The past few days I've been concerned because one of the apartments just down from mine had newspapers piling up outside the door. After a few days I started thinking I should tell the office, but then they disappeared, so I figured it was a tenant that didn't work and didn't leave the apartment much. But then today I saw there were four papers and I walked over and, well, sniffed, to see if I smelled decay. I know, maybe that was weird of me, but nothing seemed awry.
Tonight when going across the street to get milk and cookie dough, I found two police officers outside the apartment. What I had guessed was true. My poor neighbor had passed away, and someone else had collected the papers thinking it'd be prudent to take them off the step so as to not make the apartment look abandoned while he was (apparently) away on vacation.
I know it doesn't make sense to feel bad about not contacting the office when I had thought to, but I still feel very sad for his passing and the fact that no one was aware of it for so long.
I hardly knew him, and the times we met were always very...strange. The first time we spoke he asked me to cut his fingernails (he was quite old, and I imagine the task was difficult). I had never seen him before and I made some excuse and shuffled away as politely as I could. I didn't think he lived here because to be honest, he looked quite ragged and our apartment building has rent a bit steeper than it looked like he could afford, so I went down to the office to tell them, but they said he just rarely was out and about and that he was indeed my neighbor. While we saw each other often after that, the next, and last, time we spoke, was when he talked to me about my cell phone. He told me, twice, that I could use it to call Osama Bin Laden. He was clearly a bit confused and I felt bad for him, and I just replied that I indeed could.
I was happy to find he died of natural causes, but I can't help but feel sorry for him, and sorry I wasn't able to at least let his death be known sooner. But such is life.
