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good,”
Ben replied. “What’s going on here?”
    “Didn’t you
get the notification? They’re allowing residents in to retrieve
some of the items from their units.”
    “I had no
idea, I just happened to be walking by.”
    “Lucky for
you, because after today, they’re going to demolish this
place.”
    “So where are
you going to stay?” Ben asked.
    “Since I
didn’t win last night’s lotto, I guess I’ll have to apply for
social housing until I can find a new place. Right now, I’m staying
at the shelter, but who knows how long that will last.”
    “What
shelter?” Ben asked.
    “The town set
up a makeshift facility at the rec. centre. I didn’t see you there
so I figured you were staying with some friends.”
    “I didn’t even
know about the shelter or the demolition. Where are you hearing
about all these things?” Ben asked.
    “It was at the
Town Hall meeting we had yesterday.”
    “Oh okay, I
didn’t go to that.”
    The guard at
the gate was checking people’s IDs as they shuffled in. Ben moved
along with the crowd while continuing to talk with Patrice.
Suddenly, a new plan had revealed itself.
    Maintaining
his spot in line, Ben funnelled in through the gates along with the
stream of fellow tenants. When he got to the guard, he presented
his ID and was permitted access. Ben had no idea which one of these
people, if any, lived in the first floor apartment on the west
wing, but he was willing to roll the dice. Patrice was next in
line, but was stopped by the guard. Since Patrice did not have his
ID with him, the guard would not let him in.
    “I’m sorry,
sir,” the guard at the gate said. “For security reasons, I cannot
allow you to go in.”
    Ben doubled
back and vouched for his identity.
    “It’s okay,
Ben, I’ll sort this out. You go on ahead and I’ll catch up with you
later,” Patrice said.
    If Ben was
really going to go through with this, it was actually better that
Patrice was not around. Ben looked over his shoulder one last time
before entering the building and saw Patrice still being held up.
The whole time, Ben kept repeating the mantra ‘in and out’ as a way
to psych himself up. His adrenaline started to flow and he began to
sweat nervously.
    Once inside,
fire personnel were on scene directing people as certain apartments
were still off limits, but they had no idea which units belonged to
whom. It was a noble effort that relied heavily on the honour
system, another symptom of living in a small town — people were
quick to lend their trust. As for Ben, he was happy to take
advantage of it.
    Ben kept his
head low and walked down the first floor hallway. When he got to
the apartment door, he pretended to take a key out of his pocket
and insert it into the lock. He knew the door was unlocked so he
twisted the knob, pushed his way into the apartment, and locked the
door behind him. Once inside, he quickly ran to the window and
grabbed what he could take in one trip. He threw the backpack over
his shoulder and zipped up the suitcase. He took the down jacket,
pulled the arms inside out to make it unrecognizable, and draped it
over the luggage in an effort to disguise it.
    In and
out , he said to himself.
    Getting in had
been relatively easy, he just hoped for the same smoothness on the
way out. The hard part was exiting the building without anyone
recognizing he was in the wrong apartment or that he had any of
their belongings. He needed to be quick, since many of the tenants
who lived on the first floor had showed up and might spot Ben
coming out of an apartment that was not his.
    Ben extended
the handle on the luggage and wheeled it to the door. He looked
through the peephole, and when he did not see anyone, he opened the
door a crack and peered through. The hallway was deserted since
most people were probably still inside their apartments, blaming
their spouses for misplacing their things — oblivious to the fact
that Ben was about to march passed them with their