Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette

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I looked at the computer screen.  I felt better about myself.  I was eligible for a military pension.  It meant that even though I was still old and alone I was not going to be as poor.  If I could only write something new.  I went down to the lobby to check on my mail.

I stood in the lobby in front of all the mail boxes and read a post card that urged me to buy auto insurance and wondered why I kept getting mail that urged me to buy auto insurance when I had no car.  A pudgy, middle-age man approached me.  I knew he was a tenant.

“Excuse me,” he said.  “Could I ask you, do you have cock roaches in your place?”

“No.”

“They’re over running my place.”

“Did you tell management?”

“We had a big argument.  They know.  I pay my rent on time every month.  All I ask is that I have a decent place to live.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Well, I phoned the city.  They’ll be out here on the sixteenth and this place is going to be in big trouble.  I mean big trouble.”

We talked a few minutes more.  He said goodbye and I wished him luck.  I left the lobby and walked out onto the landing into a beautiful summer afternoon.  Now I had two things to feel good about.