Let's Talk Trash (standard:Creative non-fiction, 2040 words)
Author: Alpha43	Added: Apr 19 2005	Views/Reads: 3420/2278	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
When you think about all the items you place in the trash, there truly is a wealth of knowledge to be gained by getting a good look at this very personal portrait of our day to day existence.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

the bag. But a careful eye has spotted tiny rosaries, stud earrings, a 
bandless original Mickey Mouse watch, and Buck Plummer’s hearing aid. 
Unset gemstones, valuable old coins, and Jay Riley’s upper plate have 
all been retrieved as well. 

About the only regularly scheduled activity that Jack participates in,
is the roaming poker game. The location changes, but the players are 
always Dude Johnson, the Mayor of White Pine, Dr. Bernard, the town’s 
ancient general practitioner, Jerry Weber, President of the White Pine 
Savings Bank, Lum Phillips, Chief of Police, Fr. Kelly of St. Mary 
Catholic Church, and Jack. 

A pretty impressive group of ‘Town Fathers’, and again, it is the Wave
that put Jack at the center of this distinguished group. Every Thursday 
evening the men meet at one of the player’s homes or at the Rectory. 
Local Government plugs along in the same fashion that it does in every 
small town: County Boards, Town Meetings, Action committees, but the 
real government business gets sorted, voted on, and a final decision 
rendered during these hands of five card stud. 

There is very little crime in White Pine; the Village Police Department
went from three men, back to just Lum. School delinquency is almost 
non-existent, and nobody goes without food, medicine, or housing in 
White Pine. 

You see the real value of the Wave is not just the returning of mislaid
jewels, forgotten cash, or other assets. The Wave is a crystal ball, a 
confessional, and often the predictor of future chaos. A great deal of 
personal information is gained by knowing who is throwing away what. 
Jack has joked about writing a book about the good people of White 
Pine, but he would have to publish it on the day he moved out, without 
leaving a forwarding address. Many skeletons would be exposed. 

We all know what is inside a trash bag - garbage. But think about the
trail of indicators that are there to be interpreted. Consider this; 
Donald Albertson got his vasectomy about six years ago, bragged it up 
all over town that he was “shooting blanks”. Why then is Thelma, his 
wife, still throwing away a pink plastic birth control dispenser every 
month? 

When the Youth Center hired a Detroit lad to fill the director position,
a lot of the better students stopped attending the dances and 
activities. The towns few high school dropouts started showing up, and 
the trash started containing syringes and “Zig-Zag” cigarette paper 
holders. Jack collected over 50 of the 1oz-liquor bottles like the kind 
served aboard airlines. 

A mention of the Youth Centers garbage bag contents on a Thursday night
had Chief Lum talking to the Youth Center Director on Friday, with the 
lad decided to move back downstate by Saturday. 

Reverend Young’s trash quantity has been drastically reduced since
Dottie, his wife of 37 years, passed away. The bags were smaller, but 
contained numerous empty pint Smirnoff vodka bottles. But now, it seems 
someone from the Ladies League is constantly at the Reverend’s home 
these days. 

Late notices, credit card payment appeals, and finance company threats
seem to stand out from normal billings. If too many of these types of 
mailings show up in somebody’s trash, then there is a good chance Jerry 
Weber, or someone from the bank, will make it a point to visit that 
family and propose some bill consolidation or refinancing solutions. 

Sometimes, the lack of trash tells a tale. Bob and Brenda Wilkinson are
presenting an upbeat attitude, but Brenda has had every type of 
treatment available for her brain tumors, with little or no hope. Their 
garbage bag has a few canned meat tins, and lots of macaroni boxes, 
rice bags, and bean cans, but no fresh meat wrappers. Their two young 
boys didn’t look healthy. 

Now, every time Jack picks up their single bag of trash, he leaves a bag
of his own; canned goods, fresh meat, chicken, milk, cheese and a 
couple bags of cookies. 

Doc. Bernard stops by and checks on the Wilkinson boys and Brenda at
least once a week, and then he makes a stop at the Senior Center to 
offer free blood pressure checks, which turns into a full day of free 
medical advice. 

Doc. Bernard is only in his office three days a week, and then for four
hours a day. He loves to brag; “I’ve got the maximum guaranteed amount 
in every bank in the County. Why should I work?” But he is all over the 
county making what he calls ‘social visits”, seven days a week. Nobody 
goes without basic medical care in this county, thanks to Doc. Many of 
those medical stops come about because of Jack, and the Wave. 

Several years back, Lum got his two additional deputies because of the
Tillman case. Patty Watson left for Northern Michigan University in 
early September, never arriving in Marquette. 

It took several days before the University called Dave and Jeannie,
inquiring into the whereabouts of their daughter. This started a 
full-scale search and investigation that did not produce any results. 

In November of that year, Debbie Alexander was supposed to take the bus
to spend Thanksgiving with her dad. She never arrived in Grand Rapids. 
Lum and the new deputies worked twenty hours a day and never found a 
clue. 

Just before Christmas, Jack noticed that some of his Monday stops would
have a different colored bag, a large black leaf bag, stacked with the 
households’ usual white or orange kitchen bags. The black bags were 
never full by volume, but always contained poorly wrapped frozen or 
partially frozen meats, marked ‘Roast’ or ‘Ground Round’. The packages 
were all wrapped in white butcher paper and tied with string, but it 
was obvious that no butcher wrapped this meat from the loose knots and 
uneven paper edges. 

The only thing he ever found in these black bags was the frozen packaged
meat. Jack soon felt uneasy and presented Lum with some of these bags. 
Everything was sent to the State Crime Lab in Lansing. 

Starting the following Sunday morning, Lum and his deputies patrolled
the East Lake area twenty-four hours a day. At 4:30 a.m. Monday, Arnie 
Sparks came up on Tud Wilson setting a black bag out at the Rogers 
place and Tud still had one other black bag in the back seat. 

The State Lab sent back the analysis; human muscle tissue with two
different blood types. Tud had grabbed the girls, raped them 
repeatedly, killed them, butchered and then froze them. He was getting 
rid of the evidence in garbage bags for Jack to haul to the dump. Case 
closed. 

Just the other day, the Guthrie twins got an unexpected visit from
Father Kelly during the second week of their parent’s vacation in the 
Florida Keys. Bonnie and Connie convinced their folks that they would 
be fine alone at home for that two-week period. The good Father asked 
them if everything was OK and then expressed his concern about somebody 
possibly hanging around or tampering with their garbage. The girls 
laughed and assured Father Kelly that he shouldn’t worry. 

Then the good Father displayed three different brands of prophylactics,
two 3-packs and a one-dozen box, that were picked out of their previous 
week’s garbage. It was extremely subdued around the Guthrie place that 
second week and the girls found time to show up for Catechism, Youth 
Bible study, and Mass that following Sunday. 

This tale has no ghosts, no villains, and no elaborate plot. Unless you
and everyone in your household are as pure as the driven snow, you 
might want to think twice about what you casually toss into the garbage 
can, it could be more revealing than you ever considered. A “This Is 
Your Life” revealed before God and everybody, wrapped in a black 4-mil 
plastic bag! 


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