• This will be a good day. I just know it.


    Things seemed to be going quite good for me so far. I found a five dollar bill on my way to school, the gym was under repairs because of a freak wind storm, our math teacher had gotten in a car accident and the test was postponed until next week. To top it all off my biggest crush, the object of my desires, Johnny Nashie, had asked me for the notes we got in Social Studies yesterday.




    I used to pick on him. "Nasty Nashie" and "Tulip" were the most frequently used horrible nicknames I had for him. I used "Tulip" because he had once brought in a vibrant orange Tulip and gave it to the teacher. Needless to say, I wasn't very creative with my sobriquets.


    It is said that kids tease other kids because they like them. However, this was not the case for me. He was an ugly kid, to put it bluntly. He had a bad hair cut and always wore too-tight clothes. It wasn't until Junior High that he lost his ugliness (we're seniors in High School now). Ah, the wonders of puberty.
    It was like love at first sight.
    Almost.
    But he was fairly popular with the ladies. He has a bubbly blonde girlfriend. I don't know her name but I call her "Bambi" because of her doe eyes (and because Bambi was a good name for a stripper).


    It's was an unrequited love. I knew we couldn't be together. He was an attractive ladies man, and I was the kid who sat at the back of the class and doodled all class long. You know the one. The one nobody talks to because they always look like zombies or an emaciated graveyard worker.
    Not to mention I was a guy too.


    Ah, young gay love.


    ********.


    I digress.


    So, even though my day was going smoothly, I noticed that the air had become...how do I say it...thicker.
    It seemed harder to breathe but I thought nothing of it.


    The rest of the day went by quickly, and before I knew it, I was waiting at the bus stop to go home.


    I take the 55. It goes around the city in a big loop and the driver is an old lady that wears too much perfume.


    My stop is the fifth.


    I live in a small apartment that smells like wet cats.


    When I finally get home, I see the landlady bent over a bucket. She wasn't throwing up, she was just staring into the bucket, like there was something amazing in it.


    "Hello, Mrs. Mang" I say.


    She is a stout Asian woman who looks about three feet tall. She wears flower dresses and socks with sandals. She is probably the source of the wet cat odor.


    She ignores me.


    "You must be getting something out of that bucket that I'm not." My sad attempt at humor is also ignored.


    I realise that nothing I say will rouse her from her bucket induced trance, so I make my way up the stairs and to my room.


    My room is the epitome of clutter. Books, clothes, computers, oddly shaped things, wiggly things, food, you name it, it's probably in a heap somewhere on the floor.


    I'm sort of a junk collector. But I like to think of it as treasure.


    I dig my way through the junk to my room and drop my bag on the bed.


    My walls are a lovely deep red and my floor...well, you can't see that.


    I surveyed the heaps.


    Wait a second.


    The heap with the red sock in it is supposed to be next to the heap with the old notebooks, not the heap with candy canes.


    Something is definitely wrong.


    I need to think.


    So I go out onto my rusty balcony. The warm breeze is nice. I have a single plant on the railing.


    Ironically, it's a bright orange Tulip.


    The apartment buildings are squished close together. So close, I can see through the windows of the other building. There are five windows on this side of the neighboring building.


    I look at the window directly across from my balcony.


    There is a man standing there. He is fairly handsome. He is holding a frying pan with two uncracked eggs in it. He is also naked. Much like Mrs. Mang, he is staring at the eggs.


    I turn away and go back in.


    I wonder what I should eat for dinner.


    I decide to go out and buy some Leeks for Leek soup.


    The nearest grocery store is five blocks away. It is located next to a toy store that is always closed.


    I walk down the street casually. I spot a girl looking at a tree. I walk across the street and stand beside her.


    "Did you lose your kite?" I hope this doesn't make me seem like a *****.


    She keeps staring at the tree.


    Ah. So she was like the other two.


    I continue on my way to the grocer.


    When I arrive, I go straight to the veggies, which are in aisle five.


    I see an old Russian looking man standing in front of the Leeks. He is blocking my way. I tap him on the shoulder.


    "Excuse me, but would you please move? I am looking to buy some Leeks but I can't get to them with you standing in the way." I say as politely as I can.


    He turns his head and looks me straight in the eye.


    "Five hours left." He says in a robot-like voice.


    He looks back at the Leeks and doesn't move.


    Now, I'm not easily scared, but for some reason that freaked me the ******** out. So I turned and high-tailed it out of there. I run back to my apartment. I run past the girl staring at the tree and Mrs. Mang. I unlock the door as fast as I can and jump into my bed. I hide under the covers.


    It's five o'clock now...so five hours would be at ten.


    I wonder what will happen. I'm curious, but at the same time I'm scared enough to crap my pants. But I won't do that. I still have my dignity. Even if I did run home like a little school girl.


    I stay in bed for a long time. The next time I check my watch it's 9 o'clock. I panic. I don't know what to do. My body is telling me to move. I still have my shoes on, so I walk out the door.


    I don't know where I'm going. I just keep walking. I eventually end up at the pet shop. I peer inside the window. The sign still says 'closed'. I feebly grab the doorknob. I'm surprised that it's unlocked. I step inside and look around. There are a few empty cages but overall, there's nothing in it.


    I sit down on the ground. Now what?


    I check my watch. 9:59.


    I close my eyes and take a deep breath. My watch beeps as 10 o'clock comes. Just like 10 o'clock comes every other day of the year.


    But this time it feels different.


    I feel a tingle in my neck.


    Suddenly, I feel like I'm a bird. Flying in the sky. I don't need to worry about anything. Not school or Johnny Nashie or Leeks or naked men looking at eggs.


    I spread my wings.


    ------

    BODY FOUND IN PET SHOP


    POLICE SAY VICTIM SLASHED OWN THROAT


    Just after nine this morning, police found the body of a teen, Johnny Nashie, age 18,
    in a Pet Store. Police say the teen broke into the store, which is being renovated, before slicing
    his own throat with a knife. The teen's landlady says he was acting strangely the day of his death.
    "He was mumbling something under his breath about a bucket and he ran into the
    apartment looking like he saw a ghost. It was so strange." Says Mrs. Tina Mang,
    Nashie's landlady. Another witness, who saw him at the local grocery store says
    Nashie was acting odd. "He came up to me and grabbed me shoulder. He mumbled something.
    I thought he wanted to know when the store was closing. So I told him 'In five hours.' He looked
    so spooked after I told him." Police are still investigating.