Thursday, December 7, 2017

Sunday, February 16th, 2020

Imagine That
Blondie called the next day. “I heard a few things about the office in Bleak,” she said. “Living in the desert has some drawbacks.”

I braced myself. Since the first time she told me about Bleak, I had been torturing myself, imagining the horrors may baby girl might face. Rattle snakes and scorpions. Coyotes the size of St. Bernards, Devil-worshippng biker gangs. An alien landing zone. One-eyed drifters with mysterious radiation burns.  The Walking Dude from a Stephen King novel. Mad Max.

Years earlier, I delayed getting sober because I imagined sobriety would be miserable. I had thought I was staring into a boozeless abyss of boredom and sadness. I had expected to meet a few nice people at AA, but mostly toothless old men who had burned holes in their livers drinking rubbing alcohol. I had pictured myself staring at a wall calendar, waiting for the sun to go down so I could cross off another dull day, a glass of cold water in hand.

“People get a little bored sometimes, especially toward the end of the year,” Blondie said. I felt some tension drain from my body.

“No giant coyotes?” I asked. “No secret alien meth labs? Just boredom?”

“Just boredom,” Blondie said. She paused and added, “I worry about you, Daddy.”

Today I won’t let my imagination ruin my day.

2020 Vision ©2017 by Ken Montrose

2020 Vision is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.


Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/

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