Stories about G - Chapter I - A Ghost Team

It was Friday night.

The fire crackled in Unit G’s fireplace at the living room where Carlos, Silvia, Anna, and Gianluca were sitting on the couch. It was very cold, so no one wanted to leave the house. Carlos got up every half hour to burn more wood while Silvia and Anna share a glass of wine. The house was quiet and to cheer up that monotonous night, Gianluca chose 80s songs to play at the computer.
Suddenly, Monster, one of the cats of the house, ran across the room, crossing the Italian's legs. Abner and Orsi walked into the living room. The American smiled when he saw his friends.
“I’m looking for night explorers. Whoever wants to apply for this job…”he said, keeping suspense.
He went to the kitchen, put the torch on the table and from the toolbox he got a circular saw. Carlos and Anna went to talk to him.
“What are you going to do?” The Spaniard asked.
“I want to be an explorer,” Anna said.
“Wait a minute, let me call Marina,” he said after seeing the lights on her bedroom.
Predicting her boyfriend's delay, Orsi sat down next to Silvia.
In the meanwhile, Marina was reading a book lying in a black pouf in her bedroom. The fiction absorbed her thoughts and half of her cigarette was in the ashtray lying on the floor. Another cat from the house called Noodle was sleeping next to the heater. Abner went upstairs and knocked on her door.
“Marina, Marinaaaa.”
With the noise, the cat jumped in fear and hid under the bed. Maria marked the page of the book and stood up. As she opens the door, she sees a lively Abner.
“Come Marina, let's explore the downstairs,” he announced walking down the stairs.

The English woman didn’t know what Abner meant by that but decided to follow him. Before join the group, she lit up the half cigarette, took her Golden Virginia tobacco pack, the rolling papers, a lighter and a scarf. While she was getting ready, another door opened. Wearing trousers and a black sweater, Paty left her bedroom and walked towards the kitchen to make tea. When the Brazilian sawyer friends in the living room, she wanted to know what was happening. It was Orsi who told her boyfriend's plan.
“Abner has rented downstairs to build a new house and he wants to see what's in the old food storage.”
“I want to see it too,” Paty said.
“Let’s all go together,” Silvia asked.
“I already applied for the explorer job,” Anna laughed.
In the meantime, Abner went to his room and came back with two cans in his hand.
“Paty, you can graffiti the walls,” he said, handing her the spray cans. “Let’s go down because Marina is taking too long to get ready” and he left with a circular saw in hands.
Abner wore a khaki jacket, military trousers, and a silver safety glasses resembling the young version of the scientist Doc Brown from the film Back to the Future. He walked downstairs followed by his friends and his girlfriend.

