First Day, Last Straw

Toxic Living 

 

Carlos Martinez adjusted his tool belt as he walked down the bright hallway of Building C, work order clipboard in hand. Fresh out of orientation, this was his first official day as a maintenance technician at Riverside Gardens Apartments. The complex had seemed decent enough from the outside—older, but well-maintained. 

Management had been eager to hire him, which should have been his first red flag.

Apartment 3B. Water leak under kitchen sink. Simple enough for a first assignment.

He knocked on the door twice. Then you this deep angry voice saying “Who the hell is it? 

Melvin: “Maintenance!”

Apartment 3B: We don’t have maintenance here. 

The door opened to reveal an older man in his late fifties, gray stubble covering his face. The tenant, Robert, invited me soon as I stepped over the threshold he went off. 

Robert 3B: What you the new maintenance guy? What happened to the little Mexican guy? 

Maintenance man: Yes sir, today is my first day. I don’t nothing about the last guy. 

Robert 3B: Yeah I give you about week. Don’t nobody stay to work around here you liked the eighth or ninth maintenance man in two months. 

Maintenance man: Wow, well I have a work order for leaking ceiling and leaking sink. 

Robert 3B: Those people in the office. My mother told me god don’t like ugly. Yes it’s leaks whenever the idiots up stairs don’t get water on the floor you can go look at. 

Carlos would later have the look of someone who had given up expecting anything to actually get fixed.

Carlos followed him through a narrow living room, past a worn couch facing an old television. Right past the kitchen doorway, Carlos stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened as he looked at was right before him—a horrifying mass of bright yellow mold spreading across the floor and at the wall like some alien organism, creeping up from where the wall met the linoleum.

Carlos: “Holy Shit,” (whispered, instinctively taking a step back.) “How long have you been living with this yellow stuff in here like this?” (Putting a mask on)

Robert: “Aww, about a year now. They keep sending people to look at it, say they’ll be back to fix it, but… Never see them again.”

Carlos felt his stomach turn. In twenty-five years of maintenance work, he’d seen some bad situations, but this was beyond neglect—this was abandonment of basic human decency.

Carlos: “A whole year?” Carlos couldn’t hide the shock in his voice. “And they know about this?”

Robert 3B: “Oh, they know alright. But that’s not the worst of it go look at the bathroom ceiling it “Got mold growing from water just sitting there long periods of time from the upstairs neighbor’s toilet leaking through. 

Water drips down into my tub while I’m trying to take a bath. Sometimes I gotta hold an umbrella just to shower.”

Carlos took a look at his bathroom ceiling. Sure enough, dark green and black stains covered around where the leak was visible the ceiling, and he could see water damage spreading down the walls. The smell hit him then—that musty, mildew and what made things worse he had a fan blowing on the yellow mold growing up through his floor.

Carlos: “That’s disgusting, man, I wasn’t looking for all of this on my first day… damn, this place is fucked up.” Sorry you had to hear that. 

Robert 3B: “You got that right. “Been living here twenty years, ever since my divorce. Place used to be decent. But the last few years…” they recently sold the place and this is the result of that, gesturing helplessly at the toxic landscape that has the mold coming up out the floor.

Carlos was walked and looked around the kitchen again, trying to get the extent of the damage. This wasn’t just a maintenance issue—this was a health hazard, probably a legal one at that, and definitely a violation of every housing code he knew. The yellow mold alone could be making this man seriously sick, and he’d been breathing it for a year.

Carlos: “Robert. I’m going to document all of this. Take pictures, write up a detailed report. This can’t wait for the normal work order process.”

Robert’s looked at Carlos like you don’t know how many times he heard that long as they getting my tent they don’t give a damn.

Robert 3B: “You really think after all this time something might actually happen this time?”

Carlos looked at the man who had been abandoned by the very people collecting his rent money every month, living in conditions that would be condemned if they were discovered by the health department.”

Carlos: “Yeah, Something’s definitely going to happen this time.”

As he began taking photographs, Carlos realized his first day was teaching him more about his new employer than anything else. Mr. Robert in 3B, was watching this new maintenance man actually document his living conditions instead of just glancing and leaving.

Maybe, just maybe, someone was finally going to fight for him.