Couch Day
By: M. Virginia Southworth
Tags: Teamwork, New Apartment, Gotta Have Love, Curbside Pickup, Couch Day

It is not only the young college graduate looking for his first apartment who is in search of a milk crate and anything else that you may have stored in your garage to furnish that ubiquitous first apartment. Today, more than ever, people from all walks and stages of life are in need of basic furnishings.

I have one such friend, Joe, a co-worker, and he cannot go back home because his mother has a compromised immune system. He was rooming with his buddy, but a third party, Marsha, took up with the housemate. Suddenly, Joe, who is in his late 30’s, was an interloper.

It started with the dirty frying pan that appeared in the sink one morning. Poor Joe took the brunt for that when in fact, the one hollering at him didn’t realize in her stupor from too much Bailey’s the previous night, that she was the culprit. It was the classic case of calling “the kettle black”. Then, on another occasion, Joe thought it would be okay to bring his new girlfriend to the house to watch a football game. After all, he is paying rent. This did not bode well with Marsha. Words were exchanged, that which cannot be taken back as often is the case in life. That was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. Joe knew that he had to move out. He did not want his friendship to be affected with Tom, his housemate, but he knew that he had to get out. Tom would keep the girl as she has him smitten with her feminine wiles.

Fortunately, an apartment in a complex became available though Joe had to wait a few weeks. He stayed in the screened-in porch of where his mother lives. He was careful to avoid contact due to the current pandemic situation.

Joe is working at a chain restaurant in the ‘To Go’ section. I asked him how he was doing. He is noble. He told me, “It is all good.”

“What do you need Joe?” I asked him.

“Basically anything and everything.” He replied.

Now I live out in the boonies, but I happened to notice a couch on the corner of Hardscrabble Road. I could handle the cushions, but I might have trouble with the couch. I removed the cushions, and put them in my car. I figured that way, no one would take the couch without the cushions. Then, I went home and got my son. “I need your help James.” He is always game being a teenage boy.

We went to borrow his uncle’s truck and we went to that curbside where the couch was. We loaded it in the truck. I looked at James and said, “I am surprised that the neighbors didn’t take this.” The neighbors live in a trailer. They have pink plastic flamingoes on their lawn. They always seem to be picking up “stuff” and putting things in and around their modest dwelling.

Then I sent Joe a message to tell him of my find. He was excited. We drove down to the city and another co-worker from another apartment flagged us down. The guys got the couch out of the truck and into Joe’s first floor, thankfully, apartment. It was tight in the doorway, but with mathematic minds, Joe, James and Ryan managed to get it in the doorway. It was the only piece of furniture in Joe’s new apartment — save a mattress on the floor of the bedroom.

This was a fun mission — very satisfying. When James and I got back home, we saw our neighbor’s truck in their driveway. Guess what — they were unloading a couch! I looked at my son and exclaimed, “It must be ‘Couch Day’!”