Kim and I spend
most of our time cleaning and bathing the kids, wiping down walls, putting
garbage in the can and then taking it out to the curb before it can sit around
some more. This house is the filthiest place I have ever been in my life, It’s
clear to both me and Kim that the cockroaches are breeding somewhere in Ingrid’s
house. They have plenty to eat, there are dishes piled in the sink that still
have bits of food attached to it. Kim ties a bandana around her nose and mouth
and starts to fill the sink with hot water. I can hear Kim scream in disgust as
hundreds of roaches run out of the sink.
I go to help Kim
in the kitchen, I start by opening the fridge, and hundreds of cockroaches are
literally swarming all over the food in there. “Close it!” Kim screams and
rushes over knocking the door from my hands.
There is another
door in Ingrid’s kitchen that leads to the basement, I wonder what’s down there
but Kim quickly stops me by asking “What are you nuts?” she goes back to the
dishes and I release the door handle. If this floor of the house is this
disgusting the basement must be a house of horrors. For good measure Kim slides
a chair under the knob of the basement door, ”Just in case.” I can tell that
she is not even joking at this moment.
Kim and I gag our
way through the house as we clean. It is a real live version of an episode of
Hoarders, except that Ingrid collects garbage, dirty diapers and roaches. Ingrid
has very little cleaning supplies so I run back upstairs to get more; I leave Kim
to scrub pots and pans.
Jackie and Billy
are sitting at the dining room table smoking cigarettes as I burst into the
room and hurry past them. I have a sticky film that has coated me and I smell of
garbage and baby vomit from being downstairs, as I rush through the room Billy
and Jackie gag and pinch their noses closed. “What the fuck?” Billy yells out,
Jackie continues making gagging noises as he pulls Billy back towards the
bedroom.
“We are
downstairs babysitting and cleaning Ingrid’s house.” I yell at them as I root
through the walk in pantry for the cleaning supplies. “Do you want to help?” I
yell out. “Haven’t had our shots!”Jackie screams back at me before slamming his
bedroom door.
When I return
downstairs, I start to tackle the kid’s room. The kids are finally clean but
their bedding is filthy. Kim finishes the dishes and comes in to help me out;
she still refuses to remove the bandana from around her mouth. We strip down
their beds only to find that the mattresses are filthy and stained with urine;
at this time we don’t know what to do, so we just flip them over and cover the
mattresses with clean linen and clean blankets. The kids are used to living in
this hell but Kim and I are determined to speak with child services again in
the morning. No child should ever have to be raised in a world like this.
The kids climb
into bed, the youngest one holds his stuffed bear up for me to kiss. It is
missing its head and its fur is sticky. I blow it a kiss instead.
Kim and I sit on
the floor in front of the couch, afraid of what lives in the cushions and watch
MTV. Two hours later Kim falls asleep on the floor during Video Killed the
Radio Star and after a couple of minutes I slap a cockroach out of her hair.
Kim jumps up screaming and starts pulling at her hair, tears streaming down her
face as she screams “Did it lay eggs?” “Did it lays eggs?” The rest of the
night we cling to each other and refuse to go to sleep. It’s tough because the
same six videos keep playing.
Ingrid arrives
back home at around seven in the morning. She is making such a racket that Kim
and I can hear her trying to get her keys in the front door. Instead we hear
Ingrid grumbling as she repeatedly drops her keys on the porch floor. Ingrid is so polluted when she stumbles into
the house that she literally falls in the door. Ingrid doesn’t acknowledge that we are there
as she walks through the living room bumping into furniture and swearing. Finally, she makes it into her bedroom where
she slams the door. The path that Ingrid has taken from the door can be
followed by seeing where she dropped her pocket book, keys, shoes and shirt on
the floor.
Kim and I dump a
couple of roaches out of our sneakers before we put them back on and go
upstairs. We immediately both call dibs on the shower and I tell Kim that “I
just want to burn our clothes and go to sleep.” Kim agrees and pulls herself up
the stairs.
The amount of
roaches waiting for us in our shower is tame compared to what we just saw.
To be
continued…..
Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.
Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.
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