by Dandelion Doolittle

Created on: April 03, 2010   Last Updated: April 29, 2010

Melanie and her husband just moved into a small apartment complex.  Every Thursday morning before anyone awoke, she used the laundry room.  It was quiet at that time of the morning and she could use both machines.  But today was different.  Someone else was there to do laundry too.  “Shall we each use one machine?” asked Melanie.  “Sure.” said Florence.  Florence lived next to the laundry room.  She and Melanie had never met.  Florence was a retired telephone operator.  They spoke for a while.  “Boy, this lady sure asks a lot of questions.” thought Melanie.  Melanie put her laundry in one washer and left.

When Melanie returned to the laundry room at seven forty-five, another neighbor was there.  It was another neighbor she had never met.  “Hi, I’m Anthony.” he said.  “I live up on the second floor over there.”  he continued as he pointed out the door.  “Hi, I’m Melanie and I live in one of the front apartments.”  They talked for a few minutes.  Anthony was a pet groomer and massage therapist.  Melanie hurriedly pulled her laundry from the washer and put it in a dryer and Florence then appeared.  They all spoke for a few minutes and then Melanie returned to her apartment.

“I met some neighbors in the laundry room today.” she told her husband.  When it was time, Melanie went back to get her clothes from the drier and see if a washer had freed up.  Florence was there too.  “Would you like to have some coffee?” asked Florence.  “Sure, that would be nice.” said Melanie and together they went to Florence’s apartment.  Florence had been with the telephone company for about twenty-five years and lived in the building for about the same amount of time.

And Florence continued on, “There had been two robberies in the building in the past year.  A Hispanic couple lived next to Florence and the husband was on disability and did his family’s laundry every Friday.  The wife worked and they never had sex.  On the other side of Florence were a woman, her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend.  The woman was bi-polar and had schizophrenia, but she was a psychiatric nurse.  Neither the daughter nor boyfriend worked.  Next to them was a married couple.  They never socialized

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