Don't Touch The Households

It all started when I was a kid. My family, being poor as fuck, would always dumpster dive. I can't tell you how many times my brother and I came home off the bus from school to see the trash cans sitting in our driveway, flipped over and having their contents spilled all over the yard. Mom would then go through the garbage and take out anything valuable. Sometimes we would even go through our neighbors' trash cans and find anything we could recycle and scrap for cash.<br><br>My brother and I never complained, hell, we always saw it as an adventure. We even made a game out of it. I think the game was called "Trash Can Trenches" and the goal was to climb into the dumpster and find anything valuable. I know it doesn't sound the best and I know most of you think we are disgusting for doing it. But when your poor, you also do what you have to do, even if it means living like a rat in the sewer.<br><br>But one day everything changed. When I was around 13, my brother and I made our greatest find ever. You see, our Mom made it a habit to always check our neighbors trash cans. She would always look and see what they threw away and check to see if she can make use of it. We lived in a small house, surrounded by richer families. You know, the kind of people that lived a better life than us. You could say we lived in a fairly nice neighborhood but just happened to be poor.<br><br>So one day we were out collecting trash and happened to pass by a neighbors house and happened to see the trash cans sitting outside. Mom went over and started digging through them. She found books, broken toys, and even clothing. My brother and I were called over and we all started digging through it. Some of the stuff we found was in good condition too. My brother found an old action figure toy. It was broken, but he could still make use of it.<br><br>Me, well, I found something a little bit more interesting.<br><br>I saw some pages of a book. They were fairly large sheets of paper, the size of your average notebook paper. The pages were old, and were certainly hand written. It was like they were some kind of notes. I picked them up, and held them in my hand.<br><br>Mom noticed and came over to me and asked, "Son, what is that?"<br><br>I said, "I know, found some handwritten notes. I'm gonna use it for school."<br><br>Mom looked at me and said, "What does it say?"<br><br>I looked the pages over and saw that it was a set of rules. I said, "It looks like a list of rules."<br><br>Mom said, "What kind of rules?"<br><br>I read the pages and was shocked. You see, this one page, contained the instructions to a game. A game called "Don't Touch The Households." I read the instructions out loud to my mom.<br><br>"Don't Touch The Households" reads as this:<br><br>***<br><br>Number One: All the players must live in the same house, unless they live close. In that case, they can just walk to the meeting location. But if not, they must drive, or carpool.<br><br>Number Two: The players must be of any age. There is no age limit, and no age requirement. Even if you are underage, you can always play. As long as you can read, you can play.<br><br>Number Three: Find the richest house in the neighborhood that plays the game. For obvious reasons. Just make sure it's a house, and not an appartment or trailer.<br><br>Number Four: Find your richest enemy's trash cans. Make sure to not get caught. If you do, you are disqualified. Just make sure to not touch their house, or you will lose the game.<br><br>Number Five: Dig through the trash and see if you find anything valuable. This can be anything. Stickers, broken toys, useless items you can use as decorations for a project, anything that has value in your eyes.<br><br>Number Six: Take the trash back to your house, and make sure no one is watching. If you are caught, you are disqualified and are not allowed to play anymore.<br><br>Number Seven: Keep on playing and collecting, until you have nothing. You must get rid of the useless trash also. If you are caught with useless trash, you can be disqualified.<br><br>Number Eight: Play, play, play! Play all you can. You never know who may be playing against you. That is of course if you choose to play.<br><br>***<br><br>I showed the pages to my mom, and she just smiled. She asked me. "Son, you wanna play this game?"<br><br>I just smiled, and said, "Yeah." Mom said, "Then lets play. Just make sure we don't get caught." she said with a wink.<br><br>We took the pages back to our house, and put them away, making sure not to lose them. Then we went on the hunt. We looked all around our neighborhood, looking for the richest house in the neighborhood. I walked around for two hours until I finally found it.<br><br>It wasn't too far away from my house, just a few blocks. It was a fairly large house, with a large front yard and nice garden. I could tell this person was rich. He had a two story building, and a two car garage. His house was remodeled and it was just fairly nice. Even from the outside. He even had a large deck in the back of his house. It was fairly decked out, and it had a large table in the middle. I can already imagine this guy hosting dinner parties, and fairly large gatherings.<br><br>I saw this guy before. And though he is rich, I like him. It seems he is a very nice person, he would always donate to charity, and even organized food drives. It just seemed fair that this guy would always help out. He seemed like one of our only neighbors that would help us out. Even though we were poor. He would always donate to our favorite charities, and give people jobs. I remember when me and my brother graduated college. We were both looking for a job, and it just happened that he needed employees.<br><br>He hired us, and we worked there until we found another job. We didn't quit, but just moved on. We were paid well, and had excellent benefits. We were just in our early 20's and making more than our Mom. The job was hard, but it paid well. We didn't mind living away from home, we even stayed in the dorms on campus. It was nice and it really helped us out.<br><br>He was a great boss too. He even paid us extra after we moved on to another job. He even showed up to my brother's wedding, and even wore a tuxedo. It even seemed he was chummy with my brother's new wife. I even saw her cry when he left. He just seemed like an all around good guy. I felt bad that I was stealing from him, but we needed the cash, and he was the only one who fit the requirements to play.<br><br>So the next night, nightfall. We were walking out. Mom, my brother, and myself. We walked down the block, until we reached the guy's house. His house was dark. But you could see the shadows of him watching TV. He was watching It, and I thought I saw the shadow of a cat also. I pointed this out the my brother and Mom. They shrugged and said let's just get on with the game.<br><br>We crept up the driveway. You could hear the creaking of the sidewalk. My brother looked at us and put his finger to his lips, as a signal for us to be quiet. Mom and I looked at each other, and she whispered to me, "Shut up. I know what I am doing."<br><br>We crept up to the trash cans and started digging through them. My brother found some bottle caps. Mom found some broken bottles. And I found some broken machinery. Mom also found what looked like broken speakers. They were crushed and mangled beyond belief. I can't tell you what it looked like, but it just looked fairly broken up. My brother found a large piece of cardboard. It would be large enough to cover a couch.<br><br>We were lucky. We didn't get caught, and we got away free. My brother and I went straight to bed after that. We didn't even stay up. Mom also went to bed, but not before saying to us. "See You in the Trenches Boys!" Mom is funny, but she isn't funny enough to make us laugh.<br><br>Then the next night came, and we repeated the process. Mom, my brother, and myself all crept out of the house and went to the guy's house and found even more stuff. My brother found even more bottle caps, Mom found even more broken glass. And I found some broken machinery. Even more than last time. My brother found an old broken coffeemaker. It was the kind that used powder and water. It was dusty and rusty, but it was still in fair condition.<br><br>Mom found a bunch of broken dishes, and some old broken headphones. They looked earbuds to me, but still. She also found some old CDs, and a broken CD player. It was also dusty and rusty. My brother and I got right to work. We cleaned the machinery and the coffee maker. It took us hours. You could hear the creaking and the squeezing. We took turns cleaning and washing it. Mom also cleaned the dishes. We found some old Styrofoam cups. Mom also found some old CD player.<br><br>Mom and my brother fixed the CD player. It took a while, but it was fairly easy. Mom took out the broken CDs, and even managed to fix one. It was a bunch of songs, but we didn't know the artist. It was good quality though