Friday, November 15, 2019

Bacon Grease

The lady ran out of the third floor balcony and tossed hot bacon grease out of her cast iron frying pan. A gust of wind came from the west slapping the fat against the house. The stain will be there for a while, possibly years. This is just one of the interesting things the landlord misses because he's never here. Last year a tenant abandoned her children in the 2nd floor apartment. The kids were only 11, 6, and 2. The mother went away and lived with her boyfriend for 12 months. You can imagine how badly this went for the kids left behind unable to speak English. They didn't go to school, or eat nutritious food or know how to bathe or clean or cook. When the oldest tried to make a pot of rice she forgot and it burned. Smoke detectors went off and neighbors rattled the doorknob shouting "are you okay?" They were told never to answer the door. The garbage piled up to the ceiling. Flies, maggots, and no relief from the summer heat; the children never saw the light of day for a year. It's tragic and criminal but I blame the absentee landlord. How can he sleep at night? For him it's only about money and never about people.

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