Odd Taxi - Forbidden Fukuro Toji (Straight English Read)

[sinnesspiel]

Translation Notes

Sakuma Drops – A hard fruit candy that come in a metallic flask. Yano eats these in episode 10.

Yatai Hayashi – A festival song and dance performance; involves pulling around or performing from inside of parade float style carts (yatai). Yatai Hayashi is a specific song known for its vigorous taiko rhythm. The line could be read as marching to the boss’s drum, in colloquial English.

Cypher - A term from certain music and breakdancing cultures, referring to an often (but not always) competitive improvisational freestyle session between multiple artists. Much like the word cipher for code, the term cypher derives from the Arabic word ‘Sifr’ or zero, in this case representing the circle that the performers form. A common way for unknown performers to get practice and/or generate attention.

Shibuya – One of the largest and busiest sub cities within Tokyo, a central hub for business as well as fashion and cultural trends.

Shounan Liner – The Shounan line is a limited express train, meaning it makes the fewest stops on its line, only stopping at major hubs for the fastest transport. A limited express train requires one to purchase a ticket which assures them a reserved seat. This is in contrast to a commuter train which stops at many stops and may take longer, and which you buy your ticket and hope you manage to fit in somewhere.

A liner is the same car and track as the limited express, but doing a special, slower run with more stops, usually to take some of the congestion off of commuter trains during peak hours. To ride an express train serving as a liner, you still pay an express train fee and still get a standard express train reserved seat. It stops at fewer stops than the commuter trains, but it can be faster and less crowded if one of its stops are your stop.

The Shounan Liner was a specific all day liner service between Tokyo and Odawara, when the Shounan line still had its three liner services. Liner services halted in 2021 (which is very recent, for this work released in 2021 (anime) or 2022 (this book)).

Lotus spoon – A spoon used often with Asian soups, which has a groove in the handle that widens down to shape the broader scoop portion.

Burst Mode – A camera mode often used when photographing moving subjects which takes many pictures in quick succession, as if for a flipbook or frames of a film.

Dogeza – A position prostrating one’s self on their hands and knees with their forehead to the floor, to show submission, make a profuse apology, or to beg earnestly for something.

Koushuu Roadway – One of the major historical routes from Tokyo during the Edo period, connecting Tokyo to Yamanashi.

Super License – A license to drive and compete in the F1 World Championship. In context, you could read it as being put on the fast track.

Koganei – A sub city within Tokyo, about 15 miles/25km minutes from Shibuya.

Face Pass – Getting in somewhere on name or fame alone. Different word for face (kao) than the word for face (mentsu) in ‘saving face’ but not just a convenience of the English language, the semi-pun is in Japanese too.

Biggie Smalls – A 1990s American hip-hop and gangsta rapper, real name Christopher Wallace. Biggie was a key East Coast player in the mid-1990s violent East Coast-West Coast hip-hop gang disputes. Suspected of being involved in the drive-by shooting of rival label rapper Tupac in 1996, he himself was assassinated via drive-by in a 1997.

He choose the stage name Biggie Smalls as a riff on his own size as well as referencing the character Biggie Smalls in the 1975 film Let’s Do It Again, starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. Despite the mention of a small stature in this work, Biggie weighed nearly 400 pounds at a height of 6’2’’. This is either an error on the writer’s part, or Yano the character is intentionally written as being wrong. Whatever it is, it is a text error rather than a translation error.

Sidney Poitier – An actor who was tone deaf and had a thick Bahamian accent which made success in the 1940s American theater circuit difficult. After audition failures and production flops, he trained out his Bahamian accent and went on to achieve unbridled success in the entertainment industry, including becoming the first black person to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, winning Golden Globe awards, becoming the Ambassador to Japan from the Bahamas, an ambassador to UNESCO, being knighted by the queen of England, being granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, and other major accolades.

Kouhai – A junior, someone newer to a workplace or group than one’s self. Usually, but not necessarily younger. Japanese seniority hierarchy is an essay unto itself. Senpai (seniors) teach kouhai (juniors) the ways of the business, while kouhai must defer to their senpai as if they were their formal boss, and often do gofer and/or grunt work tasks. In turn, the senpai is expected to treat their junior on mutual outings or drinking parties, and is at least partly responsible for their mistakes and any cleanup. In this context, kouhai essentially means underling.