In front of the gate, Gianluca grabbed the torch, Carlos held the gate and Abner turned on the saw. Marina was still upstairs rolling a cigarette. Bill and Camila came back from a romantic dinner and when they met her, they found out what was happening on that night in G.
“Let me get my torch,” Bill said walking to his bedroom.
At that moment, Abner had just broken downstairs lock. The warehouse was dark, quiet with a smell of mold.
“Are you sure you can go in there, Abner?” Silvia wanted to know.
Gianluca lit Abner’s face with the torch who laughed, as in a horror film.
“Stop being fearful, it's all settled with Jacob,” he said referring the warehouse owner.
Gianluca put his arm around Silvia and guided her and the group to the center of the warehouse. They took a few more steps and stopped.
“Look at the amount of boxes here,” Gianluca said. “There must be fifty,” he guessed.
“Shall we open and see what's inside?” Orsi asked.
Anna took a knife keyring from her pocket and opened the first box.
“There’s barbecue sauce, nuts and flour in this box,” she said. “The products will expire in three months,” she checked.
Paty opened another box. “In this one it has concentrated juice, instant pudding and ketchup.”
Orsi found washing powder and fabric softener. Abner knew that the products had been left by the former owner and as the new landlord, he took control of it.
“Let’s take some boxes upstairs.”
Marina was feeling lazy and sat in two boxes next to the main door. Paty was painting on the wall assisted by Bill and Camila whom had torches lighting the wall.
“Why don’t you paint a castle, Patricia?,” Camila asked.
“No, I'm making a T-rex,” she replied shaking the spray paint.
Some time after going up and down stairs, Gianluca, Carlos and Anna joined the girls.
“It will take hours to bring all those boxes upstairs,” the Spaniard said.
“Tomorrow we will continue,” the Italian replied looking around. He was impressed with the size of that future converted house.
Abner was the only one carrying ketchup tubes upstairs. Paty saw that his was very focused on the task and had an idea. She opened a box of instant pudding and put the powder on her hand.
“Abner, come and see what I found in the box Marina is sitting on”, the Brazilian said.
The American rushed to meet her and when he got very close, she blew the powder in his face.
“You look so pale”, she teasing him, making everyone laugh.
The American wanted revenge and took the instant pudding box from her hand and tossed it into her hair.
“Grandma Patrícia.”
That's how a food war began. The Brazilian climbed into three stacked boxes, lay on her stomach and threw nuts at those passing in front of her. Carlos spread ketchup on the floor. Abner fled from the nuts attack and ran in that direction. Even in the darkness, we could see the American silhouette slipping and falling on his bum.
Sam and Camila threw instant pudding into Abner's sticky clothes. Silvia was hidden between two boxes and threw a bag of flour up, covering them in white.
“A ghost team,” the Spaniard laughed.
Gianluca did the same with Marina who fought back with fabric softener on the Italian’s t-shirt. The war was getting more and more sticky when Carlos gave up.
“It looks like a circus here. I'm going upstairs.”
“Ah, Carlos, come back. We need a clown,” Paty laughed.
In 10 minutes, Bill and Camila also went upstairs. It was two in the morning when the others surrendered. Seated around the kitchen table, they chatted about the highlights of the night.
“Someone hit a nut in my mouth”, Abner said mocking his hair, smeared with ketchup and flour.
Marina opened a tin that looked like concentrated juice. She added water and small bubbles showed up on the glass surface. She smelled the liquid and felt a floral scent.
“This is fabric softener.”
“Don’t worry Marina. You can drink it, it's good to soften the stomach,” Abner joked.
Gianluca was feeling asleep and thought it was bedtime. “Buona notte G, I have to work tomorrow,” he yawned.
Gradually, the other flatmates went to their rooms, leaving Abner and Paty in the kitchen talking until four in the morning.
“Let’s have a party downstairs” The Brazilian asked getting back a positive nod from Abner.
The following week, the American cleaned the 400m² warehouse and on Saturday he opened the warehouse doors. The party’s sound system was made by Will, an English neighbour and friend of Abner. Carlos was talking to Will.
“Are you going to help Abner build this house?”
“The only thing I know is that I want to play good tunes tonight,” Will said toasting with a can of beer.
Many neighbours and interested in living in a artists house came to the party. Some of them talked to Abner about future rooms.
“In five months the house is ready,” the American said. “But if you want to move in before that, I can build your bedroom first,” he promised.
The first Downstairs party was lively; the girls danced all night long and the space in the warehouse was so big that some people were skateboarding.
Orsi went to bed at three in the morning and was surprised that at nine, Abner wasn’t in their room. She put on her robe and went to the living room where she found him sleeping on the couch.
“Abner, wake up, go to bed.”
“No, it's comfortable here,” he replied.
The Hungarian noted that her boyfriend had names written on his arms, possibly from future tenants. She shook her head and laughed. Unable to get him out, she threw a blanket over him and went back to the bedroom.
The next day, the American woke up with back pain but didn’t rest. He made a black coffee, took a sheet of paper and sketched the Downstairs project. There would be 15 rooms and 14 studios. The kitchen would be interconnected with the dining table, a living room and a games room with a pool table. The house would have four bathrooms; three with showers and one with a bath. A living room with fireplace would be built between the house and the studios.

With the project in hands, he invited two flatmates to be his business partners.
Over the next eight months, Abner, Gianluca, and Anna built the new house. During this period, it was common to see Abner covered in dust, with bits of cement stuck to the waistband of his pants and paint splashed on his t-shirt. When Downstairs was ready, Unit G became the largest converted warehouse of Manor House, with two floors and 32 flatmates.

*based on a true story