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 Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:11 pm
Sean lit another cigarette. It was a stunted one that he had smoked almost all the way to the filter a couple days before, but he paid it no mind. After all, his pack of Marlboro was empty after the cig during lunch break, and no one else was in his small apartment to give him scornful glances and to speak in soft murmurs about his ‘habits’.
He breathed in deeply, feeling the warm glow of the cigarette butt, precariously close to his lips.
No one was ever in this apartment anymore, not after he had been moved from his office at the suburban branch building into his new ‘office’, set up rather neatly on his kitchen table. Unable to fire him due to his undeniable efficiency and precision, the balding boss in his former suburban branch district office came up with an alternate solution to Sean’s inability to get along with the other workers. ‘Behavior adjustment’ period, his boss called it, this temporary move into a home office. It was frustrating enough for Sean to be moved from the main district for the same reasons into such a small suburban branch, and this final move into his own kitchen was adding insult to injury. It was after the first couple days in his kitchen with no one to talk to other than himself and 5 empty packs of Marlboros, Sean figured, that he really began needing the anger management his only friend, Ben, suggested he get.
He breathed out, feeling the slight burn of the nicotine and the fiber glass on the back of his throat. The smoke tasted bitter in his mouth, even more so than usual as the small flame began to burn through the filter. He stared into his computer monitor, humming along to the slow songs Frank Sinatra murmured from the computer speakers. He stole glances at the battered phone within reach of his left hand. Ben hasn’t called in a few weeks and neither had his co-workers. And now, even his last cigarette seemed close to burning itself out. Sean had to admit, it was rather lonely in his kitchen at times like these.
It wasn’t that he liked the gossiping caffeine maniacs whom he had called his co-workers.
Inhaling the tobacco smoke, or rather the smoke of the burning filter, one last time, Sean took out the remains of the cigarette from his lips and put it out by squishing it on his kitchen table.
He simply missed the background noise they provided. The conversations his co-workers had during their coffee breaks weren’t as nearly as interesting as Ben, and if given the choice, Sean would choose the companion of Ben over them in a heartbeat, but anything was better than Sean’s solitary confinement in his kitchen. He would sometimes even be so bold enough to ask them for a smoke on days such as this, when he had run out himself. And they would comply silently, if not with some quiet reservations about his habit of smoking inside the building. It was no matter though. They knew as well as Sean did that the building’s fire alarm had been broken for the past 5 years and their boss was entirely too ‘economically sensitive’ to pay the extra $10 to get it fixed. Even with Sean smoking his lungs out in his office, the fire alarm would never ring.
Trying to keep his mind off of the lack of nicotine in his system, Sean began typing.
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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:57 pm
How long has it been? The beeping coming from the blaring alarm clock resounded in Sean’s ears. His face still buried in his pillow, Sean groaned as he reached blindly for the alarm clock sitting on his night stand. Grabbing it with his left hand, he lifted his head and tousled his hair with his right, allowing the hair in front of his eyes to clear long enough to see the time on the alarm clock glaring at him in red. ‘Six thirty. Still way too early for anything this place has to offer’ Sean groaned, as he let his face drop again into the pillow. He wanted nothing more than just to drift into sleep for just a few more hours, but he has never been late for work in the past 6 years since he’s worked for this company, and he wasn’t about to let being in a home office break that record, even if no one was going to check. Forcing himself to get up, Sean stumbled into his bathroom to start his daily morning routine of brushing his teeth and washing his face. After a quick shave he walked to the front door. After all, he needed his newspaper to keep him in touch with current events without the gossipers at the office. Sean did find his copy of the Morning Tribune in front of his door, but what caught his attention was what was on top of the daily paper.
It looked like a cabbage. No, he was sure it was a cabbage. The odd vegetable was wrapped carefully in a cotton blanket and placed inside a wooden basket. The odd sight reminded him of old movies he watched as a child, of films where children were abandoned at doorsteps.
