[i]
Waking up thirty minutes late for work. It’s no big deal.
Orange Juice.
All day shift at China Wok.
Egg Salad Sandwich with Tomato. Five Guys French Fries with
Ketchup. Honey Oolong Tea.
When pulling up to Five Guys to retrieve my fries I’m greeted
inside with a “Robert’s in the house!” by the lady employee that knows me by
name at this point.
Anthony rolls up to the restaurant in a Camry, which he
actually owns. He hops out with a basketball and dribbles around the parking
lot high on his own energy, which he can’t contain for too long. He joins me
for a few hours in the car while I deliver orders.
...
He’s back. My brother from another mother. Two invigorating
spirits who know how to see eye to eye and see past the veil. As we talk it’s
as if he never left at all. It was all a hoax, a myth. He’s been here this
whole time. Our conversation moves naturally as it did before...finishing each
other’s phrases...putting the periods at the end of one another’s sentences.
...
Recounting the mini car accident I got into a few weeks ago.
He guesses which road it happened on by reciting a mock journal entry...
Him: “Driving down First Colonial Road...”
Me: “Haha. It WAS actually on First Colonial Road!”
Him: “Of course it was. Most of your universe driving wise
is contained on that road right there.”
...
Me: “I feel like the girls that I get deeply involved
with...there is something that connects all of them.”
Him: “Well that makes sense cause you’re attracted to them
and they’re attracted to you, a certain type.”
Me: “Yeah they’re like really intense girls that I get
involved with for whatever reason.”
Him: “You can substitute intense for crazy, if you want to.”
[Haha]
Him: “You could just go ahead and do that.”
...
Delivering an order on the 700 block of 16th
street. It’s apartment #3. A cute light skinned girl answers the door in only a
towel. I’m taken aback at the situation. She acts embarrassed and tells me to
hold on a minute. All the while her little kid, maybe two or three years old
sits in his wheelie chair and just stares at me. She returns with the cash and
a five-dollar tip. I thank her and I’m on my way. Later in the car...
Me: “What kind of reaction would I have gotten if I would’ve
walked in there and just starting kissing her? Like what do you think she
would’ve done?”
With a chuckle Anthony replies, “How good of a kisser are
you?”
Me: “I mean I think I’m pretty good I don’t know. Do you
think she would resist?”
Him: “Not if you were a good enough kisser.”
Me: “Yeah?”
Him: “Yeah I think so. Well if her kid hadn’t been there I
would’ve given you more of a shot it probably would’ve gone over well.”
Me: “I mean it was like a baby though.”
Him: “Yeah you know, I feel comfortable about sex in front
of a fish sometimes.”
[Haha]
...
Delivering an order to the Russell House. Anthony
accompanies me inside. At the front entrance a few elderly people sit on
benches. An old man blurts out, “You guys want to go on a boat ride?”
Me: “I can’t. I’m working right now.”
Old man: “You’re no good if you’re working.”
...
Explaining the broken glass theory...
Him: “The mere presence of chaos leads to more chaos.”
...
Anthony divulges into his ambitious ideas and I soak it all
in...the gears in our heads turning and cranking.
...
Him: “Besides physicality it can suck to lose your best
friend and that goes for much longer than you think it’s going to. You know you
want to call someone...the only person who’s going to get a reference or
something or just a simple you telling about your day, and they’re not there
anymore to tell it and that really sucks. And I think that kicks in after the
sex thing because the sex thing is so primal.”
...
Delivering an order to Bay Pointe Medical Center. I pass a
nurse and a patient in the hallway. I overhear the nurse say to the patient,
“Doesn’t it say to sniff and swallow?” I look down at a post-it note taped to
the seat of his wheel chair/walker that has written on it in black permanent
marker, “SNIFF AND SWALLOW”. The patient does exactly that in response.
...
Discussing my observation of all the mangled and beat up
cars on the road, the people who get into accidents and don’t ever repair those
dents or bent-in bumpers or crooked doors.
Me: “So they just drive around in these banged up cars and
they don’t have any money to fix it. It’s crazy.”
Him: “I think it’s probably metaphorical too.”
Me: “Absolutely. It’s representative of people. We walk
around life banged up and we can’t afford to fix our wounds.”
Him: “Or we tell ourselves that we don’t have the means to.”
...
Delivering an order off Lynnhaven Parkway. The customer owns
a little dog with only one eye. I mention it to Anthony when I get back in the
car...
Me: “One-eyed dog.”
Him: “No way.”
Me: “Yes way.”
Him: “Can that be our password for something? Yeah so you’ll
know it’s me.”
...
Him: “At some point did you ever read a lot of Ralph Waldo
Emerson’s stuff?”
Me: “Yeah. Of course.”
Him: “Okay. Well I was reading his journals and his notes
and stuff and you guys definitely have really similar spirits.”
Me: “Oh yeah I’ve always felt connected with
transcendentalism.”
Him: “Well specifically him. Literally there were like ten
to fifteen different things and passages and stuff that he said and I was like,
this is like a Robert thing.”
Me: “I’ve always felt connected to his philosophy. Always.
And even Thoreau. That was like a big thing for me when I took English.”
...
It’s time for Anthony to leave. I continue the rest of my
shift solo.
Five is today’s magic tip number, which makes it a
profitable day.
Snacking on Trail Mix to tide me over.
Finally off work and back home.
Vegetable Lo Mein with a Trader Joe’s Summer Brew.
Cleaning up downstairs and doing dishes.
A bowl of Frosted Toast Crunch.
Watching the third Transformers: Dark of the Moon
(2011).
Sleep 4 a.m.
[i] The Temple
of Edfou Upper Egypt by David Roberts.
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