Saturday, August 21, 2004

Napoleon Solo: Part I

8:30 AM, Saturday the 21st of August, 2004. The time the alarm was supposed to go off.

9:18 AM, Saturday the 21st of August, 2004. Momack walks into her son's room. The door opens with a bit of a lift and a creak, and a faint sunlight held back by the clouds pours in. The room noticeably brightens. "Don't you have work?"

With a start- "Oh Crap. That's where I'm supposed to be."

9:32 AM, Saturday the 21st of August, 2004. McDonald's. The sixth consecutive fast food meal. Chack hasn't had a good meal since Butterscotch had her final animal crackers. A hand extends forth as a window lowers and grabs a coke and a bag with two small sandwiches. Off and onto the highway. Loop around over the bridge, and fly straight into the heart of the beast that lay in wait.

9:41 AM. An Olds 98 rounds behind the store, through the parking lot people pay hundred's for monthly, and into the free spaces available to workers only.

9:42 AM. Punch-In.

By 1 PM there have been just three customers. The clouds darken, the birds seem to fall from the sky. The heat is oppressing, while the humidity rises like a missile from a silo, pointing its payload at those unsuspecting below. There are no customers to entertain either the interest or disinterest of Chack for an hour and a half prior.

1:08 PM:
Frank: Want to go do something more fun than this?
Chack: Hell yes.
Bryan: Have you ever seen a cat that doesn't like fish?
Chack: I had a rabbit that likes Animal Crackers.
Frank: Maybe you can get Mortimer the giant bucket of the crystals, but not the regular litter.

1:11 PM. An Olds 98 backs out of the parking lot, and onto the avenue ahead. Upon reaching the highway, immediate acceleration almost brings him past PetGoods, but a sharp enough turn and just the right application of breaks and magic, yes, magic, brings Icarus into a strip-mall, one of the many that countless that litter Paramus, like money picked up from an overzealous buyer and swept into the four winds.

1:26 PM. A phone call, short but to the point. "Don't come back- it's like a tornado out here. Either stay where you are or get to a building."