Sunday, July 31, 2011

...of all people

There is a young professional man who lives upstairs, I think he must be a student because despite his age (30s) and similar complaints about this house, he lives here with another friend. We once exchanged a hello. Maybe 2 weeks later during a heat wave I had been stupid enough to go out for milk and came home with a heavy wagon. I can't use the front porch at all, so going up the driveway means an incline that probably wouldn't bother most people, its very difficult going up with the difference in leg lengths, trying to maintain balance and push a heavy cart, even tho its the small size cart. This man was with his friend and they were going to come down the driveway when he suddenly came out of the car, ran down the driveway, took the cart from while I'm telling him, 'no, its heavy' and pushed it all the way up and then picked it up and place it on the porch, smiled and said anytime I need to shop, to ask he can take me. The washer and dryer died here a month ago. I saw the basement door open and thought the landlord might have sent someone to see what was up. But as I was on the porch this afternoon, this young man comes out closes the door and gets in his car. I wanted to ask him, are the machines working now? But felt embarrassed to interrupt his leaving. He then opened the driver door, got out mumbling to himself as we do when we've forgotten something, waved hello and came back toward the house. I feel badly that people are in the back and have to walk all around to the front, up 10 steps and then up the staircase...3 steps and a mad dash thru my apt, as he once had to do because he forgot his keys, just seems the polite thing to offer, but of course this is not a highway and even a porch conversation throws both cats into a tizzy, burrowing under a rug or quilt. So when he came close I got up and asked him if he knew whether the machines were repaired. He said he lost so many shirts, either mangled by the dryer or stained in the washer that he stopped using the machines and goes to a local laundromat. "Where!!, where? is something local?" I asked him, he said it was right past the market in a parking lot but then said, "I can take you anytime, let me know." In his gentle eyes when he looks at me, there is back there a mother he recalls. I cannot ask him for these acts, but his kindness is overwhelming I have to turn away after saying thank you. So maybe a small load first and see how that walk goes...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

He moved out and subsequently 2 sets of tenants that moved in, also moved out. The last couple, West Indian had a U-Haul parked all day Saturday and ran around all Sunday as soon as it got dark dumping stuff into the van, drove away. Freezing cold apartments, no working dryer in basement and a heating system that is too expensive to use...not everyone's idea of paradise.