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Monday, May 6, 2013

8 Balls and the House on Dana Part 7


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.

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