Page 5 of Welcome Home

When I got off the elevator on the fifth floor, I intentionally walked slower than normal. The building was a square, so I had to go around a corner from the elevator to get to her door. There was no rush in my mind to get to apartment 520.

Before I walked up to her door, I gawked at the trash set in front of it. There was a trash can filled with trash in an untied bag outside of the door. There were two issues with that: It was not the correct trash can, and the bag was untied. There were also three additional bags next to the trash can. Any time we didn’t take a resident’s trash, we left a professional graphic, logo sticky note on their door with the reasons.

My hand hadn’t lifted to press the doorbell when the door flung open. I wanted to snicker at her obvious discontent. This was guaranteed to be entertaining.

Her eyes rolled. She stood there in a pair of booty shorts and a tank top. I could tell from the front that she didn’t have any booty to fill the shorts. Her pasty skin reddened. “Another one of you.”

I didn’t plan to address her another one of you comments. I made sure I stood in the middle of the hallway outside of her personal space. “Good evening. I was told that you had an issue with your trash pickup.”

Her eyelids stretched to accommodate her enlarged eyeballs before her head snapped toward the trash on the side of her door, then her hands stretched toward it.

“Um, duh! Yes, there’s a problem. Everyone else’s trash is gone, but mine is still here. You fuckas haven’t taken my trash for like two damn weeks. This shit doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense.” Her tone was hard and volume was high.

I calmly glanced at the trash that I already took inventory of, then glanced up at the sticky note that was still on her door. I pointed at the note on her door. “Ma’am, the note on your door tells you exactly why we didn’t take the trash. Per our contract, when we don’t take a resident’s trash, we leave a note as to why.”

Her eyes followed my finger to the note that was stuck on her door. She snatched it down and looked at it. I was sure that this wasn’t the first time that she had seen it. “I don’t give a fuck about this. You’re the garbage man. It’s your job to take the fuckin’ trash.”

I didn’t say anything immediately. My mind wondered why she was so hostile about a situation where she was in the wrong. It had to be an entitlement or privilege thing. It had to be.

“Since there seems to be a disconnect with the words on the paper and the understanding of them in your mind, I will verbally tell you why we have not taken your trash. If the items I go over are not corrected, we will continue to not take your trash.” I paused to allow that shit to sink in for her before I continued. “Per the information that was given to you in your pamphlet when you moved in, as well as the addendum that you signed around trash collection, your trash should be in the authorized trash can that was supplied for you.”

I pointed at the trash can that she had. It was a very nice stainless steel trash can that was bigger than the trash can that we issued. The fact remained that it was not the authorized trash can.

Her arms crossed over her flat chest. “What the hell does it matter which trash can it’s in? It’s in a trash can. I don’t like plastic trash cans, because they hold more bacteria.”

I didn’t give a damn about what the fuck she said. All that mattered at this moment was what I had to say. “Next, per the information you received and signed, the trash bags must be tied close. As you can see, that one is not nor are the others on the floor next to it. Now, whether the ones on the floor were tied close or not, they wouldn’t have been taken. We don’t take bags that are not within the authorized trash can. We also only take up to three bags.”

She gawked at me with slit eyes. “I’m trying to understand why a garbage man has all these rules. This shit is stupid. I have trash, and you get paid to fuckin’ take the shit.” She pointed at the trash. “Take that shit and get the fuck out of my face.”

The laughter that I desperately wanted to hold on to came out. This bitch had me fucked up. “Miss lady, you have a great night. I will not take your trash tonight and any night that it is not in the accordance of the guidelines.”

Oh, that got her pissed off. She rushed me and pushed my chest. “Nigger, take my fuckin’ trash!” She hit my chest. “I will end you and your little job.”

When her hand lifted again, I grabbed her wrists and pushed her back toward her door. I did not release her wrist until she was close to her door. I was sure not to use my full strength. At six feet, three inches and 225 pounds, I knew my strength.

Her dramatic ass screamed at the top of her lungs, then fell backward into her door. When she covered her face, I knew that this was about to be some straight ass bullshit.

“You hit me! You hit me! I’m calling the police, you bastard!” Her privileged, fake tears started.

I watched her rush into her apartment, then she grabbed the phone that was on a table close to the door. She aggressively tapped the screen. When I heard the emergency operator ask whether she needed fire, police, or medical, I stepped back and leaned on the wall.

I pulled out my phone and called the property manager’s personal line. It was only ten o’clock. The property manager lived on site, so it would be nothing to have him come through.

“Hey, Falcon, what’s going on?” Mark, the property manager, picked up on the third ring.

Mark was a cool white boy. We actually went to college together and had a few classes together. We both received degrees in business administration with a concentration in operations management.

“Hey, Mark, we have a problem at apartment 520. The police have already been called by the resident. I’ll be here when you get here,” I told him.

He groaned. This wasn’t the first time that I mentioned an issue with this resident. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

I listened as she told the emergency operator that I attacked her and was still threatening her. The setup that she placed herself in was embarrassing, and she didn’t even realize it. There were no worries on my end.

Mark arrived in less than ten minutes. The second he walked up, the bitch turned it up even more than I thought it could be turned up. She needed to be an actress if she already wasn’t.

“Mark! Mark! He hit me! Oh my God! I can’t believe I was assaulted over trash!” Her ass flung her body onto him.

Mark gently peeled her off him. “Chelsea, please calm down. Everything will be alright.”