DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

Door Ajar

I work downtown, not far from the men’s shelter, Public Park across the street from a Jesus Saves Mission and soup Kitchen. Our building houses not only our agency but also a “needle exchange”, the Mexican consulate a private non-profit for folks with mental retardation. Our buildings population is eclectic if not colorful. Our office has been locking its front doors on days we don’t have major meetings for more then a year now. Your had better call before coming or nock really loud on the front door. I mean really loud if Cecilia or me are the only ones here because we are way in the back and do not hear what’s going on up front very well.

Shortly after we started locking the front door, our staff demanded the bathroom doors be locked. Seems some staff were being surprised by some of the buildings more colorful clientele. If walks on the ground floor got desperate they could go to the upper floors of the building where the doors were left unlocked.

Staff was issued keys and that was that. If a consumer needed to use the facilities then they could speak with one of the front desk people of the two privates on this ground floor, which could issue a courtesy key. Well, I heard this morning in staff meeting that someone had been found living in one of the vacant offices upstairs. I thought that was pretty cool but no one else did. The interloper was escorted off premise by law enforcement and now the bathrooms are locked on the second floor. The Mexicans control the entire third floor—the only way your using that bathroom is if you buy something first.

I found if you come out of the bathroom and gently let the door close behind you then push against the door the last couple of centimeters the door will remain ajar and all you have to do is press on the door and it lets you. I do this because I have such limited hand function that I can barely turn the key to the door and an unlocked would help a lot. I also have a problem with any entity, which locks the door to restrooms against the less fortunate, i.e. burger king, McDonalds or taco bell. There is one other guy in the office. He went on in great detail on how he would find the door ajar when used the men’s bathroom and how now he went out of his way to make sure the door pulled shut to make sure the lock had engaged. He assumed that it was the staff and clientele of the “Needle exchange”. I just kept my head down, doodled and waited for staff meeting to end.