Dust to Dust

Nearly invisible black specks floated down,

until the glorious snow-white carpet was reduced to a dull gray.

As the walls darkened, it felt like the apartment was slowly rotting.

I only moved in a month ago.

When I first noticed the small black piles, I thought it was mold.

When the landlord finally showed up, he said it wasn’t mold--

He said it was ash.

I thought he was just bullshitting me--

however, once I smelled it, I had to agree.

But, it didn’t remind me of sitting in front of a roaring fire--

It brought back memories of something left crackling in a frying pan.

He said he’d “look into it,” but I knew he wouldn’t.

I was used to his laziness.

I had already complained about hearing rats in the walls,

but he didn’t do anything about that either.

Eventually, I found the source of the ash: the heating vents.

I unscrewed the vent cover, and found it coated with ash.

The burnt smell was intense, and it was mixed with a new smell.

I couldn’t place it, but it had of vague air of rancid meat.

So, I called the landlord again, and he finally took some action.

The guy he called showed up, with a fiberscope in hand.

He figured some rat had crawled into the vents, died, then got fried in there.

He couldn’t explain all the ash, but said we’d find out soon enough.

So, we stared into the screen as he snaked it down the soot-caked ducts.

That’s when we found him.

Apparently, the landlord had decided traditional vents would’ve been too expensive.

He also knew someone who was willing to ignore construction laws.

This resulted in our heating ducts being a jury-rigged mess.

The landlord then decided to stiff the guy on payment,

knowing he wouldn’t go to the cops out of fear of getting caught.

Eventually, the guy decided he would break in, using those same ducts, and rob him.

Except, he got-- stuck. Makes sense, the ducts weren’t exactly “up to code.”

It was the dead of winter, so the heat was basically on all hours of the day.