Dumpsters

When Throwing out His Easy Chair Isn’t Enough

Franny was married to Nick for thirteen years.

Their marriage slowly went sour until one day, they could no longer stand the sight of each other.

You’ve heard the tales of women saving shirts so they can still smell their dead husband? It was like this with Franny, but this had been a divorce. She didn’t’ want to smell Nick.

She threw out his remaining clothes, but he was still there. Every day his scent was somewhere in the house reminding her of promises broken.

She got rid of his favorite chair; the recliner with years of chips, popcorn, and football-game-spills in the overstuffed crevices.

Yet, even with the chair gone, Nick lingered like the stinky aroma that hangs there after a dog has had an accident in the house.

At last, she arrived at her plan.

She called a contractor and had him build a second level on the garage with a small and comfy apartment where she could live for awhile.

Next, She purchased implements of destruction from Schauer’s Hardware store on Madison Street; prybars, hammers and even an axe. Then she ordered up a construction dumpster. By herself, she took to dismantling the house. Carpets, drywall, kitchen cabinets… everything. She did not care. It all had to go. One dumpster filled quickly, so she ordered another, then another, and even a fourth one. There were now two in the yard and two against the curb in the street.

At last the day arrived and the house was empty… EMPTY. Franny stood in the shell of what had been the living room and inhaled deeply through her nose. No matter how hard she breathed in she couldn’t detect the slightest hint of Nick. With a satisfied shrug, she dropped the sledgehammer. She had been prepared to level even the wooden wall-frames, but this was enough. Nick was utterly and entirely gone.

On the day that the trucks arrived to haul away the dumpsters. Franny sat on the small balcony above the garage sipping tea, watching as the last hint of Nick, the last tiny iota of the smell of her ex-husband, was carted away.