Baby, was found in the morning in the trash can earlier, it’s …

Not just a plumber in the simple sense of fixing leaks or unclogging drains, but a city worker hardened by routine, noise, and the quiet weight of other people’s mess. He had worked through freezing winters where pipes burst like gunfire in abandoned buildings, and summers where the heat made garbage trucks smell like something alive and rotting at the same time. He’d seen everything a city could discard—broken furniture, forgotten belongings, lives reduced to trash bags and cardboard boxes.