Trashing the Daughter

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure fiction. If you are under 18, please stop reading now and go read something more appropriate for your age. I take no responsibility to your reactions in this - consider yourself warned.



As a garbage woman, my friends would ask me to take items I normally wasn't allowed - furniture, appliances, and other things that the city would charge a small fee to pick up with a special truck. I didn't really mind it, and no one really cared but the bean counters - garbage is garbage, and it all went to the same place.

I had a friend who was getting frustrated with her 19 year old daughter on a daily basis, to the point where she just wanted her out of her life. The girl wouldn't move out, and wouldn't find a job. My friend wanted to teach her kid a lesson she wouldn't forget.

The day before my weekly pickup, I arrived at my friend's house in full sanitation gear - baggy blue jumpsuit, orange and green high-vis vest, work boots, baseball cap, and several heavy duty 55 gallon black garbage bags hanging out of the back pocket. I looked quite intimidating, especially since it was uncommon in our area to have a female sanitation worker.

She invited me in and we had coffee in the kitchen, waiting for her kid to get home. We went over the plan one more time, hashing out the details, as well as me warning her about the dangers of what we were going to do.

As we finished, the kid arrived. At only around 5'8" and thin as a rail, she'd not pose too much of a problem for me in the morning.

"Ally, I'd like you to meet my friend, Tabitha. She works for the city as a sanitation worker." My friend said. Her kid just gave me a dirty look and turned around to go to her room. "Wait a minute there, young lady."

Ally turned around and walked over to us.

"Since your being so difficult with me lately, refusing to leave, and refusing to find a job, we need to figure out what to do with you. Can't have you costing me money each month, considering your not a child anymore."

In a classic teenage behavior, she rolled her eyes and tried to walk away. Her mother grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. I stood up, and stared down at the girl. At 6 foot tall, I towered over her.

"I'll be doing the truck alone tomorrow, so leave her next to the bins and put a bag or two on top of her to keep people from seeing." I took the bags out of my back pocket and tossed them on the table. "Use these, triple bag. Its general garbage day, so there won't be an issue taking a few extra bags."

Ally just stood there looking mortified.

"Mom, what is she talking about?"

"Oh don't worry sweetie. Tabitha, thanks for your help. I'll see you tomorrow morning?"

"Of course. Have a good evening." I smiled and walked out the front door, not waiting around to hear the resulting argument. I could just imagine the discussion that was about to take place.



The next morning, I got ready like I do every day. As usual, I had the truck to myself again. City cutbacks had forced the city to lay off some of the workers - I had only survived because I was a minority.

An hour into my route, I had finished the bulk of my pickup already, and had some spare time when I pulled up to my friend's house. As we discussed, there were two cans of garbage, plus a pile of 4 or so green garbage bags. I could see a black bag peeking out from under the pile.

I began tossing the green bags into the back of my rear loading garbage truck. As I grabbed the third and fourth bag, I saw my special sack of garbage laying on her side, head poking through the top of the bag, with it tied around her neck. She was gagged and looked scared out of her mind. I smiled at her then tossed the two green bags into the truck. Coming back for Ally, I grabbed the draw strings and dragged her across the ground and over to the truck. She shook her head wildly as I bent down and looked her in the eyes.

"You fit well in that bag, little garbage girl. Your mom wanted to get rid of the worthless garbage around the house. Looks like she thought you fit the description pretty well."

She mumbled a bit, then tried to shake herself out of her bindings. I just reached down and grabbed the bag from the bottom. She wasn't all that light, but she also wasn't the heaviest piece of trash I had to lift into the hopper. With a push, I sent her over the lip of the hopper and headfirst into the bed of the truck. I dumped the other bins of garbage on top of her, then sat on the lip of the hopper.

"So, how about I make you a deal." I smiled down at her.

"If your mother comes out in the next..." I checked my watch. "5 minutes to rescue you, I'll be more then happy to free you and let you go on with life. In the meantime, let me set the packer." I reached around the side of the truck and gave a quick jerk to the lever.

The blade swept up and over the top of the hopper and waited for the next pull. I could hear the girl scream through her gag.

"Well, you wouldn't be the first odd thing I've hauled to the incinerator. I get all sorts of things, like clothing, toys, grills... You name it, I've crushed it in this truck. If your lucky, you'll miss the blade and be swept back into the truck with the rest of today's haul. You'll probably be alive when I dump you into the conveyer that takes the garbage to the shredder. Don't take it personally, it's my job to pick up garbage."

I looked at my watch again.

"Two minutes baby." I reached around and pulled the lever again.

The blade came down further, about halfway down the hopper. One more pull and there would be no turning back. As far as I was told, if her mother didn't come out and stop me, I was to complete the cycle. I reached down into the hopper and brushed some garbage out of the girl's face.

I hopped off the lip of the hopper and faced the back of the truck. My watched beeped twice.

"Sorry little one, you know the deal. Obviously, your mother doesn't feel you need to be salvaged. Keep your head back and you shouldn't have a problem avoiding the blade."

I reached around and pulled the lever again, and the truck began its packing cycle. The blade slowly descended. I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. I flipped around and was looking at my friend.

"Sorry, I was in the shower. You can let her out now, I think she learned her lesson." She noticed her kid's head in the hopper, as both her and the garbage disappeared under the packer blade. She covered her mouth in shock and stammered for a moment.

"I can't stop it. The packer cycle is completing. You shouldn't have waited this long if you didn't want me to follow through."

"Shit, shit, shit! I didn't want this to go all the way through!" She watched with me as the blade pushed back up into its resting position, shoving the garbage that was in the hopper into the container.

"She's garbage now. I could possibly snag her off the conveyer at the disposal station, but it will be a few hours." I said as I wiped sweat off my forehead.

"No... There's too much risk for you to do that..." She leaned up against the truck and sighed. "I'll say she ran away. If you can wait a few minutes more, I'll run upstairs and get some of her clothes and other items, so it looks right."

"Sure, hurry up though, I don't want to be late on the route."

I tossed a bag from my back pocket to her and she ran inside. Several minutes later, she came running back outside, carrying a bag of items from her daughter's room. She threw the bag into the hopper and smiled at me.

"Thank you, regardless for this. I know I messed up, but hopefully you aren't angry at me..."

"Garbage is garbage. I'm just doing my job."

I gave her a hug, then ran back to the front of my truck. First time for everything, I thought to myself.

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22.11.09