A smile in purgatory 火海一笑 (BxB)

Heartbreaking Howl

(Week 5, Friday afternoon)

Since Hanson left the machine shop early, he called his next job, to see if they would let him start his shift early. He worked as security guard through a staffing agency. The agency would place him in different companies for short term contract assignments, all were night jobs from 7 pm to midnight five days a week, however sometimes he worked in schools, sometimes in bars, sometimes in research buildings, sometimes even in government buildings. They particularly paid him well because of his boxing skills.

Two days ago, the school he worked at, being a summer school, had ended his services because it had finished the semester and would not open again until next summer. So his staffing agency placed him at a night club to temporarily replace a worker that recently got into a severe car accident and therefore applied for short-term disability.

The night club was happy that he could start his shift early. The club was located in a rather dangerous neighborhood, full of homeless people, drug addicts, and of course, prostitution. There were crimes, fights, thefts almost every other night, and even the police would avoid that area for their own safety.

Hanson was a security guard and his duty was simply to make sure that the customers were safe from the time they pull their car into the parking lot, to the time they leave the premises. He worked with 7 other security guards. Four of them stayed inside the club, 2 of them in the front parking lot, and 2 of them in the rear parking lot.

Tonight, Hanson was assigned guard duty of the rear parking lot.

He worked from 4.30 pm to 7 pm without any major incident. There were a couple troublemakers, as always, for example homeless people harassing female customers for pocket change, or drug junkies who were so stoned they almost got hit by cars leaving the parking lot.

Since Hanson worked in the rear parking lot, he did not really see the people entering the club. Most people enter using the front door, even if they are parked in the back. The only people that he saw were the ones hanging out in the rear lot, talking, drinking, doing drugs, or making out, or of course, fighting. And then there were a small group of people that went to the rear lot just to check out Hanson, the new security guard. Words traveled fast, and almost every customer already knew that there was a new guard, good-looking and tall, at the Ginger club, although he only started working there 2 nights ago.

Most people that went to check him out just say Hello, ask him questions, talk to him, offer him a cigarette which he turned down since he doesn't smoke, or ask for his contact information which he refused to give. In general, when they saw how cold and cool he was, how little he spoke, and how uncourteous he was, they left him alone. But tonight there was an exception.

(Week 5, Friday evening)

After the phone call with Simon, Tony had gone to the Ginger club with Yang Yang and waited for Simon to join them, but Simon did not show up after half an hour. Frustrated, Tony called to harass Kexing.

"Come on over bro" Tony urged.

"I'm not coming. I'm depressed. Leave me alone." Kexing insisted, his voice low and weak.

"Stop being a pussy"

"I'm not... I don't want to go anywhere... Can't you tell? I'm in a bad mood. I want to be alone, leave me be..." He was on the edge of crying.

"You lost a job, you'll find another one. It's not the end of the world."

"You don't get it. With my concussion, I have a hard time learning. It's very difficult for me to find a job. And nobody wants to train somebody like me. I'll never find another job..." Kexing sniffed off a nasal drip.