4:59 A.M. - Wednesday, Jun. 14, 2006
He died alone
Can you imagine passing from this life to the next in a small trailer and no one noticing for two to three weeks. You live alone have a terrible falling out with your son, your only living relative, and he stops visiting you for over two years. You have a few friends that check on you, they bring food and cigarettes when you call and ask for assistance. You have emphysema and each breath you take is dependent on oxygen, still the choice to smoke is yours. Your water line breaks and you find yourself with no inside water, you have a water pump on the out side of this tiny travel trailer but a day comes your lungs do not allow you to make this long journey and gallons are brought by some one you chose to call. Your lights are connected by a single wire attached to the pole out side your home, you own a tiny screen TV, and your phone is the only calling card to those you might want to contact.

There is no functioning bathroom any more without water being piped to your home, all necessities are done on the floor of your living quarters and covered with paper, the smell of human waste lingers for years as your life is being sucked away and you are barely able to collect the goods neighbors you call leave on the porch. There has been no trash taken out for two years as you have not asked a soul to remove it. This rubble becomes your surroundings, there comes a time you must craw over this massive pile of rubbish to go from front to back of this little world you have closed yourself in.

One day your life silently slips away and one last breath is taken. No one notices your passing from this world to the next as nothing about the out side of your little world has changed in appearance for several weeks. No movement is uncommon; no one has seen you in person for years, you're just a voice on a line asking for wants, needs, and money left on the porch to pay for their time.

The weather gets hot the air-conditioning hasn't been turned on, one wonders as they drive by your place how you can withstand the temperatures in a hot trailer with no windows or doors open. A few people bring your name up in the only store top of this mountain, story's are compared a few weeks later it connects that the few people you have contacted over the years have not heard from you.

A neighbor makes the drive to check up on you, your door is unlocked, once opened smells cause the neighbor to vomit and close the door. First responders come by your tiny world, no one can go in with out proper equipment, more calls are placed and many folks that have never been down this gravel road are standing in the field. The responders from the proper county all dress in whites; place masks on their faces, their shoes are covered in white and gloves to fully shield them selves. A three man crew craw over years of your life and find you in the back two to three weeks after your last breath was taken, the stench blinds a man's eye and two others vomit.

Yesterday someone drives by your place, the door is tied open.

At the store one asks another, what will happen to the place,

another states, it must be burnt down once the son is located.

The air at the little store is somber, is any thing savable?

No,

not another speaks.

The drive by that has driven by your place on the mountain for over five years sheds a tear,

I'm sorry, I never knew.

Sandyz

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