THE GARBAGEMAN TOOK OUR LID
by Matt Garvin

PROLOGUE
Do you know the joke "How can you throw out a garbage can?" I think it was a one-liner by Steven Wright. Well, this is no joke for us. As of this morning we have a useless garbage can that needs to go. Read on to see why...

. . .

What are we supposed to do? The garbageman took our lid last night. And it is raining. In no time, our lidless, empty garbage can will not be empty. It will be filled... with 100 pounds of rainwater. Why did the garbageman take our lid?

We put the garbage out last night, like normal. Along with our blue, recycling bins, like normal. Today we went to grab the bins and cans, now empty, all still normal. But the garbageman took one of the lids to one of our garbage cans. Not normal. And it was the lid that belonged to our biggest garbage can. We looked around the area for it. There was no joy. We looked in the other garbage can to see if the lid was in there, even though we knew the lid was too big, too rigid, to even fit. It was not there. Also, the garbageman rejected one of our items: A small, yellow plastic chair. The kind a toddler would use. Yes, it was perfectly good, but it was inside a garbage can. Does that not make it garbage? It was our landlords. They wanted to get rid of it, not us. And it was... rejected. Can the garbageman do that?

Ok, we are actually glad the garbageman rejected the small, plastic chair. But why take our lid? The chair, ok, it should not go to a landfill. It can be cleaned up and re-used, I guess. But! Did they decide to punish us, for trying to throw out the small, plastic chair, by taking our lid away? The one to our biggest garbage can? Or was it a mistake? Or a prank? Either way, what recourse do we have? Our biggest garbage can is no longer useable. Without a lid, it will collect rain and snow, and now it can't keep the animals out. Why did the garbageman take our lid? And what are we going to do with the yellow chair? The day is ruined.