Wake Up Call

I guess I should have known there was going to be trouble when I arrived at college to get my room assignment. The man looked at who my roommate was and laughed. I asked what was so funny and he just said, “You will see.”  Turned out my roommate could pass for my twin. We were told that there was a dorm rule: if our rooms were not kept clean, we had to pay a $5 fine. My roommate went ahead and taped his $5 to the door. You could not take a step without encountering his clothes, books, food and trash.  After about three months I was given a waiver so I only had to maintain my bed.

He would set his alarm clock radio to play the same Southern gospel song over and over. It would go off at four in the morning and take two or three hours to actually wake him up. Some days he would skip classes and walk around in boxers, t-shirt and robe for days at a time. It got so bad that I got a perm just so I would not be mistaken for him. The next year I moved next door so I had my own room. This did not end the nightmare as he decided to get me back for moving by starting rumors and trying to have me expelled. He went so far as to tell the dean at our Christian College that I was producing porn out of my dorm. Thankfully my third year he was gone. He contacted me recently and couldn’t understand why I could possibly be upset with him.