Well . . . I don't know how to say this.

After things had been going fairly smoothly for me over the last couple of months -- new place in Kansas City, new life, new job, some new friends -- life really dealt me a wild card just this morning. Apparently, tragedy struck when my seventy-two-year-old roommate suddenly passed away. He died peacefully in his sleep while I was at work due to some continued heart problems of which I had never even known. I knew that something was wrong when I arrived home from work and saw that he hadn't brought in the morning newspaper like he usually did as a sort of morning ritual. So I went to check in on him. I found him in his bed, lying in an odd position, his skin pale, and only his fingertips red with any blood still in them. He was cold to the touch as I tried to check for a pulse, breath, or heartbeat, and then found none. (And apparently, rigor mortis was just setting in, so he'd died fairly freshly, only hours before I'd arrived.) I had no choice but to call the police and spend hours dealing with them, the paramedics, the medical examiners, the funeral home, and, finally, his daughter (who was devastated, by the way).

Finally, once it was all over and everyone was gone, reality set in. Not only was I all alone in his house, with no one but my dog, but I likely only have a few weeks before I will have to go, as well. And now I am in a desperate situation. I now need to find a new place and don't know where to go. There is some hope, as I joined a roommate-seeking service online and found a taker immediately, and I reached out to him successfully. But while he did just contact me back, I can't read a single message he sends me, because the site requires you to pay to even be able to do that. (Which . . . seriously?! WTF?!) Well, part of me thinks that I could wait till I get my payday on Friday, but at the same time, I don't want to risk passing up this chance. As I am living paycheck to paycheck as it is, I have next to nothing to pay until then, and I really want to check out the guy's response now rather than wait three days to do so.

Any help out there would be appreciated, as it is only a small amount that I need. Just five to ten dollars, tops, to be repaid after my paycheck gets in. But if you don't think that you can, then thanks, anyway, for letting me vent and share.

EDITED: Well, disregard the plea for help. A friend stepped in and lent me some money so I could buy the rights to view the message. Unfortunately, it was to turn me down, because he can't have dogs around his cat. Sigh. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.