Sometimes life gets weird. You lose hope, then you'll fall down, but then you'll get back up again. Sage did. So hang in there; it gets better, with time.
A short story.
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The black ink from Sage's felt tip pen drifted out on his lined paper so smoothly that he was more focused on that rather than the actual words he was writing. At this point he was just writing stuff to see how the pen made the words look.
He was supposed to be journaling, but had gotten sidetracked and was now doodling on the upper right corner of his notebook paper. He drew a little cute bubble bee, a cartoonish trash bin, and a light bulb.
As he began drawing the next doodle, a waitress came and sat his tray of fries down in front of him, causing him to look up from his paper. Mumbling a quiet "Thank you," he pulled the tray closer to him.
Sage was currently sitting in the far back corner of a small diner near his apartment complex after a few hours of job searching. None of the jobs he went to look at seemed like something he would enjoy doing, until he made it to Starbucks.
Just as he was going to ask about the hiring process, he watched a barista come from behind the counter literally bawling her eyes out. The conversation she had with her manager was so loud that the whole establishment heard it, and apparently her hours had been cut right before rent was due.
That just made Sage realize how bad capitalism was, and also made him aware that maybe a job wasn't the best thing for him to do right now. He knew that type of environment would overwhelm him, and plus, at every job he went to, the employees seemed burned out.
They spoke so exhaustively to him, as if one more minor inconvenience would set them off. Jobs required too much from employees nowadays, and the pay didn't match the amount of work asked of them. Sage didn't want to be apart of that at all.
He was so blessed that he had a bank account with almost seventy thousand dollars of free money waiting to be spent by him. He also now received a military retirement monthly deposit of $2,300, which he set up to go straight to his all-bills-included rent.
With that much money, he wouldn't have to get a job for years. Honestly, he would be surprised if he ever did get one. He lived below his means so that money should last him a long while. He felt bad for people like the barista at Starbucks. They deserved more.
Being back in the states just showed him how bad America had gotten while he was away. It seemed like everyone became ruder due to their living and working conditions, and the government was no help at all. There were so many homeless people around, it was hard to believe.
Interrupting his thoughts, his eyes roamed to the entrance of the diner when the bells jingled, only to coincidentally find Mariah walking in with her girlfriend, Solana. They were all smiles as they walked hand in hand to the front counter, assumably to order a late lunch-or early dinner.
He sat facing the door only because he liked to remain aware of his surroundings, but now he wished he had sat somewhere less visible. The two girls made him nervous, especially Solana who's eyes seemed naturally judgmental.
