![]() ![]() And besides, it’s only temporary until we can live like a family again. I wish I could have found him a unit closer to ours, but this’ll have to do for now, my mother had said earlier, spraying CK’s Obsession along her neck and thighs. The owner caved, the condo was rented, and the neighbors were left reeling, hobbled by their own laws. My mother’s attorney protected my father’s rights and threatened to sue the complex owner if housing was denied. These adults who ache to interfere-convinced their quality-of-life ordinances and PC patrolling make them a village-raising-a-child-are the same people who picketed and wrote scathing letters to the editor to prevent my mother from renting a second condo in the front of the complex for my father’s homecoming. They keep their distance now, afraid my taint will rub off. Blow a couple of smoke rings and tempt the crusading, condo cowboys to rush from their air-conditioned dens and snatch the forbidden smudge stick away.īut they won’t. ![]() Perfect, I mutter and take a drag off my cigarette. The association’s tried to beautify the Dumpster, painting the rusty sides a perky green and relettering the faded RESIDENTS’ USE ONLY sign, but the battered lid thwarts them, as it’s warped from rough use and no longer seals the stewing fumes neatly in the box. The waste from the condo complex bakes in this cumbersome green kiln and the stench is shocking, heavy with rancid grease and sickly-sweet decay. I sit on the curb at the back of the parking lot near the Dumpster. They promised me nine years of safety but only gave me three. ![]()
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