by Chase McCown
“It seems like it’s always raining,” Charlie grumbled as he trudged through the drizzle of rain on his way to the diner. “What I wouldn’t give for some nice, warm weather!”
Charlie often talked to himself. Some people thought him a bit off for it, but the habit helped him keep his thoughts organized. It also gave him someone to talk to, since life alone can be a somber one.
He took a turn to the left, toward the direction of the diner. When he made the turn, he saw a man who looked about twice his age holding a sign and standing in the median between the lanes of traffic. Charlie squinted to read the sign, but the distance coupled with the cars that frequently passed between him and the sign made it almost impossible to decipher the message. He moved closer, but there were still too many cars between him and the sign to discern its message.
Deciding to cross over to the other side of the street to read it, he waited for the traffic light to turn red and pressed the button at the crosswalk until it did so. Then he scurried over to the other side of the street, where he was at last able to read the sign.
THE END IS NEAR. REPENT AND BE SAVED.
Charlie rolled his eyes at the message. He didn’t have time for fairy tales.
He crossed back to the other side of the road and at last arrived at the diner, eager to forget the man and the sign altogether.
“Charlie! Come on in! We saved your seat for you,” said the waiter. Charlie followed him to his favorite booth in the back corner of the diner. “How’s it going? You look a bit long in the face today. What’s the matter?” the waiter asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing, Matt. Some kook was out on Main Street with a sign about the end of the world or something. It just kind of got under my skin is all.”
“This city sure does draw out some strange people, doesn’t it? You want your regular, right?”
“That’d be great. Oh, and some coffee when you get the chance.”
“Sure thing.”
Matt walked over to another table where he kept the coffee, and then he returned a few moments later. He set down a glass mug and poured Charlie a cup of coffee. Steam rose up from the drink in wispy streams of smoke. When Charlie lifted the mug to his mouth, it’s edge felt warm against his lips. He sipped the coffee slowly, singing the tip of his tongue. He grimaced in pain and carefully set the coffee back down to let it cool. Matt then walked away to another table after he made sure Charlie was satisfied.
Soon, Charlie sat and stared out the window of the diner at the raindrops as they fell to the street below. The tiny ripples they caused in the puddles of water seemed to diminish momentarily only to give way to more raindrops, which caused more ripples.
He fell deeper and deeper in thought, but then was suddenly jerked back to reality when the warm, buttery smell of fresh waffles drifted into his nostrils, heralding the arrival of breakfast. A half-second later, a glass plate clanked against the wooden table. The loud, sudden noise caught Charlie by surprise, and he jumped back in his seat.
“Oh! Thanks. I must not have heard you,” Charlie said as he looked up from the window.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Is there anything else you need?” the waiter asked as he placed a small glass syrup dispenser on the table.
“No, thanks. This looks to be all of it,” Charlie said after he had examined his order.
“Well, enjoy your meal then. Just tell me if you need anything,” the waiter replied. He then placed some napkins on the table and turned to leave.
“Will do, thanks,” said Charlie, his attention still focused on his food.
As the waiter walked off to another table, Charlie drizzled syrup over his waffles. He then spread a pat of butter over the waffles and cut into them. He was about to take his first bite when he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He checked the caller ID and saw that it was his coworker Jill.
“Hey, Charlie. Sorry to bother you, but Dale wanted to know if you could come in early today.”
“How early?” Charlie asked.
“Well, now, basically,” Jill answered.
“Now? Can’t it wait until I finish breakfast?” Charlie answered.
“Sorry, he said it was urgent,” Jill responded.
“Ugh, fine. Tell Dale I’m on my way.”
He hung up the phone, groaned, and looked despondently at his fresh, fluffy waffles and cheesy scrambled eggs. It looked like he wouldn’t be able to enjoy them today.
“Can I get my check, please?” Charlie asked as Matt passed by.
“Sure. Is there something wrong?” Matt asked.
“No, nothing’s wrong. I just got called into work early.”
“Do you want a box for your food?”
“That’d be great, thanks.”
Charlie paid for his food, took his carefully boxed breakfast, and went out into what had now become a torrential downpour.
“I wish I had remembered to bring my umbrella,” Charlie grumbled.
As he trudged through the downpour, he spotted his workplace. The tall skyscraper seemed to tower above its neighbors.
He clocked in at the front desk first, where the receptionist greeted him.
“Oh hey, Charlie,” Janet said, never looking up from painting her fingernails.
“Hey, Janet,” Charlie answered.
Janet finished applying fingernail polish to her thumbnail and then observed her work carefully without offering Charlie a reply.
“It’s raining cats and dogs out there,” Charlie offered after a long wait.
“Hmm?” Janet asked, looking up momentarily.
“I was just saying— Never mind. Take care, Janet,” Charlie said.
“Sure. You too, Charlie.”
Janet went back to grooming her fingernails, and Charlie headed toward the middle of a cluster of cubicles where his own cubicle sat.
As he started up his computer and checked through his emails, he saw memos, notices, and deadlines all clamoring for his attention. He skimmed through them before deleting some of the less relevant ones and closing the program.
