Here you have the first page and a half or so:
One year, thought Jerry Blauer as he exited the subway car and walked toward the office building. One year in this shithole. Ten years ago this was not where he wanted to be, shut in, day after day in the same cubicle. He crossed the street, after waiting for the little white man to give the ok, and entered the lobby of 75 West 59th street, the Department of Human Health, Hygiene and Sanitation Services, referred to in documents as DeptHHHSS, by the media as the triple H, by those in public who frequented it simply as the department, and by our beloved protagonist and his equally well-tempered co-workers as shithole.
The operations of shithole were simple: keep the public safe from its own goddamn disgusting behaviors. Or more tactfully put in its manifesto and statement of purpose: The Department of Human Health, Hygiene and Sanitation Services defends the public good and the common order of civilization by maintaining the cleanliness of our cities and our bodies alike, enforcing and maintaining a standard of living by which all may enjoy the beauty of our collective lives.
One year in this shithole, continued Jerry’s inner soliloquy. At least it’s a paycheck. It keeps my wife happy. It pays for diapers. It pays for formula, for babysitters, for cribs, and so on continued the rationalization for his daily sacrifice to shithole, all the while trying to keep silent his true feelings on the matter. Stupid kid ruined my life; now, now, I love that kid, he makes me happy. Makes me smile. But look what it drove me too. If only he’d come two years later or something. Then it would have been alright.
He entered the elevator and selected the tenth floor.
His inner soliloquy, now becoming more akin to an inner dialogue, was cut short—though to be honest he was not reaching any greater conclusion any time soon—by Danny Martinez, his co-worker and only friend at shithole. Danny was small, underweight and generally rat-like in appearance. He claimed a stature of 5’6”, but his own body and confidence (or rather a distinct lack of it) betrayed him. Our beloved protagonist approximated his height at a less substantial 5’5”.
“Dude, did you see the news last night?”
“No.”
“Dude. Major shit’s going down.”
“I don’t care.”
“No man, listen. They’re saying that a natural disaster knocked out the Arab Union’s solar fields in Medina.”
“So fuckin what.”
“It wasn’t no wind storm, man. It was Israeli agents. It’s just so obvious.”
“Does it affect my paycheck?”
“Well, no….Obviously not, man, in the, uh, short term sense….”
“Well then at least wait till I finish my coffee before you barrage me with this babble.”
You see, the thing to realize about our friend, Danny Martinez, is that for him, no official story was satisfactory. There are all sorts of skeptics and conspiracy theorists. There are those, who bathe themselves in stories of extra-terrestrials and UFOs. There are those, who breathe in the air of black ops and back door deals of world powers. There are those, who when confronted with news stories of major world catastrophes, accept all accounts other than the official statements of the major parties involved. Danny Martinez was all of these sorts. Jerry Blauer was none of them. It’s not as if he readily accepted all official storytelling of the world order, but rather that he did not have the time. Your story, his story, their story. Didn’t matter. He didn’t believe any of it, and that didn’t particularly bother him. The world was full liars and exploiters on all sides, and as long as they refrained from fucking with him explicitly, he really didn’t have the effort to care.
Danny had perhaps a little too much effort to expend. But that was all well and good. To each his own. It didn’t bother our dear protagonist so long as he had his morning coffee. Danny’s stories entertained him. True or not.
Hope you enjoy. Any feedback, kind or not, is appreciated ;)
Haha, it reads like many of our russian lit short stories. And I'm intrigued. I officially want to know what happens in Jerry's pathetic life.
ReplyDeletep.s. of course, great writing technique! (even though I would totally change some sentence structures, but I'm not going to ... as I'm sure you'll recall our attempts at writing a paper together...)
Yeah, I haven't done any substantial editing yet. I'll post some more excerpts soon. Glad you liked it!
ReplyDelete