The Notice

Rosa read the notice in the elevator in about ten seconds, between the ground floor and the seventh.

She was carrying two bags of groceries and a box of laundry soap, and her phone was ringing in her pocket, so she did not read it carefully. She read the way she always read in English when she was in a hurry: the big words, the numbers, and the words in bold.

NEW WASTE POLICY. FINE: $250. JANUARY 1. ALL RESIDENTS.

The elevator doors opened. Rosa walked to her apartment with her heart beating fast. Two hundred and fifty dollars. That was her grocery money for a month. And what was the new policy? She had seen the word "garbage chute" somewhere on the paper. Were they closing the garbage chute? Where would everybody put their garbage? On the street?

She put the bags on the kitchen floor, took out her phone and opened the group chat for the building. It had eighty-three members. Most of the time it was used for lost cats and complaints about parking.

She typed:

Did everyone see the notice in the elevator?? From January we will pay $250 fine!!! They are closing the garbage chute!!! We need to do something!!!

Then she started putting away the groceries. By the time the milk was in the fridge, her phone had buzzed forty times.