Beep beep! Cars and sunny yellow taxis honk at slime and waste covered garbage truck, they are all trying to cut in front of the snail paced moving vehicle, all the no nonsense drivers of NYC always gangs up against the trucks that block the road, doesn’t matter if it is working for the city to pick up the daily garbage that people throw out. The 34 year old blue collared worker hangs off the back of the garbage truck, his rubber gloves and Timberlake shoes helps him keep a firm grip on the truck. The setting afternoon sun shines on his blue Yankee’s cap, casting a dark shadow over half his face, his eyes never showed as the honking continued.
Reaching the next corner, 43rd and Amsterdam Avenue he hops off the still slowly moving truck and reached for the nearest black garbage bag. It was no surprise to him that this bag stinks too, it is like a rotting vegetable smell that doesn’t leave the nostrils, he looks up to see Big Joe’s Meat Diner, it’s the restaurant he frequently visits with his wife. It has been her favorite for over 8 months now. Freddy the waiter knows her usual, medium rare steak with seasoned onions and fries on the side. It was a surprise to him at first when she first started to come here every weekend, because she never liked steak in the past, actually, she absolutely hated steak. She said it was like chewing on a big piece of rubber, only worse because there was always blood running off of it. He finally asked her on their third visit, why she started to come here all of the sudden. It was in the same stall that they always sat in, where she gave him the second stroke inducing moment. That she was already 4 weeks pregnant.
He lifted up the last bag of trash from the sidewalk and tossed the bag into the grinding machine, not even a flinch as the bag exploded when the machine was trying to scoop it into the inner truck space. He walked around to the front of the truck to see that the sun has finally disappeared behind the buildings that surrounded him. As he sat down on the passenger seat of the truck, he took off his Yankee’s cap and wiped the condensed sweat off of his forehead on the rolled up sleeve, he can’t wait to go home and take a long steaming shower in their crowded bathroom. It used to be his favorite place to relax after getting home from work but now it’s piled up with all the baby towels and bathtubs that it’s started to get hard to walk around the apartment sized bathroom.
His phone deep within his pockets started to vibrate, taking off his glove one finger at a time, he picked up the call after the 4th vibrate. Taking a deep breath, he said: “Hi baby, need something?”
“Sal! Thank god you picked up, I was about to freak out, I forgot to buy it at the grocery store today when I went out. Can you pick it up for me on your way home?” She said all in one breath.
“Anything for you baby, I’m about to be done already. Be home at 5.” He replied to her, giving a glance at his partner in the drivers seat after hanging up the phone..
“The usual again Sal?” His partner asked, more like stated.
Sal nodded and looked out into the darkening skies and back to his phone, which he still clutched in his hands. Not even slight surprise show on his face as the phone screen showed 23 missed calls from Emma, anyone else looking at the screen might have guessed that something really wrong happened and she was desperately trying to get to him. But this was the usual, at least from the start of her pregnancy; she has been obsessed with getting her hands on a winning lotto in order to support herself and the baby.
Flashback: Emma had always disapproved of his job, same as her family but that didn’t stop her from marrying him. She had been hopeful and still is that eventually he would give into her and her family’s constant pestering and change life goals and career, but every time this topic comes up he would say what he had always said. That he was content with the life that he has now, and have no plans on changing it. The same conversation would always continue from her family’s house all the way back to their apartment, it was during the 3rd month of her pregnancy that she finally gave up on getting Sal to change his mind, he was too stubborn and inflexible to do anything she had always thought.
So she said: “Sal, baby I’m not going to pressure you anymore on changing your job, but you should know that a baby is coming and I’m going to have to stay home for a while. I just don’t think that our family could last on the income that you are having right now.”
He replied like how he had always done: “Honey, this isn’t about the money is it? I make plenty of money to support our family and the coming baby, but your point is whether we will be living in luxury. My income comes along with health care and pension, there’s nothing else I ask for other than those.” He had hit the sore spot yet once again, but she would not admit it. Admit that she wants him to get a better job to be free to get more stuff than what they already have.
She doesn’t like walking on the sidewalks much, it was always too congested for her to get around when she was still skinny, let alone when she is now 9 months pregnant. She decided to take the short cut that she had always taken when it was during the rush hour, it was in between the building ally ways. Sal had warned her to not do it because it was unsanitary and dangerous for her and the baby, but she just cannot put up with the people that are taking their sweet time walking slow on the sidewalks, she has Mania Sidewalk Syndrome something her psychologist made up for her and most of the NYC population. The people that cannot stand slow paced walkers on the sidewalk and end up enraged at the pedestrian. She was impatient, yes, that is why she is taking the short cut. This ally way was where all the backdoors of these high rises open up to, not a pretty sight but it was manageable for her.
Emma stepped out of the ally way and looked up to see the sun starting to set over New Jersey, it was a beautiful sight to behold, but something seemed to be off about it today. And it was not the setting sun’s fault, she felt out of place as the people walking on the side walk carried her along with the flow. All of the sudden, the patch of side walk was clear in front of her, she took a step into the empty side walk and noticed that everyone was forming a circle in front of the building and craning their necks to see up on top of the 14 floor high rise. She looked up to see for her self
