Little Late For An Epilogue

Waking up was very difficult. What with all my muscles yelling at me all at once to go back to sleep. As I got up, I was struck with just how easy it had been to get up and go in past mornings. It was a mix of slow motion and a bad bender. But I still had to get rolling to work, and the simple need for continued finances were as good a reason as I could ever get to be responsible.

Work at Norwalk was more of a blur than usual. Before I knew it, I was the only one there. Cable casting was a little more of a crowded dance card than the average schedule, so I didn't get out till nearly 8:00 pm.

I went to El Torito to have dinner with Patrick M., and we came to an almost unspoken decision to talk about anything and everything. Good stuff.

Topics of Conversation @ El Torito: Kendo stances, the middleman, High School drama of old, reaching personal goals, progress pictures, charismatic charm, the metaphorical Titanic, dirty fighting by Masters, Little-Too-Late Luigi, getting too bulky, Genki the Cock-Blocking Fool, the Obvious Setup, shifty facebooking, thinking into corners, the Grand Scheme, Kalinski, etc.

The last bit made me realize that I had never finished up the little Noir bit I made up for Patrick's crazy story from back in January. Let's see if that can be rectified.

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The Big Pay Off (EPILOGUE)

Kalinski had handed me a check with a fishy smell, and I was never partial to seafood. I headed to one of the only places that could rob me with a PIN, and talked to one of the nametags in charge of the cash.

"See, what I got here is a piece of paper with my name on it, but I'm wondering if I would choke on the strings attached," I said to the teller.
"How much?" asked the bank rep.
"2 G's," I replied.
"That spells trouble," stated the banker.
"Bad words?" I said.
"From a nasty alphabet," replied the banker.
"Well the new word is 'Cancel,'" and I was done with Kalinski's lousy vocabulary.

But Kalinsi had to have the last word.

I got a phone call as soon as the sun wanted attention.
"Mr. Patrick," said the infamous Kalinski, "Is my money in transit? What is the status?"
"Well, Kalinski," I said through morning grogginess and late night whiskey, "I had a sit down with my money people, and they said the low down on the cash flow was that it wasn't on the up and up, you dig?"
Kalinski had hung up before I was done. I guess he didn't dig.

The big pay off was a big let down.

But at least I still had an interesting life.

-FIN-

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Okay, that amused me more than anything else was going to. Thanks for reading.

-Nate