Another Day at the Office

Author's Intro: This is my first short story for ATS, and I dedicate it to the 9-5ers�you know who you are....although you may find you don�t want to go back to work after I finish with my posts. - I hope you all enjoy

Another Day at the Office
The radio chimed on. It was 7:30 am. Thank God Racine, Max�s one and only sister, loved him as her equal. He hit the off button. He didn�t care much for snooze. He didn�t care much for people who hit the snooze button either. Why waste your time sleeping when you can get up and get ready for the day. Even if Max was a quality control tester at Sturdy Frame, an eyewear frame production plant, he still had something to live for at age 32. �Number 348,� his sticker proudly boasts with a silent aura of fame, �Yep, that�s me,� he�ll tell you if you ask. Most people don�t, but that�s just because they try to avoid him.

Max counted his paces to his toilet in the bathroom of his studio apartment and gleefully let out what he had put in last night, missing a little bit to the left on his first try, but correcting his aim after hearing the shower curtain�s muffled waterfall. A good �God damn it!� was about all Max could stumble out of his mouth as he slid off his boxers. He felt the wall along the bathroom until he reached his bedroom, and then clumsily made his way over to his closet, knocking over some little trinket from his mother�s estate. He couldn�t remember which one, but it sounded like something of value. He had stayed up last night drinking and this morning he couldn�t see a thing. This wasn�t anything new though. Max has been blind since age four.

It was just another day for Max in Philly and even though he had overindulged last night, he was prepared for the day ahead of him. He didn�t even know about the man or the hell that he would bring Max. But how could he, it hasn�t happened yet. It won�t happen for another 29 minutes, and this is all the better for Max. Let him enjoy his last moments of a light hangover, freedom, and all that comes with being a man without regret.


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heh.... excellent work. Are you going to extend it?

DE

DeusEx - Thank you!
If you mean "extend it" as in post further on Max and his "situation," then yes
Otherwise, no comment - lol - j/k
But before I do anything more, I think I'm going to get some sleep.

excellent job what a great start to your story ill be waiting for the next addition.

Author's Note: I'm picking off from the spot above - will have more soon
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He had his lunch, his keys and his cell phone that Racine had explained to him how to use. He didn�t have his usual breakfast this morning. Instead he had just grabbed one of the bottles of water from out of the fridge. It was just one of those silly sayings he had remembered as a teenager, �Drinking all night makes the water all right,� or something along those lines. Max was never really that popular in high school or college. It�s not that he was beat up a lot, but no one really ever made themselves known to him, and Max figured that he could play that game better than them. The drinking hadn�t started until after his mother died, two years ago. It wasn�t a regular habit he had developed, but he would take a few sips when he got really lonely, during the weekdays when Racine couldn�t stop by. Well, those few sips turned into a gulp, and those gulps turned into a chug, and next thing you know, "Watch out, drunk blind man at the helm!"

He stepped out of his apartment for the last time in his life that day. Turning the key, he was locking the door to a place that would seem an eternity for Racine to return to. He turned to the left, just like any other day, and walked twelve steps to the stairwell.

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The crickets were chirping louder this summer than ever before, as the moon�s reflection shimmered over Lake Konawa. The Johnson�s deserved this vacation. The kids were back with their Uncle in Atlanta, no doubt eating twinkies and hot dogs all day long, but for this one week Austin and Christie decided it would be a sin forgiven. They knew they�d have a few sins to forgive as well when they were finished borrowing John�s cabin. Austin�s brother would know everything that went on while they were here, he was just one of those types, but they respected his generosity and would leave a few days short of his arrival, making the place ready for his own much-needed relaxation.

�Hey Christie!�.Honey!� John shouted upstairs, projecting his voice up the old pine-timber walls. �Where was it you said you put the extra toilet paper? I�m all out down here, and well, you get the picture!�

�It should be down there by the stove babe, next to that big ugly blue chair that your brother tried to give us last year.� She was washing her hair, something Austin always liked before a �close encounter of the sexual kind.� Austin always liked to joke around about aliens and UFOs, but Christie had wanted an explination before they got married two years ago, and she was just putting up with it for the moment. She had it all planned out.

�Ah! Where all toilet paper should be kept,� Austin muttered to himself. �Heat�a natural deterrence to the �kling-on� factor.�

�What was that you said hun?�

�Nothing babe, just talking to myself again! Doc says I�ll be okay though.�

�You better be okay!� She came from out of the bathroom and slide across the floor to give him her sultry look and a wink. She still loved him, and that was what mattered most.

