The Bomb and the Cage: Doree Anne by Eugene W Cusie Page B

white tennis shoes.              
    I was late but breakfast was still the most important meal of the day. I cooked two slices of bacon with two eggs over easy cooked right in the bacon grease. Once the eggs where on my plate I lightly toasted two slices of marble bread and poured a glass of extra pulp orange juice.  I sat down at my kitchen table said grace and enjoyed my meal savoring each bite until there were no bites to savor. I was thankful that I could indulge in bacon and its offspring, the grease , for my eggs. I had always exercised and watched my weight; I hoped to one day look back at my long life and be proud that I lived it to the fullest.              
    I left my home at ten thirty. When I started my car the normal easy listening music from now and yesterdays that should have greeted me were replaced by a man talking who sounded stern and important. I pit in a gospel CD I had picked up from one of the local revivals.
    There wasn’t any traffic on my way to work. Was there ever any traffic ? I only lived about three blocks from my shop. I was so close that I used to ride a bicycle, a red beach cruiser that had a chrome basket and matching chrome fenders, to and from work until one day last summer, when it was stolen off my porch. That’s the price you pay for having nice things and trust. God provided me with it and God can take it away. . I just hoped whoever had taken it didn’t spray paint it and ruin the wonderful paint and chrome. I imagine that it ended up being painted an ugly color to hide the fact that it was stolen.
    My business was on Main Street in between two other businesses, one a music store and the other a bookstore. I parked around back, got out, and walked to the front of my store. Everything was so quiet and there was this strange smell in the air, as if something was burning. There was this strange sensation, heavy and weighed on me as I walked around the building to my store. I felt like I had almost expected to see something horrifying , on the other side. I had even noticed that my walk had become fast, so fast in fact that if I hadn’t stopped myself I’d had been jogging. Around the corner, there was nothing strange, nothing out of the ordinary, except I was late and there was no one standing in front of my shop waiting.

 
    Chapter 22
    09/18/2004 1040 Hours
    David
    I never could grasp the concept of luck. I guess you could say that luck could never grasp me either. I was thirty-eight and I couldn't remember ever getting a break. Sure, I was alive, that I could be thankful for. However, I was also unemployed and I didn't have but three dollars and seventy-two cents in my pocket. I’ve been trying to find a job for a while now, and besides a few day labor jobs here and there, I was unsuccessful.
    When I woke up, I felt confused, a lot more than normal. There was something burning, and it made my stomach rumble. I was hungry and I didn't know where my next meal was going to come from once I spent what little money I did have. In a small town people get to know you a little too well. I had a drinking problem. It was only a problem because it had cost me everything. At night I laid out by the railroad tracks, stare at the stars and wonder if I had ever loved anything in my life besides the drink. It was sad, to live as long as I had and not be sure if an emotion such as love had ever been felt. I could remember a girl from my school days. Her name was Alexis and if there were anyone I had ever loved, it would have been her. She would have made a wonderful wife, I was sure of that. She was all kinds of sweet and if it hadn't been for that drunk driver, maybe she would have one day been sweet on me. It was somewhat ironic how loosing something so wonderful had made me embrace what had taken it.
    I slept in my normal spot that night in Leefield . Near some railroad tracks by a local park that no one ever went too. There was a lake there with a walking track