5
1,2,3,4,5.
1,2,3,4,5.
1,2,3,4,5.
1,2,3,4,5.
1,2,3,4,5.
Manny sat on his futon in the living room of his apartment waiting for the hands on the clock above his television set to hit 8:15 so he could leave for the bar. He sat watching the channel five eight o’clock edition of the news. He was watching surveillance footage in black and white of a gas station robbery. The attendant was behind the register under fluorescent lights. The camera shows him counting the till. The camera is recording his back and you could see the glass door entrance of the station. Two men walk in. Both are wearing black ski masks over their heads. One of them points a shotgun at the cashier and stand near the door. The other has a smaller handgun and quickly walks to the cashier. The attendant puts his hand up. The second robber goes to the register and he is waving his handgun back and forth between the cashier and the register. The cashier is shaky. He struggles to open the register. He pulls out the whole tray and hands the robber the money. They both run out. The television switches back to a blonde with big breasts who is going to talk about the weather. The clock reads 8:12. He looks at his watch: 8:12. Manny needs three more minutes before he can get up to leave. He tries to pay attention to the news to wile away the time but can’t concentrate on the television screen. His eyes fix on the television screen then quickly shift back to the clock. He is afraid 8:15 will come and go and he will have to wait until 8:20 before he can leave his house. The television was running on mute. He watched the minutes change and when the clock hit 8:20 Manny turned off the television and walked out of the house to go to the bar.
He opened the door and a cool breeze came at him from outside. He locked the door and turned the doorknob five times. 1,2,3,4,5 and its locked, he said in his mind. He felt reassured that the door was locked and he could leave the apartment complex without worries of being burglarized. There were palm trees planted through the center of the apartment complex courtyard. The apartment complex formed a U around these trees. The wind was blowing softly. There was a tricycle from one of the kids left out. Drawings of trees and clouds were drawn in pink sidewalk chalk on the pavement. The leaves of the palm trees brushed against each other and rustled. Small round pellets shot from the trees and fell to the ground. Some of the pellets pelted him as the walked across to the parking lot. He passed his neighbors apartments. He could smell chicken. Somebody else was cooking chorizo. He heard television sets in Spanish. An older woman sat on the steps of her apartment and smoked a cigarette. She waved to Manny but he ignored her and kept walking. He walked to the door of his car and looked at his watch. The time was 8:26.
Manny had to wait four minutes in order to enter his car. He counted as he waited: 1,2,3,4,5 until 8:30. He unlocked his car and stepped inside. He locked the door and held the lock button down with his finger until he completed a five count; 1,2,3,4,5. He turned on the car. A.M. radio started playing into the car. Manny liked sports but when sports weren’t on he settled for news radio. The palm trees in the parking lot pelted the front window of his car. He slowly pulled out of his assigned parking space and drove out into the night. There was a bright orange light on his dash. The icon of the small gas station pumpwas on. He looked at the fuel gauge. The dial was on the last bar next to the E but not quite. Manny wanted to get to the bar before the fights started. He was already running late. The fight started at nine and he was just leaving his house. He drove North onLakewoodtowards the 105. The news radio station was talking about the robbers he had seen on the television. Two men; possibly Latino; a string of robberies; three deaths; one beat unconscious; armed and dangerous; anybody who has any information on there whereabouts is encouraged to call the commerce police department. Manny was headed into commerce to the bar.
He got onto the onramp and drove west towards the 605. Manny started counting to five after he and his wife separated. He left early from work on a Friday five months ago. He had a fever and showed up to work anyway. He hated missing days. The foreman took one look at him when he arrived at the construction site and told him he didn’t want Manny getting the other workers sick. He let Manny go home for the day. He walked out of the metal skeleton of the building he was hired to help build. Manny drove home feverish and shivering that day. The freeway felt like one long interminable stretch of asphalt he could not escape. In the rearview mirror his teeth were chattering and behind lay a long line of black that was the freeway. Beads of sweat covered his forehead. He looked like a teenager with acne. The sun beat down through his window that day and intensified his fever. When he arrived at his house it was 12:15 in the afternoon. He sat in his car for five minutes. He left the car running and ran the air condition at full power.He was shivering and sweat poured down his forehead. It was gathering in big round sopped stains on the front and back of his shirt. He didn’t know what had come over him. He walked to the door. Nobody was home. He went inside into the dark living room. The blinds were drawn down and the room was dim. He could here somebody lightly knocking somewhere. He went straight to the bedroom and discovered that somebody was home. It was his wife and she was facing him on all fours on top of his bed while some guy with a moustache fucked her from behind. They all stood paralyzed for a moment. Manny thought he was delirious.
“I can explain.” His wife said.
That was the last thing he heard her say. As she was about to explain Manny got a strong stomach cramp. He clutched at his stomach. He turned around and ran into the bathroom and started throwing up. Yellow bile flew out of his mouth in one strong stream. He felt like one of those Grecian fountains you find at mortuaries lawns pouring out water. When he looked down at the toilet he realized he did not put the lid up.. He did not get the opportunity to lift the lid either. As he reached down his stomach cramped and more of the yellow bile came out. The green toilet seat cover was covered in a yellow pool that was dripping from the sides onto the linoleum floor. The vomit looked like raw egg yolk the way the mucus held together and dripped from the sides. He vomited until he saw black. His stomach ached from so much strain of the stomach muscles. His world became dark. He went unconscious
When he awoke the bathroom was dark and the floor behind him was cold. The smell inside the bathroom was rank. It smelled like sour cottage cheese. He got up and turned on the light. There was Vomit on top of the seat and where he lay. The sight and the smell made him dry heave. He heaved and he heaved but nothing came out. His stomach muscles were extremely sore. He looked at his wristwatch. It was 8:15 p.m. He turned on the shower. The Hot water started to fill the room with steam. He pulled back the black shower curtain and stepped inside. He undressed inside the stall and showered. He threw the clothes on the vomit on the bathroom floor. He felt a lot better with the shower. The fever was gone and his chills were gone. He scrubbed himself hard to get the smell off of him. He still had the dull headache that reminded him he was still in the recovery stage. He felt ten times better than when he got home and caught his wife…He finished showering. He stepped out and walked over his clothes and went into the bedroom to dress. The bed was still unmade. He dressed and left the house for good. That was the last time he was inside of that apartment. She stayed at the place.. He received great pleasure from the thought of her cleaning all his vomit. It gave him pleasure that that was the last thing he gave her.
He merged onto the 605 South towards the 5 North.
1,2,3,4,5.
1,2,3,4,5.
1,2,3,4,5.
1,2,3,4,5.
1,2,3,4,5.
really do