No human being should have to live like this.
Tell the old man he can’t sleep here any more. Does he have somewhere to go?
GLUE TRAPS BY DARRYL GRAFF 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 140 PREVIEW
We are checking out a complaint of illegal occupancy at the basement of a building. It’s 8pm, near the end of the day for me and the Fire Department lieutenant and two probies.
The art deco lobby is filled with a warm, lamp-shade yellow light.
I take a picture of the blue and black terrazzo floor.
“What’s he doing, Lou?” Carlos, one of the probies, asks the lieutenant.
“It’s his thing. He’s got a whole collection of Bronx terrazzo floor photos,” Bobby says.
I ring random bells on the intercom until someone buzzes us in. We take the elevator to the basement.
“There we go,” I say at a beat-up grey metal door with a SUPER sign stuck on it. I knock on the door with the edge of my clipboard.
The door is opened by a guy in a white T-shirt. “What’s up?” he asks, leaning against the door frame.
“Department of Buildings. We got a complaint for illegal occupancy at the basement.”
“So?”
“So we have to check it out.”
“You need me?” the super asks, lighting a cigarette.
“You got the keys, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You just answered your own question.”