Into The Garbage

This is a true story that happened to me many years ago, but I still remember it vividly. It all started while we were on vacation. Vacations should be restful, relaxing times, but I planned to do some studying too. I carefully put all my important papers and books in a large paper bag, and put them in the car with the suitcases.

After a long drive to Los Angeles, we were happy to find a motel with a really good price. We decided to stay for a week so we could get three extra days at no extra cost.

On the second day of our stay there, we arrived back at the motel after a day of sightseeing and a good dinner. It was about ten o'clock in the evening, and I decided I'd better start working. I knew the bag was in the room, but I looked all over and couldn't find it. It had disappeared! I was panic-stricken. Suddenly I had a sickening thought. I was sure the maid took it out with the garbage.

I ran over to the main office, and asked if I could talk to the maid who had been on duty that day. They told me there were several, and besides, they had all left for the day. The people in the office showed me the large garbage bins in back of the motel, but didn't offer any help.

I sighed, gathered my courage, grabbed a flashlight, and walked through the dark to the garbage bins. There were three of them. Each one was about four and a half feet high. I didn't know where to start. I looked around and found an old shopping cart, which I used to climb into the middle of one of the bins. I spent some time rummaging through bags and bags of other people's garbage, but I didn't have any luck. After a few minutes of tears of frustration, I finally gave up.

Maybe I was wrong, and was just looking through banana peels, old milk cartons, coffee grounds, and half-eaten food for nothing. I climbed out, being careful not to drop my flashlight, and looked around to see if anyone had spotted me. I took one last look into the other two bins, this time just checking the bags on top. Then I got lucky. Right on top of the third bin was my bag. I was never so happy to see a dirty old bag in my life! I told the manager to tell the maid not to clean our room any more.