Pictures taken 2008-11-08

I really need to clean my desk.

I tried to catch the sun going down. The phone just can't capture the beauty. It did get the rope dangling outside the window from the window washers. It was a nice day for washing windows.

I, along with a every one else, sit on these rocks while waiting for the bus in front of my work. Every time I hit the stop, the rocks have been moved. Friday, one of the rocks was in the middle of the sidewalk so I picked it up and dropped it heavily on to the little rocks next to the sidewalk. I did it just to get it out of the way.

While I picked up the rock I noticed it had just the right heft for picking up over your head and hurling to the ground with a very satisfying thump. Only moments earlier someone tried to run me down while crossing the street. I hate this intersection. A fantasy came over me.

<begin fiction>

Kelly is a guy who never made it through collage. He has a bit on the ball, but never had what it took. Not at the right time anyway. Never been in any real trouble. Found some trouble for fighting as a kid. Nothing since. Kelly and Adam have been buds since way back. That is how Kelly got a job at the same company. Kelly takes the bus.

Adam is working in his corner office late on a Friday night. He is fixing something that he does not want to come in on Saturday to fix. This las minute stuff has a way of draining your will to live. Fall time change just happened the privies weekend. It gets dark before normal quitting time these days. This along with the daytime tint on the windows makes for a gloom creeping in from outside. If only some fresh air came in with it. The rest of the office has emptied for the most part. Adam will not be the last one out.

Then comes a thump and crunch from six floors below. The intersection is a bad light. Accidents happen all the time. The sound made mortal through the wall, felt as much as herd, nothing new, comes a second time. Adam stops and listens. Then, a third time. This one is a bit different. Then yelling. Is there a pile-up working outside his boring window? Is something of note happening? Adam loves to tell stories. Any old anecdote will do. Something interesting to talk about would be refreshing.

Adam wheeled over to the window to look out. He had a smile on his face. A smug "I can't wait to tell the office come Monday." Kind of smile. Nothing you would notice if you didn't know him. The look on Adam's face changes to stark, wide eyed, drained astonishment to what he sees across the street, in the light of a street lamp. It is not quite a life pivoting moment. Not a life or death situation. Just one of those things that happen that kick you in the ass. Another thump.

Weekends are funny things. They are the time between work and more work. How do weekends feel when you are retired? According to Primus, "Weekends don't mean quite so much when you are unemployed. Except, you get to hang out with your working friends." When you are working, weekends are a lifeline to freedom. An illusion to be sure. The weekend passed without incident or police or retribution or payoffs. Adam was never so glad to have a boring weekend of needless worry. Hell of a waste.

There is no buzz around the office Monday. Kelly is not in his office down the hall from Adam. Some folks heard that something happened, but no one is talking. It is business as usual, accented with a bit of awkward silences and chuckles in the halls.

It was not until lunch or maybe afternoon break that it came out in the open. Adam tels the story better.

Adam, sitting at the folding table, leaning back with a smug smile, the kind he has when he tells a story, says "I'm sitting in my office Friday. I hear this thump come from outside."

Lance chimes in "What is so special about that? That intersection is a war zone."

Someone else sitting at the table, puring hot water in to cups for tea agrees "Tell me about it."

Adam started the story "One is normal. The third one got me. I looked out the window expecting a pile up. I saw kelly." Adam paused looking around the room as if he were repeating something that every one present had not already heard bits and pieces. "The thump was him bashing in the roof of some guys car with this huge rock." The whole table laughed.

Adam continued "I ran down stairs. By the time I got there Kelly was standing there waiting on the buss. The other guy was threatening to call the cops. Kelly said 'Call them. I'll be happy to tell them how you hit me while I was crossing the street.' No one ever called the cops so I guess there was something to it."

Lance, half laughing "I knew it! I knew it would come to this." He took a swig of tea. Lance has only known Kelly for a couple of years. Only from work. He knows kelly has that streak. Thing is, it is an act. Kelly portrays that streak like an actor puts on an accent. It is to defend himself from predators, like the snake that eats eggs with no teeth. Accept the snake has teeth painted on and acts mean. It is all for show.

Ken, the loudest laugh and possibly the most intelligent among them asked "Where is Kelly?"

Adam mentions beside the point "He took a couple of days off. Wouldn't you?"

<end fiction>

It's funny what the picture of a rock in front of a fast food joint will make you think on a Friday night.

It took me all day to write it. I did proof read it once. Let me know if you think anything good or bad.