“Henry?” Charlie called.
His coworker glanced over at him as he sat his things down at his cubicle.
“Yeah?”
“Did you see they moved up the deadline for that project again?”
Henry shook his head. “What? How long do we have now?”
“A week and a half.”
“This is getting ridiculous. I’m telling you, they’re going to hear it. They can’t keep moving the deadlines around like that,” Henry said, raising his voice.
“What’s going on, guys?” Mark asked, coming in to start work.
“They moved the deadline up again for the Henderson deal.”
“What, again? That’s the third time now!”
As they grumbled, their supervisor walked through the door, and the three hushed their voices to a whisper.
“What are you guys talking about?” David asked.
“Did you know the deadline was moved up again?” Mark asked.
Mark was always the most direct. If there was a problem, he preferred not to skirt around it. This also got Mark in a great deal of trouble.
“Oh, yeah. We had a meeting about it last night. We were just thinking we may be able to get it done sooner than expected. What, is there a problem?” David asked.
“We were already having trouble meeting the deadline as it was. Is it really a good idea to make it any shorter?” Charlie asked.
“If anyone can handle it, it’s you guys. Now, I have to get to another meeting. Take care.”
“Take care, David,” Henry mumbled, shaking his head.
Charlie tried to finish as much as he could before taking a break for lunch. He was always more productive in the morning, and he knew he needed to work faster than usual if they were going to meet the deadline.
After lunch, the clock always seemed to creep along at a snail’s pace. He was half convinced the supervisor tampered with it to keep the employee
s working longer.
“Charlie?”
“Yes, Jill?” Charlie said.
“The boss wants to see you.”
“Sure thing.”
Charlie walked to the COO’s office, where his boss stood looking out the window.
“Take a seat, Charles.”
Charlie found a small wooden chair in the middle of the room facing the COO’s desk and took a seat in it. Beads of sweat trickled down his face, and he began to fidget in anticipation.
“Do you have any idea why you’re here?” the man asked.
“Quite frankly, no, sir,” Charlie answered. His pulse quickened. What did the COO want with him, anyway? He hadn’t done anything wrong.
“We’ve seen a dip in productivity and a general negative attitude around the workplace lately. Now, I don’t need to remind you how important it is to stay positive and productive. We have important deadlines coming up, and I want to make sure everyone feels positive about our chances of meeting those deadlines. I heard David ran into you and a few of your coworkers talking about the new deadline.”
“Well, we were just wondering how we were going to meet it. We were having trouble meeting the last deadline.”
“Now that’s just the thing I’m talking about, Charles. That’s the kind of talk that’s going to drag this company down. You have to stay positive. It’s like I always say: stay positive, stay productive. Do you agree with that, Charles?”
“I suppose I do, sir,” Charlie said. He didn’t really see the point in being positive when facing such unrealistic expectations, but he wasn’t about to argue that with the COO.
“Well, I’ll just get straight to the point. I’m sorry, Charles, but we’ve decided it’s in our best interests to let you go. We can’t have this continued negative influence around the workplace.”
“You’re firing me? I— I can’t believe it.” Charlie said, a feeling of stunned disbelief washing over him. He felt as if his entire life had been turned on its head. All that he’d worked for—gone.
“I’m sorry. You can pick up your final paycheck at the front desk.”
The COO turned to the papers on his desk and began filling them out, paying Charlie no further heed.
Charlie sat for a few minutes, unable to process the news he had been given. Finally, he gathered his wits about him and stood.
He walked out to his cubicle to gather his things and ran into Henry coming back from the break room.
“Hey Charlie, I heard Jill saying you’d been called back to talk with the COO. What happened? It wasn’t anything bad, was it?”
“They fired me,” Charlie said.
“Fired? What for?”
“They said I was a negative influence.”
“Oh, man, I’m sorry,” Henry said.
“It’s okay, Henry. I’ll live,” Charlie said.
“Give me a call if there’s ever anything you need me to do. I’ll give someone a recommendation for you if you find a job you want,” Henry said.
“Thanks, I appreciate it. Take care, Henry.”
“You too, Charlie.”
Charlie walked to his cubicle to take his things home, and it was then that he saw how empty his life was. He had no photographs of family and friends or loved ones or even a pet. All he had was work, only now he didn’t even have that. He realized how empty his life was and shook his head in disgust.
He turned and walked to the front desk, took his final paycheck from Janet—which she carefully handed him so as to not damage the work she’d done on her fingernails—and went out into the pouring rain once more.
Charlie headed home after that. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he was sure he wasn’t going to think about it today.
He reheated his breakfast in the microwave and sat down to eat it at the table which sat in front of his sofa, facing the television. He ate dinner in silence, only half watching a nature documentary about Africanized honey bees. After he had finished eating, he turned off the television, placed his dirty dishes in the sink, and went to bed.
Chapter 2
February 21st, 2025. Seattle, Washington.
Charlie rubbed his eyes and stretched as he awoke. He didn’t know what the date was.
