Today's writing

(An early 20’s man sits on a bench smoking a cigarette, with a briefcase on his lap, waiting for the bus. He sits quietly, looking towards the concrete sidewalk. His wardrobe suggests a young professional, but it is not clear what his profession would be.)

Narrator: “I grew up. I think that is how this happened.”

He glances to a man on his cell phone walking and talking about a business deal that will most likely make him his 100^th million.

Narrator: “I awake everyday to find the same news on the radio and the same empty fridge slowly starving me to death. I think back to my childhood and see only clear blue skies and bright sunny days. Today, it’s still the same sky and the same sun, but if seems a lot different to me now. The sun is no longer an indication of the amount of play time left, now it is an indication of how long I have before I have to go to bed, then wake up to do it all over again.”

The bus arrives. The camera shows the opposite side of the bus from the one in which the passengers board. In the usual, loud fashion of a bus, it drives off, just to make another stop, but still on the bench is the man.

He man sits with a bit of a smirk on his face, like a teenager who is skipping school and enjoys the rush of doing something bad.

Narrator: “Life was simple then.”

The man opens his mouth and whispers: “Life was simple then.”

He glanced over to see the bus stuck in traffic, not thirty feet from the bench. If he walked quickly, he could easily make it to the bus and to work on time. He stands with briefcase in hand and drops the cigarette to the ground. The man reads the public service announcement on the back of the bus about the increase in the poverty rate. Placing the briefcase on the bench, he walks the opposite direction of the bus.

A moment of fear of what his actions could mean. He hesitates, thinks briefly about going back to get his case and to grab a taxi.

“It’s not worth it.”

Narrator: “Hopefully someone will make a better use of that leather briefcase than I did. I can only hope my boss somehow finds it and sees how many office supplies I have stolen (the narrator laughs). Why did I need to steal thousands of paperclips? It’s not like I had a grand sculptural piece in mind for them.”

He had realized none of this mattered. Yesterday, he realized none of this mattered.

When an event that calls your mortality into question happens, you begin to look different, you begin to see things differently. Such an event happened yesterday for this man.