1460 days left
it was so fucking cold inside the house that he didnt want to touch himself to take a leak(thats how fucking cold it was) yet he went outdoors and stood on the porch in the dull flat sunlight sipping a cold Rasputin(rash Putin curious timing) smoking a joint
he didnt know which goaded him into the weather into winters embrace a kind of paltry gauntlet he thought though not muchnot much when compared to the two Minnesota winters he worked as a carpenter when he was remanded legally to wait until the temperature rose to thirty-below before he could strap on his nailbags
Nope this winter didnt hold a candle to those
it wasnt the weather that ended his fledgling career(not that he ever aspired to a career) it was the carpenters union he refused to join on three separate occasions
he didnt think those monkeys remembered
he didnt know if he was purposefully excluded from being called off the job but he was the only one of the crew he worked with to show up on site where he found himself suddenlysurrounded by five union hacks who materialised brandishing hammers from out behind lumber stacks inside the project managers trailer and one out of the honeyhut
he went to his belt and withdrew his 32-ounce framing hammer and a roofing axe Gents he said this can end ugly
But you should ask yourself which among you wants injury because I guarantee itll be more than one of you who falls with me
sanity was shaky
but it prevailed
they allowed him to back off the job site to his car and he left
he stopped at a gas station and used a pay telephone to call the other guys on the crew he worked with
no one answered their telephones
none of them ever returned his messages
he quickly found another line of work a temp job delivering furniture
his work impressed the companys owner
he was hired full-time worked his way up and later managed the firm
he held up there until it became apparent that despite his word the owner wasnt going to give over the day-to-day operation to him the owner wasnt going to stop making bad decisions and under-cutting decisions he had already made to put into play
Its not what you know the owner told him but who you know
Yeah theres that but Id amend your remark Youre not that clever You fail to grasp that your hands are tied by your partners who are smarter than you and for some alien reason to me you continually try to impress them while they take you for a ride You might wanna keep a tube of K-Y Jelly nearby so it doesnt hurt too badly when they finally take you outside bend you over and fuck you in the ass Excuse my plain speaking
nothing flourishes under bad
management no matter its realm
Ah water under the bridge
he did hear a year or so later from the owner that he was being sued for sexual harassment
he asked him to write a letter attesting to his veracity and imply it wasnt beneath the girl to lie for financial gain
he wrote a terse letterhe wrote him he appreciated the years of employment he provided him but in good conscience he couldnt vouch either for him or his unseen conduct
he alluded(though doubt his allusion would pique him) hed do well to recall his words when he abruptly removed her from his Bloomington office to be under him in St Paul
he never did hear back or what
evolved
even now blitzed standing in the cold all these years later he recalled Laura the young woman who sued who possessed an attractive playful vitality a radiant sex appeal
his memory hadnt eroded
she was the rare innocent one encounters and realises its not naivety
he sent her home on more than one occasion to dress more professionally for the office
and each and every time she was confusedhonestly confused I dont understand This is an attractive outfit
Ohyes very attractive But attractive if you wore it to a nightclub and this aint no nightclub
shed pout her lips like a childridiculously attractive very fetching when she did
Now get out of here Keep in mind youre not on the clock until you come back
and shed return dressed more tame
there wasnt a damn thing she could do about it it frankly wasnt through any fault of her own she naturally exuded her her native sexuality
she was comfortable in her skin and made no bones about she was matter of fact
I dont get it Im no different than
anyone everyone has a body
she could hide herself inside a potato sack but would still raise eyebrows men and womens alike
yet inside her head crawled a curious mind she was a quick-study
when he realised her depth he turned her loose and told her if she had a question she could come to him
she didnt often come
hed see her through the acrylic at the face of her office at the back of the store and watched her brow work her fingers rubbing her forehead a thumb at her temple massaging it concentrated her head either popping up in excitement or dropping in dismay
he liked that she worked things out for herself turning them upside down around and around and that she didnt allow herself easily to seek him
as much as she used her head at work most of the rest of the time she was out of it
and that was attractive too
a chill got to his spine through the booze and dope
the sun was a soft muted disk floating behind the clouds
he hoped Laura took his ex-employer
to the bank
not because he was vindictive
but because he knew she was underestimated
before he went outdoors before the Rasputin and grass he read an on-line Washington Post op-ed by E J Dione:
"Speaking of autocrats Vladmir Putin's engagement in American politics on Trump's behalf continued Tuesday when he called reports that Trump had been compromised by Russian intelligence 'total nonsense' designed to 'undermine the legitimacy of Trump's presidency. Putin accused those spreading the information of being 'worse than prostitutes,' adding: 'They have no moral boundaries.'"
he might have said the first thing that occurred to him though it couldnt have been because two tried coming through the doorway of his consciousness simultaneously and got wedged trapped in the doorjamb their herky-jerky arms legs twisting shoulders jabbing elbows struggling to come through making hilarious Three Stooges noises trying to pass first
one was Putins reference to prostitutes "being worse than (women)" the bitter other was who the hell was Putin
to pronounce morals suggest morality
1307, Twosday,
17 1. 17
0904, Day-between-Two-Ts, 18 1. 17
0904, Day-between-Two-Ts, 18 1. 17