Shatei – Literally younger brother, but very old fashioned and the word is no longer used outside of yakuza contexts. Yakuza organization terms tend to be familial. A shatei is more closely and officially affiliated than a kouhai. Someone else’s underling could be still be your kouhai, may even call you their big brother, but the term shatei refers to serving as someone specific’s retainer.

Come rain or spears – An idiom similar to the English ‘Hell or high water’, literally ‘whether rain falls or whether spears fall.’ While most English speakers could make sense of this phrase, noting it so that it’s clear it’s not a phrase Yano uniquely coined.

Kyuushuu – The southernmost main island of Japan, with a tropical climate.

Ama – Traditionally female free divers whose history in Japan includes ceremonial and spiritual purpose beyond their practical ocean harvest. They construct shrines near their dive sites and wear certain headscarves when diving to ward off evil. Their aims include diving for pearls, sea urchins, shellfish, and abalone for shrine offerings and for the emperor.

Kids Return – A 1996 movie about two high school delinquent friends who go on throughout the years trying to make lives as a boxer and a yakuza member respectively, rise to some success and then fail utterly, being expelled from their sport/the gang. In the ending when they reunite after their failures, they ride around together on a shared bicycle in their former high school yard with nothing but each other.

Kami Meguro – Another sub city of Tokyo.

Ketsumochi – Literally ‘someone who has one’s ass.’ In more general terms, it means someone responsible for cleaning up another’s mistakes or messes, but it is usually used in regards to illicit society. Similar to the concept of “protection” money, only this word suggests it was intentionally sought out rather than extorted. In biker gangs, it refers to members who ride in back in a way to block or intercept police making it hard to catch up before the gang disburses. In businesses Ketsumochi may also be hired protection who serve in bouncers when either the police aren’t reliable or enough, or perhaps when the business is illegal and they would prefer not to contact the police. Ketsumochi may also serve such businesses to provide a warning if an illegal business has been found out by the police, leaking the information or otherwise buying time for an escape, or otherwise hiding and destroying evidence as a clean up crew.

*1. Someone has the wrong guy – This can be read as the entire situation starting because Yano and Sekiguchi had the wrong guy, or as Yamamoto appealing in vain to Yano, or both as an intentional play with the way Japanese sentences don’t need a subject.

Simon and Garfunkel – A popular 1960s American folk music band named after the artists and childhood friends Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

Cut sleeves – To cut off something close to yourself, referencing the part of an old-fashioned kimono sleeve, which might hang down. Usually used in regards to soured friendships or business partnerships. Could be translated as simply ‘cut the thread’ but since it’s tied in with suit references, I kept it as literal as possible in case it’s an intentional allusion, given the suit’s significance.

Sets loose a tiger on the town – Just what it sounds like; something triggering, setting up, or otherwise causing a dangerous situation, like letting loose a wild tiger in a village. Noting again to clarify it’s not a unique phrase by Yano but a standard Japanese idiom.

A round of the Zodiac – Twelve years. Every year is the year of one of twelve animals, in the order they arrived to see the Buddha according to Chinese mythology. Although also making use of the five elements, such that each animal cycle the elements then cycle, if you see this elsewhere in Japanese it may more commonly refer to a full round of the zodiac as sixty years (12x5).

*2. Paper lanterns and belfries – Similar to apples and oranges, two things which are too different to be compared and which do not go well together. An old idiomatic phrase referring to how despite the fact that both are things you hang up during Japanese religious festivals, their size, weight, and uses are completely different. Because of the implication one side of the equation is much heavier (kata omoi as in one sided heaviness) it is sometimes associated with mismatched feelings, that is to say one sided love (kata omoi as in one sided feelings).

*3. Oaths and Sake Cups – A traditional ceremony in the yakuza involves exchanging oaths of brotherhood over sake cups, which makes an alliance more official (and implied to be more personal) than other connections such as those of duty to others above or below in the organization by default.

Lungshit – Literally munekuso, chest-shit, almost never heard outside the phrase ‘munekuso ga warui’ meaning to be angered or disgusted so much it practically physically manifests. While the full phrase isn’t here, it can be shorthand for the full phrase. It’s interjected here at the end of a sentence for rhyme/meter. In context it could be said as hating it from the bottom of his heart, but there’s an obvious reason to keep the more literal lung translation intact.

