The art of moving

“It is time to move on” Sam thought while packing his clothes in a suitcase. He felt a big sense of relief when he negotiated his contract with his agent so that he could move on to another apartment.

Every night was a nightmare for him while he stayed in his current apartment. The location was fantastic for a single person to stay as it was very close to all shops and transportation. Whatever he wanted, right form grocery till a video rental, and it was less than one hundred meters from his apartment. Moreover, his flat was right above a local fish and chips shop, the most famous one in that locality.

“Wait a minute! Staying on top of a fish and chips shop? Won’t that attract drunken teens late night? Will the place be peaceful or safe?” Little did Sam think about all these factors when he moved in four months back and he did pay the price for it. Every night, by one AM someone would knock the door and then hide somewhere. And this would continue until 3 AM. On some nights he used to hear sound of women crying, sometimes screaming, and sometimes both, but most of the times with some abusive words. If there was any advantage of staying in that apartment, he did learn a lot of ways to abuse people.

“Yeah, that is one advantage of being abused night after night” he thought while packing

For anyone, the sequence of events which would contain packing all the items in boxes, moving and unpacking carefully would be tiresome and boring. But, Sam was more than happy to go through this heavy load for one day rather than getting abused and humiliated for two hours in the night every night. New set of teens appeared every night, but the level of abuse was always standard!

Sam asked for help. A couple of his friends, Krishna and Gudla came along. Both of his friends were inspecting the kitchen.

“How can I pack all these vessels?” asked Gudla

“Boy! You have a lot for a single person!” Krishna declared.

“Use this” Sam said and gave them a bundle of refuse sacks.

“You want me to pack your kitchen in a refuse sack?” asked Krishna with a surprise.

“Yes. I don’t have anything else now. Stop asking questions and pack” Sam said and threw the bundle of refuse sacks at him.

Seven refuse sacks were full and ready for transportation within ten minutes. By the time kitchen was packed, Sam packed his bedroom in a couple of suitcases.

“What next?” Gudla asked.

“Well, I think we are ready. It’s time to call the cab and take these things” Sam said and pointed at seven refuse sacks, two suitcases, a big sack of onions and a television.

“Onions? Why would he pack the onions? Half of them are rotten anyway” Sam thought. But, he did not ask any questions at that time as his mind was preoccupied with a lot of things.

Sam opened his phone and dialed for the cab. The cab came within five minutes. They used the time to carry all the items from his flat to the main door below and parked all the items on the street. People who went past the street were anxiously looking at the packed items. Some thought “Well, that is too much of refuse for a single person flat” after looking at seven refuse sacks neatly lined up on the street.

“Dude, today is not the trash day” said Sam’s neighbor and smiled sarcastically.

“I know. Thanks!” Sam said and looked at the far end of the street, impatiently waiting for the cab.

Every minute, the number of anxious lookers was increasing and so his comfort was decreasing exponentially.

“God! When will this taxi arrive?” he thought.

After a minute, he consoled himself by thinking about the hard times he went thorough in the previous nights. All of that would be over soon. The thought of uninterrupted sleep all night was bliss for him.

The taxi arrived. So were the troubles. The driver looked at the packages, but initially thought they were only transporting the suitcases and the television.

“Waiting for the council guys to throw these away?” He asked and pointed at the seven refuse sacks.

Sam was silent for moment. Then he said “No, actually we want to take them in your taxi”

“What? That is not possible” He said immediately.

“Why not?” Gudla asked, raising his voice.

“Listen I am not here for a confrontation” He said and pulled his sleeves up. Sam gulped. All three gulped.

“I am going back” the driver said.

“Wait. Can you take the suitcases and the television?” Sam asked.

The driver thought about it for a moment and then agreed.

“And just one sack? It only contains kitchen items” Gudla said. Sam and Krishna froze.

“Is he Crazy? This driver is up for a fight!” Sam thought and was almost ready to run away in case of a fight.

“Let me ask my boss” he said and picked up his wireless devise.

“Listen mate. There are three guys here with seven refuse sacks. It looks ugly and big and they want to take them in my cab. Only god knows what the hell is inside” he said.

Sam could not control his laughter after listening to this conversation. After a couple of minutes, the driver said that his company would not allow taking refuse sacks no matter what (the hell) was inside.

“I can take the suitcases and the television if you want” the driver said.

The three guys looked at each other and finally agreed.

“We will look at other options for transporting your kitchen” Krishna said and smiled.

When they stared loading the suitcase in the boot, they realized that two big suitcases wouldn’t fit in. All they could fit was just one suitcase. But, they did not want to send the driver back, as they troubled him for twenty minutes, for the fear of being smacked in the middle of the street. So, they just loaded one suitcase and left everything behind.

“I will go along while you watch these things” Sam said to the other two guys.

“Is that all?” the driver asked and pointed his finger towards the back of the car.

“Yes” said Sam and sat in the front seat.

When the driver started the engine, Gudla came running towards Sam and asked him to open the window.

“Can you take his along with you? Just this one” Gudla said and tried to hand over one full pack of onions, out of which the bottom half was rotten.

Sam was caught in the middle. Between the driver and Gudla. Literally. He looked at the driver who was red with anger and then he looked at Gudla, who was trying to push the pack of onions inside.

He looked at the driver and Gudla a few times, turning 180 degrees to check whether anyone would give up. But none did.

Finally, Gudla dropped the sack on Sam’s lap through the window that led Sam in a state of horror.

“God! I can’t even run now” he thought.

Pissed off with the guys, the driver gave the accelerator a severe push and off went the cab furiously.

Both the driver and Sam did not speak until they stopped the taxi at destination. Sam was still frozen with a sack of onions.

As soon as Sam got out of the cab, he asked “Are you ok to take one more trip?”

The driver pretended like he was deaf. It took around thirty minutes for him to negotiate and move one suitcase and a pack of onions for Sam. All the way, he was not happy with the guys and the goods moved.

After all the negotiations and frustrations, after thirty minutes being spent overall, and after a sack of onions was taken for a ride, the driver looked at the meter and said “That’s one pound and fifty pence sir!”

The driver had no idea that the new flat was just one hundred meters away. That, again, pissed him off as much as he could ever be pissed off.

“Even the KFC waiter gets eight pounds an hour. What did my taxi gain?” he asked, then snatched the money and sped away.

Sam felt bad about the whole episode. Especially with the sack of onions on his lap. But, he had other things to worry about.

“Now, how do I move my kitchen?” he thought.