‘This has to be a joke.’ Sean grimaced as he reflexively checked for a note pinned to the blanket. If it was anything like the movies he’s watched, there was always a note beginning with ‘I’m sorry. Please take care of my baby’ or something along those lines. What he found instead was a piece of notebook paper with ‘No need to thank me. -Ben’ scrawled on it.
Holding the cabbage in his arms and clutching at the note, Sean stormed into his kitchen and picked up his phone. It was rare for him to call anyone first, but it was even more rare for anyone to leave a cabbage at his door for that matter. He dialed Ben’s number, still holding the cabbage and the note.
Brriiing
Brriiing
Brriiing
“…Hello?” A groggy voice spoke over the receiver.
“Ben. It’s Sean. You need to explain-“Sean started, only to be cut off by now-awake Ben.
“Sean! What are you doing? It’s freaking six in the morning!”
“Six forty-five. But anyways, what’s this thing you left on my door?” He stared at the cabbage, just realizing that he still had it in his arms. He quickly put it down on the kitchen table, fitting it comfortable between his market research report and the print outs of his power print presentation.
Listening to Ben, Sean could not believe his ears. It was odd enough that it was his own birthday yesterday, although the fact that Sean had forgotten his own birthday was no surprise to either of them. However, it was even odder that Ben, who at the very least seemed to possess significant intellectual capacities to make a present out of a cabbage. The truly odd thing, however, was what followed.
“Wait, so this is a what?” Unable to believe what he had just heard coming from the receiver, Sean asked again.
“It’s a kid. Well, it will be anyways.” Ben confirmed much to Sean’s dismay. Sean looked at the cabbage again then returned his attention to the phone. There was no way that this can become a kid, he explained. After all, whoever heard of a cabbage turning into children?
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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:33 pm
It was nine thirty in the morning, and Sean was still in his pajamas, making him officially ‘late’ for work for the first time in six years, but he did not care. He continued staring at the cabbage in front of his eyes. It had been an hour and a half since he got off the phone with Ben and what he had heard seemed even more impossible now. ‘You seemed lonely cramped up in that apartment of yours. And I know you’re super responsible. I’m sure you’ll take good care of the kid.’ That was how Benecia ended the phone conversation and as Sean reiterated the last line over and over in his head, the bigger his headache was. Burying his head in his hands, Sean let out a great sigh. ‘First thing’s first.’ He thought as he stood up and headed to the kitchen. ‘I need breakfast.’
As Sean prepared his breakfast of two scrambled eggs and a few strips of bacon, he looked over his shoulders to the cabbage sitting on the kitchen table. Kid or not, the cabbage was still a vegetable and being a vegetable, he figured, it must need water. He flipped the eggs one more time, and headed over to his fridge. Cracking it open, Sean leaned to look inside, balancing himself by leaning his right arm over the top of the fridge. The refrigerator looked bare, even for a fridge meant to feed only one person. Other than a few cans of beer and one last egg left, there was nothing inside.
Closing the refrigerator door shut, Sean picked up the cabbage and headed to the front door again, grabbing his wallet on the way out. ‘Tsk. Not even born yet and already so much trouble.’ He started for the 7-11 on the corner of his block. He might as well pick up a pack of cigarettes along with the water he needed for the cabbage.
Walking into the store, it was only natural that the cabbage and Sean drew a couple questioning glances. Paying them no mind, Sean walked straight to the beverage aisle and picked up a few bottles of water and after a few moments of thought, a spray bottle as well. Dragging his feet to the cash register, he stood in front of the register staring at the packs of cigarettes neatly packed in rows.
When he left the store after the purchase, Sean let out a sigh and looked at the cabbage in his left arm. ‘You’re more trouble than you’re worth kid. I suppose I shouldn’t smoke since it’ll probably bad for your leaves… or when you grow up later.’ The clear plastic bag in his right hand carried only the bottles of water and the spray bottle.
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