I watched them buzz with excitement, using my space like a stage.
I didn’t argue.
I let them get comfortable. Let them settle into entitlement like it was a warm bath.
Because the more comfortable they got, the more careless they became.
And careless people leave evidence.
That night, in the small upstairs guest room, I listened to laughter downstairs echoing through the house I bought to escape noise.
I smiled in the dark.
Tomorrow would bring the first surprise.
Part 3
By morning, my kitchen had become a command center for other people’s needs.
Patricia stood at my counter, constructing what she called a “clean” breakfast. Gluten-free pancakes. Dairy-free yogurt. A lineup of supplements that looked like a pharmacy display.
“Oh, Eleanor,” she said without looking up. “We’ll need you to run to the store. Kevin’s girlfriend is lactose intolerant, and Rachel’s youngest is allergic to literally everything. I made a list.”
She handed me three pages of demands written in tidy, aggressive handwriting, items highlighted in different colors: organic coconut milk, expensive kind; gluten-free bread that doesn’t taste like cardboard, good luck; electrolyte water only, not the cheap brand.
I took the list like I was accepting a memo in a board meeting.
“Of course,” I said, sweet as syrup.
Melissa glanced up, satisfied. Brandon didn’t even look away from his phone.
They thought they’d trained me.
I grabbed my purse and drove into town.
I did buy their groceries. I’m not petty about food.
But I also stopped at the hardware store and purchased several things that looked boring on a receipt and extremely useful in practice: heavy-duty locksets, a small keypad lock, and a few items for the Wi-Fi system that would let me control access without arguments.
Then I visited the local phone company and upgraded my service plan in a way Brandon would never think to check. After that, I went to my bank and had a “fascinating conversation” with the manager about account security features, vendor authorization, and what happens when someone tries to open credit in your name.
By the time I returned, the house looked even more colonized.