Totor

people argue about whether living in a big city is good or bad. the truth is, it's fun if you enjoy being kind of a rat. that's the case if you're broke at least - i never had money in the city. seems fun, but i'm unclear what that's like. but i did occasionally enjoy the rat life. long ago, when i was there, i lived in an apartment up on the top floor of this building with no elevator. like many people, my rent company was just a random address i sent the rent check to every month. never met a landlord, never saw a super, just mailed off a check every month (for years) to some office on the other side of the city - the company may have literally been called "rent company", and that's who i made the check out to. i had a fob to get into my building. not sure if people still use these for residential buildings honestly, but it was a small plastic device that you scanned at the first door to enter the building, before unlocking your actual apartment door with your key. well, once, i lost my fob. this presented a problem, as a locksmith can't make a new one of these. the "rent company" only existed to me as a theoretical entity. i had a phone number, but no one ever answered it. well, surely they'll respond to me about this. so i left a message. then, a few messages. after a few weeks it was clear they were not going to respond. so, how was i supposed to get into my building? i was broke and an artist, so i had a lot of time, and i'd usually just read or draw outside my building waiting for someone else to come home, and then I'd walk in with them. eventually this got old, or untenable, so i had to figure something else out. there was a chinese place on the bottom floor next to my building. "my building" was actually two buildings that were identical, separated by a small garbage filled cement pit - you might call this a courtyard, and, literally, it's where the garbage went. i deduced that this chinese place also used the same small garbage courtyard as us, and they had one of those large steel metal double doors on the sidewalk that people walk over in the city without thinking about it. well, now i was thinking about it, and late one night, i tried going through this door. it was open. it led to a small cement tunnel underground. there were rats there, and it let out in: our courtyard. so now, i could open a steel door in the sidewalk, go under a chinese restaurant, and come up in the garbage courtyard, and then use an unlocked door to get into my building. this became routine. in fact, i got really used to doing this. i'd come home at one or two AM, just throw open this huge black steel door in the floor, throw a rock to scare the rats away, if there were any, and get up into my building. one night, the steel door was locked. i guess someone from the chinese place figured out i was doing this. so, now i had a totally new problem, and my previous solution was closed off. the rent company had still not responded by the way. well, i still had the other building. so, now, i decided i would use that. i would go over to the other building, buzz a random apartment, explain my situation, and someone would let me in. this worked pretty well and I'd always apologize, and keep a mental log of who i had buzzed. if you're wondering why i did this at the other building, i did it at my building for a while, but quickly ran out of apartments that would actually respond. i suppose i got too comfortable doing this, because one night i came home after midnight. i don't want to sound unconscientious. i had rearranged several aspects of my life to avoid this, but eventually, it happened - and here i was, after midnight, the chinese garbage corridor is locked, and i have no way to get in. so, i thought it would be fine one time: i buzzed a random apartment in the other building, after midnight. the person responded instantly - genuinely within under 2 seconds of me buzzing. they had to be sitting waiting right at their buzzer. however, despite their apparent readiness, they were extremely displeased. they were also extremely aggressive (i'm not saying this was unwarranted). they, confusingly, did buzz me in, but also informed me that they were coming down to do harm to me in some way, as a consequence for "playing around with their buzzer". i lived in a building and area where i suspect a lot of people did drugs or were involved in drug based activities. not sure if that came through in the story so far. so, i get into this building, and i can hear someone, a man, perhaps heavy, just flying down the stairs. going as fast as they can down from the top floor. i'm on the top floor of the other building. so, with no time to think, i swiftly conclude that i am actually going to race this guy to my apartment. i run down the long hall, make it to the garbage courtyard, get through the garbage courtyard - there's another flight of stairs up from here, and i can hear him behind me. now, i have a second problem, which is that: if i'm not far enough ahead of him, he's going to know what apartment i'm in. so i throw myself into my building, make it up the five flights of stairs, unlock my door, get in, and just wait. and, nothing happens. apparently he did not see which apartment i went in to. anyway a few days later the rent company called me back and the super brought me a new fob.