needed to focus on his other cases. She could have asked R.J., wherever he was at the moment, but pulling him out of his research was next to impossible. Which meant Jake was free to trash, keep, or sell her things the day after the vacate date.