"O Man...O Man...O Man" he thought as his feet devoured the steps his body moving fast as lightning down the creaking stairwell.
"I cant be late twice in one week....I'm on my Leo's last nerve as it is!"
He leaped when he got toward the bottom and stiffarmed the door wide open. His frantic dash was suddenly interupted by a short but stocky human wall.
"OUCH" his mind screamed as he tried to regain the breath that the collision had stolen. Then the smell hit him...that rotten eggs and mildew smell that had begun showing up in random places around Thallow Flats.
"Oh excuse me..." Ray managed to sigh, hands on his knees, gasping and staring at the ground "... didnt see you there".
Just a loud grunt "huh?!?...Yea, yea, ok" was all Ray heard. Then he looked up to see the creature he had had the misfortune to meet that morning. Taken aback by the oddity of this dimuntaive but somehow large person, Ray stagered and shook his head.
"Um well I had better be going" Ray somehow got out.
"Yes....you should" scoffedd the man. But Ray was already gone...left foot pumping then his right all the way to work.
He finnaly got to the shop and didn't see any signs of Leo as he walked past the Honda on the left of the shop.
"Smoooooth real smooth....got away with it again!" Ray thought to himself, content with his performance.
He saw someone up under the hood of the car but decided not to interrogate the newbie, best to act like he had been there the whole time.
Ray silently opened his tool box that was hiding under a pile of rags and slid under the Pinto that had been his project for the last few days....
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Even I am occasionally surprised, it seems.
I rose sometime before the sun from my sleepless slumber. My simmering soul simply seemed to require a morning dosage of thoughtful prayer. I rose and stretched my earthly limbs, and commenced to move about the neighborhood. Even I am amazed by that regular miracle of sunrise. A simple rotation of the globe yields that daily miracle - where with brilliant rays the sun emerges from the horizon.
I returned to the building - its bulk heaping over the corner - and was about to go upstairs when Raymond Barnett smashed headlong into me, no doubt late once again for his occupation of working with automobiles. I could see his nostrils stiffen as he caught a bit of my olfactory concoction. A bit of sulfur, mixed with the corrosive growth that follows water within buildings. Somehow, these people think it rude to comment on one's smell even as they insult and harass each other daily.
It's no worry to me though. I use such phenomena to my advantage. With a bit of natural chemical, my ideal watching spots are protected from unwelcome lurkers. The building is enough of a catacomb enough that they do not have to pass where I've chosen to abide, and such is better for me.
In the immediate present however, I could do little but glower at the idiot sprawled before me. He made his excuses - almost painfully weak - and ran out the door. When one is late, that shows a lack of regard for time - and time can turn against you as I know. Seconds are minutes are hours are days when trapped in Purgatory, but true moments of joy move the time faster and faster until the world as it is - misery - brings one back to the truth. It also, I suppose, can make it more difficult in dealing with others, but difficulty with others is a simple part of life.
I moved to my post and saw Alana across the street staring down toward the park. She was probably thinking of those wind chimes I've seen her with. Harold was toting yet more books. I though for a while he would be involved in some sort of interesting enterprise outside of law, but he simply turned out to be a fanatic for the written word. How boring. The self described Eros Dandelo was leaving the building, no doubt off on some fascinating adventure to improve his physical conditions. And there was Mirela. I wish I hadn't noticed her today.
She goes everyday to her little attic and takes money for cheap comfort. You can tell who your customers are immediately. They creep up to the store, as if God is about to strike them down, then disappear within the doors. And then, they come out secretively, still nervous, but now walking with sudden found Purpose - as if they knew their fate. How trite, to let someone else tell you who you are. They also always have a book under their arm, just so if anyone asks, they can say "I was in the Bookstore! Wasn't it lovely. It's unfortunate they carry those Romance novels - they really ruin the spirit of the place, you think?" I pity their souls.
But today, not having a great deal specific to do - no instructions from the Authority - I resolved to expose her, to drive her in tears from the room, to reveal her own wekaness when it came to true dealings with fate.
So I cleaned my corporal body, and proceeded on a mission: to expose her for her own self. I walked in, nodded to Harold, who had no idea who I was, as engrossed in books as he is. I ascended the stairs, and caught the first bit of her trickery. Touch of lemon with incense - a truly exotic scent - almost enough to take the mind to a foreign place. I was impressed with her design - the fabrics felt like air upon my exposed flesh as I passed though the portal - into the nexus of her shop of superstition.
"Come, lost soul; come to a place of spiritual welcome," she said. "Oh madam of wisdom," I intoned, "Tell me what lies in my future. I am lost, confused. Where shall I go? Does she love me?" I thought this was enough of a helpless plea to smoke her out - my appearance of weakness would embolden her to exposes herself more readily. But it was not to be.
"Harbinger! Do not defile yourself with such lies!" she cried, and I froze. This was not expected. "Fouquois has seen you for what you are!"
I was shocked. "Madam, what do you mean? I am lost." I turned to go, to goad her more effectively.
"Stay still! You will gain something here. You came to find lies, but you will only find the lies you tell yourself!" She was raving, I thought, I hoped.
"You watch with purpose, but every moment you are here, and NOT there, not where you know you should have gone, you become guilty. Do not judge, lest ye be judged, sir. Be warned!"
And I ran.
Henry wakes up to the sounds of the apartment. The running water, air conditioning, and creaks the apartment makes. You notice a lot more of the subtle sounds when you don't have any company. This is the 3rd day Henry is alone in Thallow Flats and he still isn't used to it. He doesn't know if he ever will be. "She'll be back," he still mutters to himself time and time again. It is 9:30 a.m., still two and a half hours until work starts. Henry decides he is going to take the old, beat up car he had received from his father in law out for a spin to reminisce on some of the good times he and his wife, Jennifer, used to have before she mysteriously disappeared. Henry makes sure to lock the apartment door and walks down the stairs in the back of Thallow Flats and out to the parking garage where his excuse for a car is parked. He gets in the car and turns the key. "Not Again!" Henry yells as he pounds the steering wheel. The car won't start. "What is wrong with this stupid car!" He tries and tries to start the car but gets nothing in return. Henry puts the car in neutral and decides he is going to push it to the attached auto shop.
Henry wipes the sweat off his face and scans the grease covered shop for someone to help him. He sees a man working on a Pinto and heads toward him.
"Excuse me, sir, do you think you can help me?" Henry asks to the feet sticking out from under the Pinto.
The man rolls out from under the car, "Well, it depends, I know my share about cars."
"Yes sir. My car has been acting up and it won't start. Do you think you can take a look at it. Oh yeah, by the way, I'm Henry."
"Raymond."
Raymond and Henry roll the car into the shop and Raymond takes a look at the car.
"Well, I don't see anything wrong just looking at engine. I'll need to take a longer look under the hood. Is it alright if your car stays here overnight?" Raymond asks.
"Yeah, I guess so. Well I need to be off to work. I'm over at the All American tattoo parlor." Henry sees his chance to lose his loneliness and not be stuck in the solitary confinements of Apartment 421 for the night. "But I get off around 8, you perhaps wanna get a drink tonight at the tavern?"
"I'm busy."
".....Ok," Henry decides thats his cue to leave. "I'll be back tomorrow to check up on the car." Henry yells as he is enveloped in sunlight and leaves the dark, greasy shop behind him and strolls on towards All American tattoo.
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