Osmanthus – A common, fragrant flower that begins growing in early autumn in Japan and similar climates.

Want more detailed translation notes? There's a translation with the original Japanese 'lyrics' to appreciate alliteration, puns and rhymes.




Those interested in the Japanese lyrics or the Fukuro Toji can hear parts of it performed here:
2019 Drama CD (Youtube)
Download (MediaFire)


 

Someday you’ll understand, what a parent’s worth.

The moment I was told that, I immediately tossed it to the curb.

 

At work I had my fill of sermons I didn’t get the point of. He seized this worthless blood relative here by the collar and went off.

I tried to fight back with weakling arms that can’t even hold a dumbbell and had the tables turned. Got punched, did a flying dance through the air, and puked in a roadside ditch.

At that time, if I remember right, I was fifteen. First time I seriously considered murder.

Fittingly inebriated thinking.

Early morning winds blazing cold.

My right arm, armed with the kitchen knife, seized by that hand.

That was my first meeting with the boss. Thinking back, I was an AI with no sense of self.

Work wasn’t going my way either. Don’t got a Mama. Came clean, spitting out everything that was crammed up inside.

Since then I’ve been doing the boss’s Yatai Hayashi. This bond’s inseparable.

All manner of grudges struck back. All manners used to make a buck.

I didn’t yet have a backup file.

It was simple enough to prove my own existence. This was the nature of my archive.

So I say but the truth is I wasn’t ready yet.

Shaking a tin of Sakuma Drops for the beat, warming up with a cypher in Yokohama.

I wasn’t getting along well enough with anyone to call them buddies but those days were good enough in their own way.

What I was sort of aiming for was a proper route.

I shot the paper my quotas were written on into the dustbin.

I lived in a run down apartment with lukewarm support, trying to find the shape of myself, in order to survive.

That was when Dobu-san was introduced to me by the boss. At that time, if I remember right, I was twenty.

Nervously, I boarded what was at the time called the Shounan Liner. We were moving some remains to Shinjuku.

“You’re a God damned mess. We’re buying you a suit.”

The way he talks. His cockiness. The man could lead an army. Did I think we’d have chemistry? No, seemed impossible.

Picked out a three piece by look and feel. Finding one by size was a struggle.

Got it tailored in a fitting room. I guess I went with it, with nothing to lose.

Was in the middle of that when the curtain was opened by Dobu-san. His lack of delicacy applied here too.

All that said, the suit that got fashioned wasn’t bad. You could call it the first stage in being ready to make it in this world.

“Looks good on you. A bag of bones like you gets looked down on over his looks, and it’ll be all over.”

Words engraved in my heart. The air felt off, low barometric pressure. There were sudden showers that day. He overpowered me with the words “Let’s eat.”

A cheap Chinese shop with counter seating only. Since he said “It tastes good at these kinda joints.”

I didn’t find out until later, but actually he was broke from buying the suit. Sounds like Dobu-san.

Dobu laughed like a maniac watching me eat. I couldn’t stand it, not knowing what was so funny.

“What the hell are you doing?” But I didn’t know how to use chopsticks. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, that’s just how I lived.

This’s what happens when you serve kids different foods from the rest. Loneliness is a secondary sex characteristic that longs for a heart. The adults from back then, apologize and prostrate yourselves.

“Even your own flesh and blood will betray you. So of course the same goes for everyone else.”

Even if you suddenly make a straight face and say that, what do you want me to do? But I did know that much at least, it wasn’t news.

“But the boss’s your parent. I’m your sibling. Yano, we’re gonna rewrite your family tree.”

Trash always talks a good game, but it’s no gain, all pain. My old man was the same. What comes at the end is child abuse and neglect.

“You can overwrite your past and everything. That includes the cigarette burns on your back.”

I stopped at once with one hand on my chin. The other hand holding the lotus spoon visibly trembled. To anyone who saw, I looked like an idiot.

What the hell? What the hell? You saw that? I couldn’t stand to be there anymore and went to the bathroom.

That person’s voice touched on the past. The past is on the back. From the back to its pain receptors. Pain receptors to the prefrontal cortex. Prefrontal cortex to the parasympathetic nerves. Parasympathetic nerves to the lacriminal gland.

