The Old Apartment

We used to live in an old house that was split into 3 apartments. It was only a 10minute jog from class (5 minutes if you’re naked). Our part was in the back and then up/over the living rooms of both places in the front. This meant that the bedroom was half over apartment A and half over apartment B. Guy A had a pit bull the size of Cujo and insisted on throwing a party every night. Guy B was practically homeless and most of his furniture came from the side of the road (he took our couch and grill when we left). The living room was nice enough, but the stairs to the loft shot straight up like a ladder. The hot water was always out; the water heater was under the house in a basement. To get to it you had to go outside, crawl through this door about as wide as a computer screen, drop down 6 feet, find the bulb hanging in the center of the room (that’s right you don’t get light until you crawl through the trap door and plunge blindly into hell), then ignite the pilot light. I almost did this once, but I kept seeing that girl stuck in bottom of the well from Silence of the Lambs.

The air conditioning was never enough and the heat upstairs would turn candles into puddles within hours. I first moved in and lived there about three months before Lucy joined me. My previous residence was a closet in the fraternity house, so I didn’t really go upstairs until she insisted that the bed didn’t belong in the living room. It wasn’t even a bed really. Just an old mattress my parents had. It was so thin it may have well been a couple of blankets lying on top of each other.

I’ll never forget that first night we spent up there in that tiny room with the A-framed ceiling and 100 degree heat. I know what you’re thinking, yes we were young and in love, and with that came all the rewards…but that’s not what made this night so special. As we lay there in our new home, we talked about our new life together and made the plans that new couples make. I reached over and turned the lights off…and the image is still there even today…apparently the previous tenant was a little more creative then myself and took the time to place tiny little stickers all over the ceiling. As I turned the black dial on that old lamp next to the bed, the universe opened up before my eyes. It was if the lamp held a switch that opened a dome over the apartment. No longer were we being abused by the heat and lack of space…we were outside staring up into the cosmos watching comets and shooting stars zip by. I know it’s not possible, but now when I think about it I see the two of us covered by the glow from a million stars. I know those stickers are cheap and can be bought anywhere, to us though they were more than paper and glue…they were maps to a brighter future together.

That map we saw back then has been good to us, and now with Fred along for the ride I don’t see how it can get much better…but every now and then after I put the baby down for the night and kiss Lucy, I reach over to the lamp by the bed and still see the same stars shining over us.

I wonder if those stickers are still there.

Broke into the old apartment
This is where we used to live
Broken glass, broke and hungry,
Broken hearts and broken bones
This is where we used to live
Why did you paint the walls?
Why did you clean the floor?
Why did you plaster over
The hole I punched in the door?
This is where we used to live
Why did you keep the mousetrap?
Why did you keep the dish rack?
These things used to be mine
I guess they still are, I want em back
Broke into the old apartment
Forty-two stairs from the street
Crooked landing, crooked landlord
Narrow laneway filled with crooks
This is where we used to live
Why did they pave the lawn?
Why did they change the lock?
Why did I have to break in?
I only came here to talk
But this is where we used to live
How is the neighbor downstairs?
How is her temper this year?
I turned up your TV
And stomped on the floor just for fun
I know we don’t live here anymore
We bought an old house on the Danforth
She loves me and her body keeps me warm
I am happy here
This is where we used to live
Broke into the old apartment
Tore the phone out of the wall
Only memories, fading memories
Blending into dull tableaux
I want them back
I want them back
But this is where we used to live
I want them back
This is where we used to live
I want them back
But this is where we used to live
I want them back
By the Barenaked Ladies