The Roommate Who Never Was

I was 22 years old in 1977 when I first moved from home to share a two-bedroom four-plex with my younger sister that rented for $150.00 monthly in North Sacramento. After only a few months, she moved elsewhere.

I advertised for a roommate and this guy Barry comes over. Tells me he would be the perfect roommate, a traveling salesman who was hardly ever home but who would pay the rent timely. Sounded good to me, so he handed over his share of that month's rent in cash right then and there. I never saw him again, although he did mail the rent to me for 2 or 3 months after that. If I remember correctly, Barry said he was in the business of setting up panty hose displays in retail stores.

• He said he would not even need a key, but I gave him one anyway. He said he was going to install a phone in his bedroom, but asked me not to answer it when it rung. When the phone company came by later, i just plugged his phone into his bedroom's outlet. Occasionally it would ring, but I did not answer as instructed by Barry.

One time he called from somewhere and said he was looking for a pair of airline tickets. He was all upset when I told him they were here. He told me to forward them to him at a southern California address. On the outside of the airline tickets envelope was printed "do not forward." So that would explain why Barry never received any mail at my place, he must have put a forwarding order in with the post office since the first day I met him. The other name on the tickets was a girl's name.

After a period time after that, I noticed the phone had not rung for quite some time. I picked up the receiver and found the line was now dead. The rent payments stopped arriving thereafter, with no explanation.

Mike, the next roommate I found, moved in and acted normally.