In a room of that cheap Chinese restaurant, those unstoppable sobs were my newborn’s cry.

From then on the days were the picture of youth. Consecutive moving photos taken in Burst Mode. All kinds of things good and bad.

I played around so much, legally and illegally. Reality was out of focus.

I had the feeling I was alive. Be nice if those days could’ve lasted forever, but.

Where was that at? If I remember right, it was outside Ikebukuro, an underground darts bar.

An always open beer server.

On the screens were soccer. Drunk and making a loud scene, called himself an underground fighter. Him and Dobu-san bumped shoulders.

The bar goes dead quiet. I stand up without thinking at the touch and go development. Dobu-san’s a natural.

“Sorry ‘bout that.”

One tongue click. And then it happened suddenly.

“And who the hell are you?”

As if it were natural, the spear tip turned towards me. Of course it’d be the one day I’m unarmed. Surrounded by five guys, it was feeling cramped in that corner.

“Give him a break. He’s drunk.”

“Let’s see you dogeza, runt.”

I survey the store. A stool fixed to the floor. The beer bottle was taken by the bartender to reuse. With no hand to play, I’m just a fool.

On the screen is that guy from Chelsea. Surrounded by defenders, he turns a chest trap into a shoot. As for me, I’m on pins and needles.

“Fine. I get it. I’ll dogeza for you. It’ll get in the way of business here so let’s go outside. You, stay here.”

Dobu-san went outside the shop. He was up against five. Dobu-san’s wallet was confirmed in his back pocket. Leaving me behind, they left, all of them.

After that it went about how you’d imagine. If you approached it like a corny shounen manga. Dobu-san came back wiping blood off with a towel.

“This might just sound old fashioned to you, but even if there’s no money to be made, you can’t let people look down on you. Saving face’s the most important thing.”

Is what he said, but sure enough, any time he went by their gym he got in on a face pass. He ended up with some bodyguard types as his pawns, shrewd as ever.

Ah, right, right, one of those was Sekiguchi who’ll come up later. This’s basically Dobu’s MO.

The next year, or maybe it was the year after that, we finished up collections, up early in the morning having peppermint Drops. Just us two in the car, listening to the heater, with canned coffee.

“Should we get back?”

Break time over, the car went down the Koshu Roadway, the neurons responsible for sleepiness stealing every second of it.

“Where’s your father?”

My bewildered vulnerability, at the sudden question. My father’s current whereabouts are unknown. I no longer have that thing they call a family of origin. I’ve got a Super License agreement with you all.

“It’s fine if he’s around. If he’s on your side we’ll protect him with all we’ve got. If he’s an enemy, we’ll crush him with all we’ve got.”

On the day we succeeded on a pretty major project, I took that vow with Dobu-san. Only a handful of people can survive in this world. Biggie was playing on the car speakers.

“About time we got Yano out on his own too.”

If I remember right that was in Koganei. But that wasn’t right. Without Dobu-san I’d drown and die.

So like, this and that happened and somehow or another I ended up doing business on my own.

I was 25 at the time. I got my first kouhai. This is Sekiguchi from before. He wears a jersey. Had the image of him as someone purged out.

Stupidly big body. What disappointed and got him weeded out was that he said his specialty was IT. By the way, you were one of the guys who got creamed by Dobu-san in that bar in Ikebukuro but do you think you could beat him now?

“I… can’t compete with that.”

I know, right? As if he could ever beat you. For some reason I hummed proudly. Naturally the tune was Biggie.

Listen up, Sekiguchi. You’ll never beat him, not in a billion years. And he’s been raising shatei and handling the law tirelessly for ten years now on top of it. His career’s on another level.

But that’s when doubts ran through me like lightning. Is it really alright not to win?

Doing better than him; wouldn’t that, in other words, be repaying my debt? It’s survival of the fittest, it’s what makes the Mafia.

Biggie Smalls with his small frame, like Sidney Poitier with his sudden turnabout fame.

So then it was just me and Sekiguchi. A case study in trial and error. I couldn’t get a taste for IT. Our flow wasn’t working out. Come rain or spears, my ideals went with his martial arts side. Yeah, in the end, still doing Dobu-san’s way.

That’s when Dobu called me out.

“Yano, how you been these days? Things going good?”

