Well, I assume I slept deeply. The late morning sun shines brightly through the window. I slowly glance at the clock, already knowing it was far past my time to catch the train to work, and not even attempting to hurry. 10:30 AM.
Work starts at 8. The train takes about an hour, on a good day, and getting ready takes just a few minutes. Usually, I have to be awake by 7:45. It's not all that early, but I've never been a morning person... Not to mention I lost track of the night around 4 AM. In the distance, i hear a deep, brassy sound from out of my window. Ms. Pigg. She is so desperate for attention, searching for people to listen to her play her "Sousaphone." At least she cares about something... My head is still swirling from the night before, and the slightly out-of-tune attempts at music aren't helping me straighten myself up.
I walk out of the room, locking the door behind me, (ha! as if there's anything worth stealing) and head down to the train station. I don't even know why I'm bothering. I'm too late for it to matter.The sun stings my eyes; not ready to accept the daytime. The air is nice, having cooled off since the terrible summer heat. I wait for the red line to pull in to the station. A quarter hour passes, not long for around here, and I board the train.
The oh-so familiar dull graffiti'ed walls of the buildings around Joe's Diner tower over me. I open the door to a familiar "Cling" of the small bell over my head. My boss, Joe Goldstein, "The" Joe, is an unpredictable man, the only thing not overly familiar about this job, but not in a good way. He is enraged, face reddening. He wants to know why I've been late a few days.
"The train is so unreliable." I try meekly, with a shrug, "I'll try harder sir."
"Fuck the train!" He'd started off pretty straightforward..."Get the hell out of here, I can't be surrounded by unreliable swine."
The insult went into one ear, and sort of fell out of the other. I let out a sigh, and stared at him coldly, not one to lose my temper (or to care enough to have one) "Whatever."
I had been planning on some attempt to maintain my paycheck and coerce him into not being upset, but the same ugly walls in this same little place. My same head, with the same exhaustion, and this same boss, unpredictable, but never kind...
I turned on my heels, and pushed the glass door open a bit more forcefully than was probably necessary. As I walk back to the dirty downtown train station, I think to myself...
I've got a hundred dollars in my wallet; the rent just got paid, and I really could use a vacation. Even if it's in the same old place. Who cares about a job.
Might as well go back to sleep. I meander my way back to the apartment...