Austin gave her a thumbs up and made a b-line for the bathroom. She just rolled her eyes and laughed. Austin was thinking more about the leftover chili that was now air-raiding the porcelain bowl than he was Christie�s sex drive. �Ain�t that a f**king gas. Role reversal extraordinaire!� he whispered to himself. �I�m making the chili from now on.�

While Austin and Christie were getting ready for a night of fun that would not happen, they didn�t notice that the phone lines had been cut two hours ago, or that they were being watched from a few hundred yards away. A man on his boat cranked the motor on his Boston whaler and began trolling towards the cabin dock.

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Winter was on its way, and the cool sharp air poked at Max as he walked down the street. The cool sting of his metal walking cane was beginning to numb his right hand. He was taking the only path he knew to work. Racine and Max had spent a couple of days going over the steps and turns so that he could execute it in about 12 minutes flat. It was 7:42 and he only had another minute or two left. He liked being a little early to work. Given his disadvantage, he figured it would show off those that could clearly see that it was time to get up and moving.

Up ahead about 3 yards, Max heard a door slam open against the old brick walls of the nearest apartment flat. Footsteps began falling like a hailstorm and they were getting closer. Max always enjoyed a good dodge or two. It seemed to happen to him at least once a week. Max placed himself in a three-dimensional zone within his mind, honing in on his current position and the relative location of the footsteps. He made a quick dodge to the left, and as the man ran by he brushed against his shoulder.

Max felt a sudden chill and was instantly paralyzed. He hit the sidewalk with a sharp pain in his knees and out of nowhere he began to see the faint image of a lily-pad covered lake with gorgeous swirls of pink and orange in the sunset above, and large trees brooding over the perimeters. And then suddenly a flash of a little boat humming across what appeared to be the same lake, but only on a moon-lit night. He heard screams and laughter, crying and rejoicing. His mind started to fade away into nothingness and he blacked out.
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Frankie Upton was going to be late to work again. Some guy with a grave look on his face rushed past him and was muttering something about how he left �it� at the lake. Frankie was inclined to tell him he must have forgot his manners there as well, as the man bumped into him while jogging his way to wherever it was he was off to. Busy city, busy people he figured. Life sucks when you�re known as number 347 to the rest of the world. Frankie strolled along until he saw a commotion of people just up the way.

The man lying on the sidewalk was in a cold sweat and shivering. He appeared to be blind. He was wearing dark shades and a metal walking stick had rolled out into the street. A small crowd of people had gathered around him and were poking and prodding and trying to bring him to. Frankie saw the stick in the street and got a brief glimpse of Max threw the crowd. His stomach did a few cartwheels and he picked up to a jog and brushed the bystanders and gawking kids aside. He remembered he had once been a gawking little kid too though, so he added a few apologies as he parted the crowd.

Frankie saw that there were no bruises or wounds on Max, and he slid his hand under Max�s back and lifted his body forward. Max almost looked like Nosferatu as he rose with the simple ease of Frankie�s thrust.

�Hey Max! Come on buddy. Snap out of it!� A few �yeahs�!� came from the crowd and Frankie gave Max a couple light shakes.

Max gave an almost inaudible moan and then said, �Frankie?�

�Yeah buddy!� Frankie said indulgently. �Gotta get to work man. Are you alright?�

�Some jerk bumped into me, and I...,� Max said, and almost let slip that he had seen some kind of vision afterwards, but reserved that thought for his own reflection later. �I just lost my balance and fell. Happens all the time.�

The crowd had dispersed and gone about their mundane day, which had been sparked by their viewing pleasures of Max�s fall. He knew that a few had tried to help him up, he could remember that much, but he had a sense that most were just there for the show.

�I think I know who you�re talking about. Same guy ran into me a block away from here. He was muttering something. Probably just some homeless loon. Come on man, let�s walk the rest of the way together.� Frankie pulled Max up and stabilized his wobbly legs. They started off together on the brief remainder of their walk to the dark on looming tower-of-a-building that was Sturdy Frame.

Frankie and Max were good friends. Work friends. Not the kind of friends who chum around together on the weekends. He had been to Frankie�s place once or twice, and vice versa, but that was it. It was one of those types of friendships, and he thanked the stars that he had one. Max almost decided to bring up his vision to Frankie again, but he decided it was something he still needed to think about. Max would certainly be thinking more about it today. He would loose his job over it.


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If anyone gets a chance, I'd love to hear some comments....I havn't full written the story yet, so maybe your own spin can be incorporated.....but really, any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated....looking forward to finishing this one off so I can start afresh