How are things? When asked that this is how I answered. It’s so rough. Is it the drugs? The daily grind? For some reason every day, I’m so sleepy.

“The girl I been takin’ care of lately’s pretty funny. She’s from outta Kyuushuu, says since she’d been skin-diving for sea urchins since she was a kid, she can stay underwater over three minutes.”

I mean it’s not like she’s an Ama, Dobu says with a laugh, and I laugh with him. Pride cometh before the fall.

This isn’t what I wanna hear about. You should be talking about blood. You should be talking about money.

“Do you know what living is?”

Suddenly philosophy. Inside the word ikiru for live is kiru or Kill. Does it mean you’re either killing or dieing? Kill or Die?

“It means to be in people’s memory.”

How sentimental. You mean to say Remember Me? Dobu-san’s drunken words are slurred.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s from trauma or gratitude. Guilt or fake love, even. Anyway, I’m gonna carve in my memory.”

So wait a sec, Dobu-san. Is that what my tears were back then? The tomorrow I found from it?

Getting off the bike in Kids Return. This is the first time I feel off with Dobu-san.

One day, me and Sekiguchi are drug into Dobu-san’s business. Dobu-san has a Front Organization, in other words a legal economic venture.

Word is the manager of that bar in Kami Meguro took the money and no-showed. The work wasn’t worth it.

Music flows from the car Sekiguchi was driving. Some cheap folksong.

“It sounds like Dobu-san has been taking care of him for a while.”

This’s why I say he’s too soft. You can’t bind people to you with just memories.

What you need is a severe enough pain to make them cry and scream, and a clearly delineated scar.

Getting to that point is a process. Bleeding into the brain with stress. A writhing wound on the back. Endlessly caught up in a flashback. Finally we arrive in Kami Meguro.

I get out of the car and put a hand on the shutters. They don’t move. Kick it in. The noise rattles through the silence of the night.

“It appears he fled into the night. There are no bypassers or security cameras here, are there?”

The location’s perfect for fleeing into the night. Fits into the back-alley business customer’s niche. But inevitably, it’s not suited for a business based on selling to normal customers.

Incoming call from Dobu-san.

“Sorry, getting with you so late. There on the sixth floor’s that bar’s office space. Can you look around, see if there’s any clues there for me?”

In the background is a woman’s laughter. That must be the Ama-san from before, then? I’m begging you, just die already, papier-mâché. But no, but no, the tongue’s the root of disaster.

I snuff out those rude words before they cross the bow. The phone has a plain display signaling that the call’s ended. Where did that connection from back then go.

Up to the sixth floor with Sekiguchi. Test the door with the kitchen knife gripped in the left hand. Beyond the sliver of the door’s opening is Tall Guy The Second.

“Wh… What are you people…!”

Sekiguchi cuts though his words and at The Second like a katana.

“You, are you involved with the bar on the first floor?”

“I don’t know anything about them. I only rented this space because it was open.”

When asked, he says his name’s Yamamoto. Setting up a Talent Agency here. Talent? You know of him? Sekiguchi shakes his head.

No backing or ketsumochi. Doesn’t know who Dobu-san is. But you can’t trust what people say. I motion to Sekiguchi with my chin.

Sekiguchi’s fist to Yamamoto’s left cheek. Gets on the fallen Yamamoto like a horse. From the mount position, right, left.

Loss of a will to fight that wasn’t there to start with. In the mean time, I searched the office.

From what I could find, at some point the bar’s lease with the sixth floor had been cancelled. Yamamoto had moved in through the proper route.

“If I knew this place was tied to the Yakuza, I never would’ve rented here. I’m turning you in to the police. You all are the dregs of society….!”

Yamamoto says while writhing on the floor. The narcotics in my brain go flying out. Emotionally, I’m terrifyingly chill. The knife thrusts right to Yamamoto’s neck. If I put just a little force behind it, there’ll be an instant fountain of blood…

“Yano-san, going that far would be bad. I’m going to contact Dobu-san, so please wait a moment.”

Outside is almost maddening silence, not a trace of anyone anywhere. This whole place is like an alternate universe. Even if someone was killed here, it’d never be found out. That’s how completely removed from any jurisdiction the place is.

“Please spare me…. I can’t afford to go down at a time like this….”

