O l i v e r B e n j a m i n
“Yeah, whatever. Did you see where they went?”
“Yeah,”
“
Well?
” prodded the foreman.
“Well,
what
?”
“Well—where did they go?” the foreman said, agitated.
“Where do you think, lard-ass,” grumbled Leonard, “Out the
fucking door.”
The foreman tried to keep his cool. He was certain that these
were relatives of some powerful executive of the company, and
despite the newly-apparent risks associated with it, he still loved his
job.
“Heh, heh. Of course, son. What I meant to say was, did you
notice anything strange about them?” he said, massaging the bruise
on his head. “Were they carrying something?”
“They sure were,” replied Wade, “They were carrying this
sleeping dude in a space suit, and they had him wrapped in a big
plastic tarp, which was good, cause he stunk like hell! Didn’t he,
guys?” They nodded their assent. “We figured he probably ate some
of this pizza and crapped himself. We chowed a bunch and we’ve
been on and off the can for the last half hour. Let me tell you, his sure
is some shitty pizza, man. Here, have a slice.” Wade hung out a
dripping piece in his hand for the foreman to take.
The foreman declined the food.
It was worse than he thought. These kids weren’t only stupid and
disgusting. They were delusional. He would either have to call the
police and fill out a bunch of forms, or he could just forget that the
whole thing happened. Under the circumstances, the latter seemed
like the better option. Returning to his office, he sat down behind his
desk. As he looked for his funny papers, he tried to imagine what they
might have stolen, and then he realized that his funny papers were
missing.
He shook his head ruefully. You never know what you’ve got until
it’s gone. He started to count the ceiling tiles again, until the pressure
from his concussion caused him to pass out again.
When he woke up later he had no memory of anything that had
happened that day, which didn’t really strike him as odd, because
every day in his life before the incident had been pretty much the
same, and he never remembered much because nothing new ever
happened. Nevertheless, the day’s events did end up changing his life
somewhat. Now, sans funny papers and completely desperate for
125
 |
 |
 |
 |