A Recycling System in Jamaica

Chapter 4

The rest of the night passed peacefully. Until 5:00 am when the early morning walkers came out. Mr. Manning, Mr. Palmer, and Ms. Mikle always meet up at Mr. Palmer's gate to circle the community for their morning exercise. They would walk until the sun was heating up before going home. However, as they met up this morning they were shocked to see that all the roads they had walked on so far were completely free of garbage. The ever-present odor that had plagued the community since the garbage dump was built is also gone.

Ms. Mikle, who was a member of the homeowners' association, didn't know when the National Waste Association had become so diligent. She had been trying for years to get them to clean up the dump and put measures in place to stop dogs from littering the community. So when she saw the clean roads and didn't smell the usual odor, a smile spread all over her face. She walked quickly to Mr. Palmer's and saw the other two morning walkers waiting for her.

“Morning, have you old men realized anything different about the roads this morning?” Ms. Mikle said with a bright smile.

Both men looked at her and couldn't help praising her.

“Look how easy you are to please just clean up some garbage, and you have become Miss Mary Sunshine.”

“I have told you time and time again that my letters to the NWA are not being ignored and that eventually they would come and clean up and look, wasn't I right? Don't you see how clean the roads are and how fresh the air smells?” Ms. Mikle has been writing letters and sending emails to the NWA office in the parish asking for them to clean up the garbage on the roads and collect the garbage in the dump, but at most every few months, some trucks will come and take away some of the garbage, but leaving most of it so the dump hasn't been empty since it was built, and it was originally built by the HOA because they saw that the NWA wasn't collecting garbage regularly enough, and it made the community that has more than five hundred houses stink to the high heaven because garbage was piled up in front of everyone's homes making it a nasty sight to see. They hoped the dump would make it easier for the NWA to collect the pile's garbage since all the garbage would be in one location, but that turned out to be just a pipe dream. Seeing that they had made their dump only made them be neglected more by the NWA because, in their opinion, the community dump was good enough. But how could it be enough? It was just a place to dump garbage. No one was willing to pay for it to be managed properly and no one had training to dispose of garbage properly.

So it became what it is today. An ever-growing mountain or garbage. As they talked, they walked enjoying the fresh air that didn't have the taint of garbage and made their walk a lot more enjoyable. When they finally reached the garbage dump and saw that it was empty, they lost all interest in walking and entered the dump just to make sure their eyes weren't playing tricks on them.

“This is amazing.” Mr. Manning, who is normally the calmest of the three was the first to react. The dump was so clean that if they didn't know that it was a dump they wouldn't have any evidence to prove that it was. The ground looked rich black and perfect for planting vegetables and fruits.

“I don't think this was done by the NWA. They would never be this precise.” Mr. Palmer didn't believe the notoriously lazy NWA would suddenly become so meticulous.

“I can understand why you're saying that, but if it wasn't the NWA, who could it be? Who else gets paid to collect garbage?” Ms Mikle asked, not knowing she had hit the nail on the head.

As the community woke up and started to go on the roads to go to work. They also noticed the nice clean roads and the empty dump. It became the topic of conversation for the day, with everyone discussing whether it was the NWA or someone else.

At Reed's house, he woke up leisurely. One of the benefits of being on summer vacation. He didn't have to get up early. As he got up, he quickly called up his status.

Host: Reed Carter

Level: 3

Experience: 7,880/10,000

Strength: 15/10 (Average 10)

Physique: 15/10 (Average 10)

Intelligence: 16/10 (Average 10)

Charm: 16/10 (Average 10)

Abilities: Purify level 1 (Activated)

Attribute Points: 2

Seeing that it was still there and all that happened yesterday wasn't a dream, he decided to add the attribute points to strength and physique. Making all of them 16 points each, 6 points higher than the average person.

He had a lot to do today. The first thing is to go to May Pen Town and buy some new clothes for him, plus a lot of groceries for the house. The second was to give his mom some money so that she could feel more secure and not worry about everything and, lastly, he needed to make some arrangements with a contractor to get some work done. He plans to build a three-bedroom house in the space in the front of the yard. He knew that he always wanted to live close to his mother, but he also wanted some space of his own. So that when he had a girlfriend in the future he didn't have to worry about having no privacy. Plus, the house they currently live in needs a lot of repairs, so it's better to wait until they have somewhere to stay before starting any work on this house, so after the new house is built they will move over there until the repairs on the main house are complete. Then his mom and cousin would be the only ones to move back, and he would stay in the new house.

After sorting out the things he wanted to do, Reed got up and went to the bathroom. Even with his ability activated, he still couldn't let go of the habit of brushing his teeth and showering. When he got up in the morning, he took out some of his older brother Jason’s clothes. Now that his height had increased, these were the only things that he had that could fit him, but they were old and a bit worn. His brothers usually leave their old clothes here for him to wear in the yard, but some of them could still be worn out if you don't have a choice, like today.

The shirt was dark blue and the jeans were black, but because they had been washed a lot, they looked dark gray. He slid on a pair of Nike Sliders. They used to be a little big, but now they were too small, but they were the best he could do at the moment. Looking in the mirror in the wardrobe, he saw that although the clothes weren't the best, they looked really good on him. His face, which was much more handsome than before, attracted eyes so that people forgot to look at the rest of him.

Coming out of his room, he saw his mom and cousin messing around in the dining room and kitchen. His mom was cooking and his cousin was keeping her company. Maddy was eleven and about to start high school in September and would be turning twelve in August. Maddy was a distant cousin. Her father is his mother's cousin. Their moms were sisters. So, when his cousin Dave had a little girl whose mother abandoned her, Reed's mother took the baby and raised it almost like the daughter she never had. So that's how she ended up living with them and, due to Reed being more introverted, she became his mother's companion.

Maddy was about 5ft 4in tall and very skinny with a lot of pimples on her face and she loved being the only girl in the house because it allowed her to get away with a lot. She got everything she needed from her dad so she didn't have the worries that Reed had. Reed and his mom didn't talk about the problems they faced in front of her. Both of them wanted her to have the best childhood possible without any worries.

“OMG” were the first words out of Maddy's mouth after she saw Reed. She felt that a world had been opened before her. She had never seen a boy as good-looking as her cousin. Her shout attracted Pat's attention, and she was also stunned by Reed's handsome face.