Trash
April 13th, 2021
Starring: A & B
B sits at a table, facing the front-facing window. A breezes by, a tad rushed:
A
Do me a favor?
B
Anything.
A
It’s garbage day. And I’m swamped—
B
I’ll take the cans out—
A
No I did already.
I just want you to watch them. When the truck comes.
B
Okay...
A
It’s no big deal.
I’ve just gotten this lingering sense that I’m not displaying enough gratitude in my life. For all the hidden beauties, silent heroes. As I was trying to get to sleep last night, it smacked me in the face that I’d never given the garbage people a holiday gift.
B
So you...
A
I got some ten dollar Jimmy John’s gift cards. They’re in an envelope on top of one of the cans.
I tried making it clear but...can you make sure they get it? That they know—?
B
Oh
Yeah
But it’s April
A
Yeah…?
B
I don’t know if they’re expecting—
A
All the better. Always nice to be surprised, isn’t it?
B
Yeah. Always.
A nods and exits. It isn’t long before the sound of a large truck engine rumbles. B stands and looks out the window, watching the truck:
B
Uh
Wait um
B runs to the front door, running outside, trying to stop the truck.
B
Hold up—!
It’s too late. The truck’s already trundling down the street, out of sight. B comes back inside, as a comes back out:
A
Wait was that them??
B
Yeah
A
And…?
B
I...I think they threw it out?
…
A
Threw it out?
B
Uh-huh—
A
You didn’t tell them—??
B
It was too late—!
A
They threw it out?
B
Yes.
A
Intentionally?
B
I couldn’t tell.
The wind pushed the envelope on the ground. One of them saw it, picked it up, showed it to the other two.
A
And…??
B
Then they threw it in the compactor.
A
I...I don’t understand.
B
Well
Either they thought it was trash and it was on accident.
Or they knew it was a gift and trashed it anyway.
A
But who—
Why would—
Who trashes a gift?!
B
Trash people, I guess.
A
They’re not just trash people! They’re good, hard-working people who happen to take out the trash for a living!
B
Maybe they see gifts as insulting. Like we’re pitying them.
A
I don’t though. I want to appreciate them.
B
Or appreciating them is letting them do their job.
A
No—
B
Why not…?
A
That sounds like an assumptive justification made by an ungrateful person.
B
Or a realistic argument against clearing your conscience of unnecessary guilt.
Pause. A glares at B.
B
Or it was the wind.
...
Maybe just the wind.