Trenches

I crushed my smoke out on the pavement outside the apartment complex before rubbing my eyes deeply and hauling myself off the curb and onto my feet. Two days in a row now I had shown up at Joeys, 7:30 AM so we could walk over to Sal’s shop and start our shift by 8:00. He was normally waiting for me, bright eyed and ready to go, guy loved working on cars all day while I just did it to pay for rent and cigarettes. It’s not the worst job I’ve ever had, but the jeep with two broken cv axels and a cracked transfer case was going to take me most of the day, and I’ve never liked an all-day project.

“Joey, where the hell are you?!” I shouted in the general direction of his unit.

7:45 I was going to be late if I didn’t get going, and Sal can be a real dick about punctuality. I’ve known the guy for a decade though and he can get a little off, I guess I could take the extra thirty seconds to hit the buzzer and see if he was up, thinking about it I probably should have done that ten minutes ago, but hindsight is 20/20.

The buzzer screeched for a moment before dying, typical low budget, junky old complex with a landlord sitting halfway across town, asshole probably hasn’t been over in months. I sighed before turning on my heel and beginning my walk towards the street when the door flung open behind me.

“Dave, sorry, I overslept” Joey exclaimed exasperated as he took a few quick steps to join me.

“Two days in a row, not bad” I jested.

“Ya ya, I know” He answered.

After an uneventful day and a scolding from Sal we both walked out of the shop, at 5:30 PM and covered in gear oil I couldn’t stand the smell of myself. The extra hours would be nice at the end of the week when payday rolled around, but I needed to get home and power wash myself. Joey looked off though as we walked back to his place, almost a dead look in his eyes that were typically filled with wonder and excitement, especially after a day of work.

“You alright man?” I asked, glancing over at him.

“Ya, why?” Joey responded.

“You’re off, you better not sleep in tomorrow again” I stated.

“I won’t, it’s the rounds, I’m just tired out” He answered.

“I know man, you’ll be used to them in no time though” I answered.

“Thanks Dave, well this is my stop, go clean yourself off greaseball” he said with a smirk.

I chuckled as I turned and began making my way up the street to my place, a few blocks and several stares from strangers had me there in another ten minutes. My clothing hit the linoleum a moment after I closed the door, I had to hurry before the rounds started.

Half the neighborhood was already out, down in the grooves that surrounded our buildings, walking in cadence like a well-disciplined military unit. A smile grew on my face as I joined in line, Mr. Henry greeted me while the Schmidt twins clapped lightly at my arrival, how great they are, how great all of this is. It would be a short round tonight, after six by the time I had washed myself off and thrown my clothes in the laundry I would be a few minutes shy of six hours tonight.

After an hour or so I lapped Mrs. Campell, her husband had fallen a week before and lay just ten yards ahead of her, at least they fell close. The twins talked about school while their mother cuddled up to the new tenant, a dark-haired man, handsome by my judgment, while Mr. Henry and I discussed work. He was an electrician on the other side of town, working on another apartment complex. According to him people just weren’t buying houses anymore and most of the city was in these buildings.

Day after day Joey became progressively later after that week, I talked to him every afternoon, yelled at him even. He just couldn’t handle his rounds, poor kids eyes grew dark and he developed a nasty limp, his body just wasn’t cut out for it.

Another month went by before I found him, lying in the yard one morning, tossed out of the trench he and his neighbors had worked so hard to make. I sighed before smirking as I looked down at his white waxy body.

“Dang man, Sals going to be pissed, that’s two this week” I said.