After kicking Kelz out the apartment, I knew I would still be seeing her from time to time. I was right. Fortunately, almost all of my encounters with her took place at the apartment we used to share. Otherwise, she had me meet her somewhere specific. I did not come across that embarrassing prospect of accidentally bumping into her in the street.
And for good reason. The first time she came to see me (which was about a week after I forced her to leave), she told me that she was back to making money by being a prostitute. I know she was trying to lay a guilt trip on me, and I had to fight myself to not give in and let her come back. It was really hard because I still loved her and cared about her. But I had to tell myself there was nothing she could say or do that would make me change my mind and allow her to move back in. If I did, I knew she would just return to her old habits and I would be even more worse off.
A couple of weeks later, she visited again. This time, she didn't have any shoes on. I could tell she was very unhappy. She started embracing me and I returned it. We held each other quietly for about five minutes. Even though she smelled like she hadn't had a shower in three days, I continued to hold her.
Anytime she did come to the apartment, she was alone. She would sometimes make it seem like Brod was outside in the car waiting for her, but I followed her once and watched her continue to walk all the way down to El Cajon Blvd. If Brod dropped her off, he didn't stick around to see if she was going to come out.
And then there was the one time she came over. For whatever reason, I had to run into the bedroom to get something while she sat in the chair in the living room. I came back out, we visited a bit and then she left. I then felt like eating a pizza, but I didn't have any cash. I figured I could write a check. I went to where I kept my checkbook, which was in the shelf next to the chair. IT WAS GONE! In addition, my spare car key, which was in the same location as my checkbook, was also missing! I started freaking out! And even worse, I WASN'T GOING TO GET TO HAVE ANY PIZZA THAT NIGHT!
My first course of action was to find someplace to park my car. I drove it to another street a couple of blocks away. I told Thoz
what happened. She said she had an old steering wheel club she could give me, but it would be a couple of days before I could come get it from her. I just had to hope Kelz and Brod didn't spend a lot of time looking for my car if they were planning to steal it.
The next day, I called Wells Fargo bank to stop payment on the missing checks. There were about 12 out of my starter set of 15 that I had left. I had to provide the number for each individual check so that they could stop payment on them in the event someone tried to pass them. After giving all the check numbers, the woman who was assisting me then told me it would cost $9.99 for each check to be stopped. "What? I only have $120 in the bank! I'm better off taking my chances that they won't write the checks. Let's forget this!" Then, the representative told me she could go ahead and waive the fees. When she said that, I knew that she already had access to my account information. She could see how much was in my account. Why didn't she offer to waive the fees to start with? Did she really think I would be okay with using all my available cash for this?
One thing you should know is that I never confronted Kelz about the missing checks or the car key. I already knew that she was going to deny everything.
I was able to get the club from Thoz and start parking in my spot outside the apartment again. No one ever tried to break into my car. But a couple of years later, I was going through some things, and I found the car key. I no longer had the car, but the key was someplace I don't recall using as a hiding spot. It made me wonder if Kelz brought the key back at some point and hid it away.
And when I stopped payment on the checks, I asked the representative if I would be notified if someone tried to forge a check. She said no. Not knowing this information might have become an issue later. The first time I tried to apply for an apartment in San Jose in 2003 so that I could move in with my girlfriend at the time, the property management company declined my application because of a couple of debts that had gone into collections. After doing some research, it turned out that someone had written a couple of bad checks in my name at Kmart. One was for at least $300 and the other was at least $600. I challenged them on the credit report in which they appeared and they were removed. However, the collections later appeared on a different reporting agency's record, which almost cost me another apartment, but the owner accepted my explanation that I wasn't responsible.
However, about five years ago, I had a cardboard tube with movie posters inside. I pulled out the posters and FOUND THE CHECKBOOK! I was astonished, but also very certain I didn't put it in there. I didn't think about it at the time, but I wish I had at least looked at the check numbers to find out for certain that the checks had been used. As it was, I was no longer concerned with what Kelz had allegedly perpetrated on me in the past, so I threw the checks into the shred pile. So, it will always remain a mystery: Was it my own checks that were bad, or were they the fault of someone who has the same name as me?
As usual, there are a lot of mysteries surrounding my time with Kelz that remain unsolved today. There are many more to come.
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