He figured it had been about a week since he had been fired, but he wasn’t certain. To be honest, he had stopped bothering with that days ago. It wasn’t like it mattered. Nothing really mattered anymore.
He checked his refrigerator to see what he could have for breakfast, but the only thing of note he found was a carton of eggs. He shook the carton, but it made no sound.
“Empty. Of course,” he grumbled.
He tossed the empty polystyrene carton into the nearby trash can and shook his head in frustration.
“Well, I guess I’ll be making a run to the grocery store today.”
He checked his wallet and saw that he had hardly any money left from his last paycheck. It was enough to buy a few groceries, at least.
The walk wasn’t a very long one. In fact, the supermarket was only a few blocks from his house.
As Charlie approached, the automatic doors of the supermarket slid open for him. He wandered down the cereal aisle, but as he picked out what to buy, a hand grabbed his shoulder. He spun around and saw Catherine Smith. They had been friends since elementary school, and he hadn’t seen her since his high school graduation.
“Chuck! Is that you?” She rushed up to him and embraced him.
“Cathy? What’re you doing here? The last I heard, you had gotten a job in Texas somewhere,” Charlie said, hugging Cathy and looking her over carefully to see how much she had changed since they’d last spoken.
“Oh, yeah, I’m just up here for my grandfather’s funeral.”
“I’m sorry, Cathy.”
“Well, I didn’t really know him that well. He and my father never got along. Wow, it’s been too long! I have a week before I have to fly back to Dallas. Do you think we could have dinner sometime?”
“I’d love that, but I don’t know if I can,” Charlie said, downcast.
“What do you mean?”
“These past few weeks have been pretty rough for me, Cathy. I was let go last week.” Charlie turned away from Cathy as a feeling of embarrassment and shame came over him.
“I’m so sorry, Chuck. Look, why don’t you let me pay? It sounds like you could use a night out, and I’d love to get a chance to catch up.”
“I don’t know, Cathy. Are you sure?”
“Sure I’m sure! I remember how hard it was for my husband when he got laid off from his job. Believe me, I know what you’re going through.”
“I’d love to have dinner then. What’s a good time for you?” Charlie asked.
“Well, the funeral is tonight. How about tomorrow night?”
“That sounds great. I know this great little Italian place by my apartment. I’ll write down my phone number so you can call me tomorrow night. I’ll give you directions, and you can meet me there.”
“Great, I’ll see you then. Take care, Chuck!”
Charlie bought what groceries he could afford—it was enough to last him a few days, at least—and headed out of the store. He could hardly believe it. After all this time, and just when he needed it most, Cathy had showed up to lift his spirits after what had been a miserable few days.
In high school, most of his friends had thought he would marry Cathy. He always thought it would be too awkward, though. He had known Cathy as a friend for a long time, and he couldn’t think of her as anything more than that. Still, he was thrilled to see her again and to catch up on old times.
He spent the rest of the day thinking about his high school years and all the stories he’d tell Cathy, rehearsing them in his mind so that he would know exactly what he wanted to say.
When dusk finally approached the following day, he paced anxiously beside his phone, waiting for Cathy to call. Finally, after what Charlie felt had been hours but had actually only been a few minutes, the call he�
��d been waiting for came.
“Hey, Chuck! I’m almost ready. What’s the name of the restaurant you wanted to meet at?”
“It’s called Maria’s. It’s on South Street, just a block or so from the supermarket.”
“Oh, okay, I think I’ve seen that place before. I’ll see you there.”
Cathy hung up, and Charlie rushed to the restaurant to meet her.
A few minutes later, he was reserving a table for two.
Cathy arrived not long after that, and Charlie waved her over to a booth in the back corner.
It was a cozy little mom and pop restaurant, and the scent of pasta hung thick in the air. It was owned by an older couple and their son, and as they told it, the restaurant had been in their family for generations.
Cathy sat down across from Charlie and smiled.
“It’s nice,” she commented.
“Yeah, I like it here. You should try their baked ziti.”
“So, aside from the work situation, how are things with you, Chuck?” Cathy asked.
Charlie sighed. “I don’t know. They’re going, I guess. My sister got married. You remember her.”
“Oh, yeah, I think I do. How’s that going?”
“Oh, things were great the last I heard, but we aren’t really that close. How are things with you?” Charlie asked.
“I can’t really complain. Ben’s work keeps him away a lot, so I don’t get to see him as much anymore, but we’re planning on setting up a vacation soon.”
“What about your work? Aren’t you with some news agency?”
“Yep. Dallas Morning News. It hasn’t been exactly what I expected, though. Ben wants me to quit and stay home. We’re getting into the final stages of an adoption, and he thinks it would be nice if I could stay home and take care of the baby, so I may not be working there much longer.”
They were interrupted by the waiter, who took their orders before pouring them each a drink. He then vanished with their food orders.
“Do you remember back in our freshman year when we had that one art class together? What was that teacher’s name?” Cathy asked, rubbing her forehead as if to bring the details of the story to the front of her mind.
“It was Mr. Thodge, wasn’t it?” Charlie remembered, snapping his fingers as the name came to him.