Kaleb?

Reedited 4/18/2014. In July 1996 we moved at 6810 SW Hall Blvd #16, Beaverton, Oregon. Sussex Village Apartments at the corner of Hall and Denney. I remember as of December 97 there was a Silver Dollar Pizza Restaurant exactly at the corner. Like 2 miles from where we live here there's Portland Community College - Sylvania Campus. But after 2004 the place was sold or rented to one of the Islamic Centers of Portland.

We had many neighbors until we moved out in March 2010. Dozens. So many stories to tell that if i sat here at this computer one year i probably wouldn't finish. Bur i never or almost never spoke to my neighbors. Kinda like here where i live right now.

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In the last few years in the same 4 apartments building was living an Arab guy who had a Russian looking girlfriend visiting him. At Nr.13. I assumed he was Arab by the looks and the language i heard him speaking with others and on the cell phone. I never met him. I also assume he was doing some computer work since i saw him carrying a laptop in and out of the building and into his Silver new Honda i was jealous for. And once the door was opened and i saw he didn't have much furniture and was typing at a big CRT monitor on the wall separating from the other apartment (under ours). And i think i remember he was making interesting noises while i was typing or chatting at the computer. I was suspecting at the time he was possibly one of the guys who studied in Romania during Ceauşescu and possibly speaking Romanian. I think he was about the same age or younger then me. He looked healthy.

And the cooking. Every Saturday he was cooking some traditional meal with sheep's meet. That meant boiling sheep for hours. The vapor of that grease was going in the attic and helped stabilizing the mineral insulation. Thus, i started feeling slowly, much better. Probably that's why my stomach pain that lasted practically since i moved in that apartment in 1996 ended in 2006. Probably the reason for my wife's cancer. (I remember some Romanian guy told me to eat sheep fat if i wanted to get rid of stomach pain. Which i tried in 2004 with no success.)

In early January 2010 i saw him once pacing in the alley in front of the building with no apparent purpose. He was making a few steps forward than a few steps backwards then changing his mind and starting again looking weird. Kinda like me before i went to the psychiatric wards several times.

Saturday late evening January 23rd 2010 my wife found a vacation notice in the mail dated January 21. It said in 60 days we have to find a new place. No explanation. I spoke on the phone with John Winquist, president and/or owner of Regency Management who i knew from Beaverton Church of the Nazarene we both attended in 96-97. The guy who was married to a beautiful Filipino woman. He only repeated several times: "George, it's time for you to move."

Next Monday @10 i was at my computer and on the phone already looking for a new place to move. I think i already called a place or two when i heard several loud bangs at someone's door. I didn't know which door. Somebody was yelling: Kaleb, Kaleb! That's when i first heard his name or any neighbor's name. I myself wasn't feeling good as i am not right now but my wife was at home and that made me feel safe. I went at the window and looked, there was this agitated Arab looking guy i think i saw before at Kaleb using a cell phone and in a few minutes the Police where there. No ambulance for sure, no firefighters as i remember. Just the Police. Later that day or a few days later a policeman came at our door and told us the guy was found dead of natural causes and asked if i saw him within the last few days. I told him i saw his car on Sunday before and after i came from Fry's in two different spots in the parking lot. A few days later i saw him or something on an ambulance carriage, covered with a black cover and that was it. Nothing in the news. Just a couple of armed guys at his door for a few days.

Here at the new apartment i had to fix the place for about a month. But i did not know about the role of the sheep grease in stabilizing the insulation and did not know about insulation getting inside through all kind of construction irregularities and mistakes as i do now.

Kaleb had a cat. I mean, i think he had cause people were not allowed with pets at Sussex. But i think the cat was roaming around and he was feeding it. After he died, somebody gave the cat a... fur cut, and let the fur around the head and tail uncut and made the poor thing look like a lion. So he may have been not Arab but Persian after all?