The Sunset Apartments #8
Floor: Basement
Apartment Number: B5
Complaint: Routine Maintenance
Name: Olive Baltimore
Vartan put on the full face mask with air filters built into it without comment. He was tired, his feet were aching, and by now he figured that anything Hector handed him to wear into a unit shouldn’t be questioned. “What’s this ticket about then?”
Hector slipped on his maskl. “This ticket is submitted by me on behalf of Olive Baltimore. The lady that lives in this unit.”
“In the basement.”
“Yea, there’s a few units down here, including my own.” He pointed down the hallway. “And her unit is very important as it requires weekly feeding.”
He tilted his head toward the canvas bag hanging on his boss’ shoulder and the seed distribution gun in his hand as he raised his eyebrows and said, “Feeding?”
The super unlocked the unit’s door that opened up into a chamber with downward force fans hanging above. They stepped into the smaller room and when the door closed the fans sped up as both men were doused in a blast of white smoke. Hector held his hand up saying, “Don’t worry, it’s just a precaution to make sure no outside microbes are tagging along with us. He then opened the inner door and said, “Good evening, Ms. Baltimore.”
“What the hell is that?”
“That is a tree.” The two walked into the basement apartment to find its roof filled with branches that weaved their way in and out of the ceiling tiles. They ranged from small to large and were growing from a trunk that took up most of the space in the former studio basement unit. “A California oak, to be more accurate.”
“Why is it named Olive Baltimore then?”
“Because it’s not just a tree. Now, when you come in here, make sure you spread some dirt on the ground.” He pointed at the bags of soil stacked in the corner and it was then that Vartan realized that the floor was gone. In its place dirt and fresh flowers were sprouting among the grow lights in the room. “This feed we give once a week and her watering is done on a timer I set up in the corner.”
“What do you mean it's not just a tree?”
“It’s a person and a tree.”
Vartan’s face grew more suspicious as he asked his next question, “Is she dead underneath it?”
Hector let out a laugh. “No, no, she’s inside the tree, and she isn’t dead either.”
“I have many more questions.”
“That’s fine, it’s why I left this ticket closer to the end of our day.” Hector pointed towards the bag soil. “You go ahead and open one of those bags. I want you to spread it around her base as much as possible. She chews through the stuff pretty fast because of the food I scatter around the dirt.”
He opened the bag of dirt. “How is she inside the tree and not dead?”
He loaded the food pellets into the hand-cranked scatter. “I dunno. She’s just one with the tree now, I guess.”
He began spreading the dirt around the tree’s base. “Is the rest of her tree shut out from other rooms in the building?”
“No, her branches reach through almost every part of the building. She’s become one with the apartments and is supporting it.” He began to spread the food pellets into the fresh soil. “We do the clean room thing because the spores that drop from the tree are too heavy to fly up into the rest of the building but it could exit through the door. And the masks keep us safe from the spores.”
“What happens if we breathe in the spores?”
Hector pointed at the tree. “Ask Olive that question. I only learned about the spores from her notebook on the desk.”
Once Vartan had spread the dirt around the tree’s roots he asked, “Could I see the notebook?”
“Sure, I’ll wrap up on feeding.”
Vartan walked over to the remains of Olive’s stuff in the room. A UCLA sweatshirt lay degrading on the back of the desk chair as he picked up the composition book on the table. Inside were notes about tree growth, the coming problems from global warming, and carbon measurements and how much each tree swallowed up yearly. The chunky laptop on the desktop surface told him that this lady was in college a very long time ago. Browsing through the book, he found the research she had been conducting on the oak. “It looks like she was working on ways to speed up their growth in order to fight… global warming?”
“It’s called climate change now.”
“Ah, and the spores help the tree grow fast?”
“Something like that, only problem is if enough of it is ingested, then it can cause problems like having a plant bind to you at a genetic level.”
Vartan looked at the notes and back his boss. “It doesn’t say that in the notes.”
“I know, she told me before the tree completely enveloped her.”
He put the book down. “Oh, that’s dark. Why not put her outside where she couldn’t harm the building?”
“Look at the spores, man, if this got loose outside it would make entire populations into plants! She isn’t a danger to the building as she is now supporting the building. We’re probably the most earthquake-safe place in LA.”
“Did you have scientists come in and do science things?”
“Mr. Rosewater had some tests done to see if she was a threat to the building.”
“How could the scientists not share their findings?”
“Because once the tests were done, Mr. Rosewater had Arthur talk to them about penny stocks.”
Vartan looked at the tree and at his boss and asked, “Why do you not want me to know who pay us for our work? Your boss, he who must not be named, Mr. Rosewater? It’s you, me, and the tree here.”
Hector let out a loud sigh as he pulled up a stool to sit. “Mr. Rosewater is… well, a giant asshole. He doesn’t treat people well and the tenants of this building are quick to remember that while he lets them live here for free, they are here at his request. That request comes with a lot of demands.”
“What kind of demands?”
“They give him what he wants when he asks for it.”
“Like what?”
“Anything, blood samples, medical documents, photographs, sex, whatever he wants from them he gets.”
“And you willingly work for this guy?”
“Yep, paid well for it too, and so do you now.” He stood up. “This is why I didn’t want you bothering the tenants too much about him. Sure, free rent, but the cost of that is paid for multiple times over.”
Vartan took a breath before standing up. “How are you okay with any of this?”
A small smile formed under his mask as he answered, “What’s the difference between the devil I know and the devil someone else works for? These guys that own the skyscrapers, that own the power, that own the streets, you think they’re regular people? You think they’re treating their employees and the public at large with dignity and respect? That they don’t use people like matches being thrown into a roaring fire to keep themselves warm?” Giving the silence a moment to answer him, Hector picked up the seed gun, and continued, “The man at the top isn’t your concern. He’s mine. You don’t have to worry about him and the less the tenants hear his name, the better. You are a good man, Vartan Petrosian, and you’re working with a good man too. We’ll take care of the people here because no one else will. That’s how we get through the day.”
A fire burned in Vartan’s eyes as he walked toward the clean room with his boss. Once the fans finished their cycle, he stepped out, and took off his mask. “Just because what you said back there was true, doesn’t make what we do any more noble. We’re still being paid by a man who does terrible things, the only difference here is that we know he does those things.”
Hector took his mask off. “What do you suggest we do about it?” Vartan began to answer but stopped which made him chuckle a bit. “Ah, you can’t tell the cops or any reporters about this place. That would put all of the people here in danger. The public… we can’t trust them to do right by the folks here. Most would probably want to kill them. So, what do you do, Vartan?”
“I don’t know, Hector.”
“Exactly, so, we square on the subject?”
“Yeah, we’re square.”
“Ok, that’s it for the day.”
“You mean, we’re done? I thought we had more tickets?”
“Nope, that’s it for the day. Nothing being put in is an emergency.” An alert pinged on his phone. Checking the message, his eyes lit up, as he grabbed the tool cart. “Damn, we gotta go!”
Vartan started following his boss to the elevator. “What’s up?”
“We got a leak!”
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Well this was an ominous chapter. Liked the conversation about the boss. Feels like we're heading to the equivalent of a season finale with the end of the first day and that leak.