a description of the amazing and exciting adventures i have here in baltimore--- and other lies.

 
On Sunday evening after work, I helped a man load all of his possessions into my storage locker in my apartment. I have stored there the entirety of his stuff, sans the clothes he had in suitcases. Why? Because I am a sucker. But why does he need this help? Because he is also a sucker.

The predator responsable for this mess is currently preying on someone else; he visits some chick with the entirety of his coke habit, his pill poping, his boozing, and his heroin habit. However, he does this miles away now, and despite owing my man several thousand dollars in back rent, has not seen fit to pay.

By the acts of one evil man, two lives are affected. Mark K. is a pathetic human, no doubt, and I did hesitate before offering the use of my locker. Fortunately, my embarrasment for having done so is abated somewhat by the fact that Viki Z. also helped him to move out, quite literally in the middle of the night.
She was witness to his fouled apartment, the stench, the (we hope dog) feces. I was merely muscle, lugging things from the U-Haul truck into my place from 10.30pm to almost 2am.

Further reflection leads me to believe that, despite protestations to the contrary, the belongings will be in my care for longer than three to four weeks, and my guess it will be closer to five to six months. If I decide to move in the next few months, he will have to think of another plan. "But, why does he not have a storage bin of his own?" you may wonder, rightly. "They are not so expensive!"
His claim is that the choice was truck or storage. What dire straits, one may ponder, but surely, he can come up with the dough if he saves enough? This presupposes there is an income that comes in. There is not.


It is very curious to see the sum of a mans life, I must confess. What he owns, what he refused to part with, what idiosyncratic turns of possesion. How much stuff do I have, and would I, could I part with any of it? But would I also not take pains to keep these safe from harm?

It is also curious that no one in Baltimore, save for me and Viki, and both of us by happenstance, have helped him out. Had I not gone to One World Cafe on Saturday night he would not have been able to save anything, and his life would be considerably more empty. Rather zen, but rather shabby too.


posted by gregorio at 8:22 PM