Begging for your life? Come to think of it, someone here has the wrong guy*. This’s my one man show. My mind’s always Kill or Die?

“Yano-san.”

Sekiguchi holds the phone out to me. I put down the knife at his neck. The color of relief washes over Yamamoto’s face.

“Yano. I’ll let you have the business over there. Do what you want. Just be sure not to kill him. Would killing him bring in any money?”

Does the money matter? You’re the one who’d said something about that. That to use an old fashioned word, it’s a matter of face. After being called a damned dreg there’s no reason left to let him live.

“We’re weak, in this day and age. That’s why we’ve got no choice but to use each other like a cooperative. Not much better than having a lot of connections. Whether they’re civilians or cops.”

Society’s drop outs, in a mutual aid society? Those who don’t qualify as people making personal connections? My heartrate spikes. Disgust rears up at full speed. Life is a demeaning endurance race. As for me, my stamina’s not up to it. That’s right. You said at some point you have ties to the police. Daimon or Garfunkel or. You’re good at using good people. But with me, it’s just taint. I leave the rest to Sekiguchi.

“We’re only getting started… I can’t be stopped here….”

Yamamoto mutters with a pale face. Are? Did I forget to say?

“Forget about today. In exchange, if you’ve ever got a problem, give us a call.”

Sekiguchi reminds me. I adjust the collar on my three piece.

Outside I feel the night wind. Time waits for no man and once again I adjust my collar. An already low sense of belonging set loose a tiger on the town.

The words ‘blood for blood’ lie solid. Right now in this moment, Dobu-san and I have cut sleeves.

The days piled up since then. Once through the Zodiac since I met the boss. It’s the year I turn 27.

As usual every day I’m sleepy. Is this what they call narcolepsy?

The dawn of summer. The cries of the cicadas preparing. The music in Sekiguchi’s car changing from folk to Hip Hop.

But in Japanese. Whatever he was called, the one with glasses.

Business is going well, thanks to you. Combining my brain and Sekiguchi’s skills.

If you say you’ll get this much, I’ll drum up sales to top it.

Saving face and romanticism are paper lanterns and belfries*. Oaths and sake cups are all trumped up*.

The fact is everyone’s an enemy. I won’t borrow anyone else’s power, not a bit.

Tobacco burns at about eight hundred degrees. Thanks to you I’m an anti-smoker, lungshit.

Come to think of it, Dobu-san’s a smoker. Just didn’t smoke in front of me, huh? Coincidence?

Don’t think I was even a year old yet, the first day I stood up. Not that I remember it.

But I’m sure I wobbled, and who was it that probably grabbed my arm then?

Was I probably relieved at that time? Did that person probably laugh? If so then why did that hand let go? Why did that hand get used to hurt me?

Will the boss who took my arm at 15, probably someday let his hand go too?

If so, because it’s so, I have to stand on my own. Have to walk alone.

Find my sense of self and flash flood the organization. The AI revolution finally awakens.

Then at last, will I too be able to seize someone’s wobbling arm?

The early autumn Osmanthus tickle the nose. That’s mingled with the scent of blood, wrapped in sorrow. About time to issue Dobu-san his sentence.

Pass a Taxi in the opposite lane. Wasn’t he wearing a weird Aloha shirt?

A call comes in on Sekiguchi’s phone.

“It’s Yamamoto. …… Says there’s a corpse in the office in Kami Meguro.”

That so. Before that, I asked before but once more: can you beat Dobu-san?

“……I can win.”

Okay, no problem. Might turn into big business. Don’t reflect on the risk.

The only way to beat that untouchable, unbreakable one is to go for it, no principles. Off we go, destination: Kami Meguro.

That tightrope walking precision he seizes people’s minds with. Now it’s been programmed to hatred. Shit! In the end I’m still caught in his trick.

“By the way, Yano-san. Dobu-san had given me this for you…”

A piece of paper passed over. There’s an address written there that I don’t have any memory of seeing before as my memory goes into read and write mode.

“I’ve heard that it’s Yano-san’s old man’s place.”

The heat of the crowds in the heart of the city. Torn away in one breath.

“I’ve heard that Dobu-san has always been searching for him. Saying some day you might understand. A parent’s worth.”

The moment I was told that, I immediately tossed it to the curb.