I forgot to share with you all the gossip around Rosedale these days. This story actually begins last year.
Sometime around the fall of 2016, a giant blanket fort appeared under the train tracks by my place of employment. I was working the graveyard shift and would walk up every night, and one night, boom, blanket fort. According to my coworkers, some homeless guy set up his fort there and just started living there. They said he was a nice guy, polite and courteous with everybody, and also, apparently, doesn't drink. He chose to set up shop outside our LCBO because of the foot traffic (I've heard some stories, and yeah, being homeless in Rosedale can be amazingly lucrative; I've actually seen people thumbing 20s out of rolls and giving them to panhandlers). I did meet him a few times, as some nights he would be sitting outside of his fort, intensely preoccupied with his smartphone. He quickly recognized me as an employee of the store, and would say hi and ask how my night is going.
Anyways, whatever, so now I'm back to working day shifts and a little over a month ago, I noticed something strange while walking to work. It took me a moment, but then it hit me: The blanket fort was gone. Now, I know some people in the area did not like the simple fact of his existence, and complained about him to us, perhaps the police sometimes, I don't know, but as far as I was aware, neither the property manager nor the police saw it necessary to do anything. He was a nice guy, never caused any trouble, wasn't actually bothering anybody (outside of, again, simply being homeless, and therefore being an affront to a particular kind of Rosedale residence). I figured maybe he had moved on, set up shop somewhere else? My coworkers didn't know either. The blanket fort suddenly vanished just as it had once appeared.
Fast forward about a week (so about a month ago now), and one of my coworkers comes in with a peculiar anecdote. They claim to have seen the blanket fort guy driving a Rolls-Royce around town. Is that how he transports his blanket fort? I don't know. Nobody believed it. But then a Rosedale resident comes into the store (somebody we know, a regular) and says she heard from another friend, who was talking to somebody who saw (so you see where this is going, the classic setup for baseless gossip) the blanket fort being transported to somebody's house. The rumor being, now, that some rich, benevolent saint invited the blanket fort man to move his fort into her backyard. At this point, we're all laughing. Who would do that? Apparently, this particular woman is not well known in the area (as in, residents know of her, but she is not well connected socially, not friendly with others, keeps to herself, whatever). So, you know, it's all rife for gossip.
Two days later, the blanket fort guy walks into the store with a small roll of money to buy some wine. I was not there that day, but one of my coworkers point blank asks him where his blanket fort is, and he says a nice woman let him move it onto her property, so he didn't have to live under the train tracks. Two other coworkers see him and overhear this exchange. They relay this information to everybody else in the store, including me the next day. Now, we're getting curious, too.
About three weeks ago, the rumor changes again. The blanket fort is completely gone. Nobody has seen it. But there have been multiple sightings of the blanket fort man, and the benevolent Rosedale woman, out and about together. Some now think they are related. Others, based on things they have seen, believe they may be romantically involved. Everybody, now, is operating on the belief that the blanket fort man has discarded his blanket fort and lives with the Rosedale woman in her mansion, whatever the particulars of this arrangement may be. One of my coworkers has now seen the man driving a couple different expensive cars around the area, and this was not the same coworker who started the Rolls-Royce rumor. But, at this point, who knows. Everybody is obsessed with the idea of this rags to riches story.
Here's what I know: Two weeks ago, I was working the cash register, and the blanket fort guy and the Rosedale women come up together to purchase some wine. They hover for a moment at one of the displays, and the guy asks her if she has everything. She indicates that, yes, this should be fine. He brings the wine up. He is carrying money, but indicates that the woman will be paying. She uses a credit card, and asks for a box. I put the wine in the box, and the guy picks it up and carries it for her. He still looks like the same blanket fort guy (dirty sweatpants and all), and she is a stereotypical Rosedale woman, wearing a big straw hat, sunglasses, a gaudy dress with bright flower patterns, and is incredibly cheap (rich people love bad, cheap wine). He is driving her car. (On a separate day, only two or three days later, I see a coworker talking with him and helping him find a bottle of whiskey. He complains about the price, says it is too expensive, and walks away.)
I cannot tell if they are related, or sleeping together or anything. I cannot confirm if they are living together (the blanket fort guy has said as much to my coworkers, but again, does not go into the particulars of their arrangement). It does seem likely that, yes, she has given him a place to stay, arranged for some kind of living quarters. He is always with her, and I have seen him driving one of her cars (it was an Audi, iirc; I have not seen the Rolls-Royce myself) on that one aforementioned occasion. It appears, to me, that he is a hired hand. He definitely runs errands for her. He is definitely using her money (but he only uses cash, so he appears to operate with a stipend). It could be more, I don't know. The gossip has become wild and explosive, as you can imagine. Everybody is now convinced he is providing more than one kind of service. I had a customer come in a few days ago and just start talking about this to me out of the blue, with this look of horror on her face, like have you heard about this, can you imagine this, what would compel of woman of Rosedale to do this, did you even see this man, etc.
Anyways, wow, this post got pretty fucking long. I didn't mean to write so much. I guess I couldn't help it. It has certainly been a fascinating few weeks.
