Chapter Thirty-Five -Landfill/Paradise

Waiting was boring.

Fortunately, only a third of her was waiting, so she was only one third bored, which really wasn't so bad. Another third was watching TV (the documentary about landfills had ended and Athena turned the TV over to news, which wasn't super fun but it was bright and there were sounds so it was okay) and the last third of her was in the kitchen.

She was helping make food!

"Can you get the butter from the fridge?" Big Sister Emily asked.

"Mhm!" Trinity replied before jogging over and throwing the fridge open. The stuff stuck to the door clanged around, which was a sound she really liked to hear. Trinity found the butter, then ran back. "What are we eating?" she asked.

"Mac and cheese," was the reply.

They'd eaten mac and cheese twice already this week, so this would be the third time. Trinity raised her arms over her head and cheered. "Yeah! That's awesome! Can we have hot dog bits in it?"

Big Sister Emily smiled, then gave Trinity's head a rub. "Sure, get the pack out of the freezer. I don't think there's that many sausages left though."

While Trinity was helping Big Sister Emily in the kitchen, the part of her that was waiting in a dumpster next to the fast food place was cataloguing the stuff from the bags around her. She was trying not to make too much noise, because people got very angry when other people went through their trash, even if they were literally getting rid of the stuff.

It didn't make any sense to Trinity.

Her patience was rewarded though. She could hear a deep rumble through the metal walls of the dumpster as a truck pulled up next to it. Trinity shifted around inside, then slowly, carefully, pushed the heavy lid of the dumpster up.

What she saw on the outside made her gasp from all three mouths.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked in the kitchen.

"Yeah!" Trinity said.

The garbage truck was beautiful. It was white, with rust-brown streaks along its side, and even though she was sitting in a dumpster filled with festering junk food, she could still smell the truck. It reeked of diesel and years of accumulated trash.

A huge metal fork came down with a hydraulic hum, and Trinity squeaked back as it latched onto the dumpster. She grinned from ear to ear. Athena gave her a look in the living room, but didn't ask any questions.

Trinity held back a squeal of excitement as the dumpster jumped, then it slowly rose up and she felt her world tipping back.

The lid flew open, and then Trinity spread her arms wide, like a bird taking flight (but it was a raccoon instead) a moment before she crashed into a heap of compacted trash inside the garbage truck.

The dumpster was moved away, and Trinity found herself half-buried in its contents.

"Nice," she said to herself.

Then the walls started to close in around her.

That... wasn't normal, was it? She stared at the inner walls of the garbage truck as they pushed closer and closer. A machine hummed, and Trinity found herself a little bit uncomfortable as the walls just kept coming.

It was like getting hugged too hard by Teddy, only worse.

Trash fell in around her, and she heard bottles popping apart. The trash shifted more, and her vision was buried away from the light. She grunted as the pressure continued, and continued, and then...

A brand new Trinity popped into being in the living room.

"Dang," she said.

"Did you die?" Teddy asked.

Trinity sighed. "Yeah." Her new body trudged over to the kitchen where she was helping Emily with the food still. The laptop was still on the dining table, so she turned it over and opened a new browser tab before typing into the search bar. "Garbage truck squisher machine."

She learned that garbage trucks sometimes came with big compression machines to squish in even more garbage (and poor raccoons), and that garbage trucks were even cooler than she thought.

"What are you looking at?" Emily asked.

"When I grow up, I want to be a garbage truck," Trinity decided.

"I... don't know about being one, but maybe you can work for the city? It's a respectable enough job, and I think the pay's decent. Plus... three bodies means you could probably do triple shifts."

Driving three garbage trucks at the same time? Or maybe she could be the driver and the person who picked up the trash cans, and her third self could be in the big container with the trash... as long as it wasn't one of those with a crusher.

"Cool!" Trinity said. "I'm gonna be a garbage person! Unless... can I be a villain at the same time?"

"I... guess?"

Happy with the answer, Trinity cheered and ran out of the kitchen, leaving one of herself behind to continue helping. The new body went running past the others who barely paid her any attention, which was good, because she ran right out of the bunker again.

This time, when she was on the street, she knew exactly where to go. Garbage trucks had to stop a lot, so the one that had squished her couldn't be far!

It didn't take her long to find the white whale of a truck, slowly making its way along one of the side streets and stopping to slip into every alleyway where a dumpster waited.

Trinity ran over to a still-full dumpster, then waited. Not inside it this time, but in the shadows behind the dumpster.

She didn't have to wait too long, though by the time the truck had arrived, Big Sister Emily had asked her to set the table.

The truck rumbled over, then its big claw reached for the dumpster.

She jumped on. Not onto the dumpster, but on the claw. It rose up, and Trinity held on tight so that she wouldn't fall. Once she was at the very top, Trinity leapt off and onto the roof for the garbage truck, past the big hole where the trash was being dumped.

"Where's the rest of you?" Big Sister Emily asked as they all sat around the table.

Trinity had three chairs stuck against each other on one side. "That part of me is busy," Trinity said. She was more focused on the gooey, cheesy food in front of her. She'd gotten some extra sausage bits for helping!

The her on the garbage truck laid herself flat on the roof of it, arms and legs spread out in case there was a lot of wind, but with the start-stop motion of the truck, there really wasn't much.

Other than the interesting smells, it soon grew kind of boring, but that was okay, she had food to distract her at home, and when that ended, it was time to wash up and she helped Big Sister Emily with the dishes too.

"You're helpful today," Emily said as she handed Trinity a dried plate so that Trinity could put it away.

"Uh-huh!" Trinity said. "I learned good things today, so it's a good day, right?"

"I guess so," Emily said. "Did you want to play a board game or something after? With your sisters, I mean. I'm mostly done with work and could use a break."

"Alright!" Trinity said. She wasn't very good at board games, but a lot of them had nice art and she liked looking at the cards.

On top of the garbage truck, Trinity felt the vehicle make a turn, and then they rode on faster and faster. Soon, the garbage truck was on the highway, and Trinity pressed herself flat on the roof even as her tail caught the wind behind her.

The ride felt like it took a long time, but eventually the truck went off the main road outside of Eauclaire and the road felt much bumpier and less smooth than the city streets.

She carefully propped herself up so she could take a look around.

They crossed before a big old warehouse building with a few other trucks parked out front, then through a gate into...

A landfill!

It was amazing, a huge open space filled with mountains and mountains of trash.

Back home the dishes had been done for a while and Trinity had joined Athena and Teddy and Maple in the dining room where Emily was setting up a game of Onopoly. "Hey, where's your third body?" Big Sister Emily asked.

"Heaven," Trinity said.

Emily shook her head. "Nevermind."

The garbage truck backed itself up towards one of the smaller trash heaps, then the entire container on the back started to rise at one end.

Trinity held back a cheer as she slid off the top and crashed onto a big heap of cushioning trash.

She'd made it!

***