{"id":40,"date":"2013-01-01T07:20:32","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T12:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/?p=40"},"modified":"2013-01-01T09:56:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-01T14:56:34","slug":"an-uncomfortable-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/an-uncomfortable-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"an uncomfortable visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>...shocked at how seedy the old neighborhood looks, I feel a pang of survivor\u2019s guilt over my own relatively comfortable life&nbsp;now.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Through the open door of the apartment, I can see that our old neighbors are sitting down to dinner. I\u2019m stunned for a moment to find that the little boy my son used to play with is now a paraplegic. I\u2019m already regretting the visit as I&nbsp;knock.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Shuffled of chairs inside, dishes and silverware clatter on a tabletop. I\u2019m interrupting dinner. Idiot.<\/p>\n<p>The husband opens the door, still chewing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m puzzled by a poster of an <a href=\"http:\/\/en.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_tick\" target=\"_blank\">old comic book character<\/a> on the wall behind him.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s puzzled by my visit, doesn\u2019t recognize me at first. Then his eyes light up and he calls his wife out to say hello. He tells me to wait for a moment, that he\u2019s got a gift he\u2019s been saving for me. I do my best to demur but he\u2019s already rummaging around in the chaotic jumble of old toys and rubbish in their little apartment.<\/p>\n<p>At the door, his wife asks about my kids. We trade polite pleasantries for a few minutes. She tells me that crime in the area has made it almost impossible to raise a family. Uncomfortable, I joke about dressing up like Batman and clean things up.<\/p>\n<p>In the stairwell behind me, I hear a door slam. Mutter of voices, a low level of panic. A woman cries somewhere up&nbsp;above.<\/p>\n<p>A man with a handgun makes his way door to door, collecting this week\u2019s rent and\/or protection money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She does her best to hold on to her fear. I do my best to hope that the thug didn\u2019t hear my ridiculous crimefighter comment.<\/p>\n<p>Her husband comes out into the hallway to confront the thug. I can feel the anger building in his wife, that he would jeopardize their safety with this pointless bravado.<\/p>\n<p>Things get complicated, convoluted . . . the sands of dream shift under my feet and slides into another, disjointed direction...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>...shocked at how seedy the old neighborhood looks, I feel a pang of survivor\u2019s guilt over my own relatively comfortable life&nbsp;now.&nbsp; Through the open door of the apartment, I can see that our old neighbors are sitting down to dinner. I\u2019m stunned for a moment to find that the little boy my son used&nbsp;to&nbsp;[\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,58,61,54,56,52,63,53,48,60,57,62,55,27,50,64,59],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dreams","tag-apartments","tag-awkward","tag-batman","tag-children","tag-clutter","tag-crime","tag-criminals","tag-dinner-time","tag-fragments","tag-gifts","tag-guilt","tag-guns","tag-old-toys","tag-the-midlands","tag-the-old-neighborhood","tag-visiting","tag-wheelchairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tmcamp.com\/yesod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}