You could smell it from two blocks away. When trash sits long enough it becomes fertile, and the smell of rot turns into something else. A wall of fecundity. Two days in someone had taped a big piece of green construction paper to the side that faced the sidewalk.
CALL 311!!!
ABANDONED GARBAGE TRUCK
IT’S FILLED WITH TRASH + BLOOD + RODENTS ARE FEASTING
(THE SMELL IS DISGUSTING)
HEALTH HAZARD !!
On the third day I noticed a big pink teddy bear stuck into the front grille. It was as dirty as the rest of the thing, just dangling there splay-armed and wide-eyed. The cabin was filled with trash, too—mostly papers.
I remembered the following morning. CALL 311!!! But Janis (not her name) wouldn’t take my report. She told me I had to know whether the vehicle had license plates or not. I was fairly sure it didn’t (it didn’t), but I didn’t want to make Janis file an erroneous report. “There are two different forms I can fill out, one if the vehicle has plates, and one if it doesn’t.”
When I went back the next day it had been hauled off. I took the train like normal and walked to A’s house like normal, and when I got there, there was a rat with no face rooting around the front garden and the garbage bins. No face. Just a nub at the front of its body with no eyes and no mouth and fur that lay matted like it had been singed off with acid. I watched it for a while. It moved slowly, it was trying to be careful, it did not want to hurt itself more than it already was. I reached for the key in my bag and turned back for one last look of inquisition, but when my eyes landed on her spot she was already gone.