Would You Know if Your Neighbor Was Dead?
Living with blinders on makes the world a darker place
Trigger warning: This is a tragic story with a few graphic details that may be too much for some.
It was a recent Monday afternoon when I received a text from a dog-walking friend in my condo building. She lives on the second floor, I’m on the top floor.
Her message read, “Does it smell like sewer in your suite or hallway up there?”
I responded that no, it didn’t smell up here on the fourth floor, to which she replied that it was pretty rank on her floor.
Four days later, I was out walking my dog. As I approached my building I saw another second-floor neighbor enjoying a glass of wine on her balcony so I stopped to chat.
During our conversation she had also mentioned the sewer smell, adding that it’s the reason she’d been sitting on her balcony so much lately. I told her we had no smell on the top floor.
Then I made a remark that I truly regretted later. Not for saying it but for saying it in such a passive, almost joking manner.
I said, “Jeez, that’s been going on all week on your floor. What if somebody died in their apartment? Can you imagine?”
