God laughs at what we do [hardzello]

sieben

🌼

Joe was certain that he was still alive, mostly because he had just felt something poke his cheek a couple times. Can you still feel things if you're dead? Maybe an angel or god himself just poked him with a stick to wake him up and embrace him in heaven. There was just one problem:

There is no fucking way Joe would go to heaven.

That could only mean that he was still alive. Was that a good thing? What the fuck happened last night??Never in his life had he experienced a headache as bad as this one. He was feeling fuzzy and unable to open his eyes. It would take to much effort. Suddenly he felt something sharp poking his cheek. At first it was just a soft nudge before it got worse and actually started to hurt.

He overslept again. Mum would be furious.

Wait...

From one second to another, Joe was wide awake and screaming in fear while climbing backwards up a bench. The flamingo,which had kept poking him with his beak while he had been unconscious, flinched by the sudden reaction and quickly ran off.
It took him way too long to figure out were he was. His head was still throbbing.

He fell asleep on a bench outside of the mansion last night. There was a huge terrace in front of him, including a clear blue pool. And believe it or not...

There were flamingos everywhere. About six of them. It was too unreal.

How did I end up here?

Joe was still watching the tall birds in confusion and astonishment when he heard the sound of gumboots next to him. He turned around and stared back at a relatively tall man with squeaky yellow boots and a bucket in one hand. "Well, good morning." the man greeted him and goofily tipped his hat.
He then went on his way over to the flamingos, probably to feed them.

He didn't even attempt to ask Joe what he was still doing here nor did he tell him to leave. He just did what he probably did every day.

Joe got up from the bench, noticing that one of his shoes was missing. Great, what's next? He could only hope that it was still around here.
He decided to go look for it inside.

Seeing the current state of the mansion made him glad to not be responsible for cleaning it. There were cups and streamers everywhere and other stuff where you really didn't want to know where it possibly came from. It also felt like the hallways or just the building itself had increased its size. He didn't find his way around at all and without really being sure how, he ended up in the kitchen.

There was a young woman cutting carrots on a cutting board. Her young face was framed by short blonde hair and it seemed she hadn't noticed Joe's presence yet. "Morning." Joe muttered diffidently.
The woman looked up from her work. "Good morning!" she greeted him back with a smile like it was the most ordinary thing to do. She then continued cutting vegetables.

This probably happened a lot.

Joe was awkwardly walking back and forth in the kitchen, trying to find his missing shoe. The woman wasn't bothered by his presence at all. She was searching for something in a cupboard when Joe left the kitchen and as he left, she called after him: "You know, if you're looking for Ben, he's upstairs!"

"Thanks!" Joe replied out of politeness. He couldn't be bothered to meet the owner of this house who probably wasn't even aware that Joe was gracing this party with his presence. Maybe this had been a bad idea after all. Those were rich people with a status. He was just a emotionally challenged weirdo from the country side. He planned to start a new life on his own, but he started out to big. He had to take it slow.

"Hey , morning." Rami appeared at the top of the stairs. He was holding an ice pack to his forehead and looking miserable at best, but still had a smile on his face as he saw Joe. "Sorry I overstayed." Joe apologised "Is there a possibility you've seen my shoe?" He felt a tad ashamed even after Rami just laughed it off. "It's okay! You were completely wasted just like we all were." He exclaimed and raised his ice pack in the air as if getting wasted at a party was an act of great victory. You could  now also see the huge mark covering Rami's forehead that hadn't been there the night before. Joe decided not to ask questions.

Rami walked down the stairs towards Joe "There are a bunch of clothes lying around. Have you looked in the  bathroom? I'll help you."

So the two young men searched trough the bathroom which was basically the only room that wasn't king sized.

"Maybe we should look in the other bathroom"

"Other bathroom?? How many does this place have?"

"Three to be exact." Rami replied like it was no big deal.

Joe gulped. Three bathrooms were  the sort of  luxury he didn't even dare to dream of. This surely was the wrong place for him to be at.

So they walked upstairs and through dim lit halls, covered in cups, clothes and dirt. It all seemed so out of place next to all these old pictures of well clothed personalities  that were hanging on the walls. They seemed to stare into your soul with firm expressions, you could immediately tell that these people used to enjoy a high  status in society.

"Ben is always in for crazy shit." Rami said, looking at the pictures as he passed by them. "Nevertheless he still cares deeply about all this old family legacy stuff. He's very proud of it."

The way he said this showed that he didn't really understand his friend, but would always respect him.

The hall seemed to be endless before they finally arrived at the second floor bathroom. It was bigger, more fancy and they quickly realised they weren't alone.

"What are you guys doing here?" The guy that Joe knew as Roger quickly lifted his head up from the sink as he asked that question.
"He lost his shoe." Rami explained unimpressed and pointed towards Joe who felt his self-esteem shrink to the size of a peanut.

"Well, it's not here." Roger replied a bit stressed out. He turned on the faucet and Joe could see a weird substance being flushed down, Rami didn't seem to notice it. So he would not addres it either.

"It's fine." Joe assured although it wasn't fine at all. "I have another pair of shoes in the hotel, it's all fine!" he made a move towards the door before  Roger spoke up. "How did you get here? By car?"

"By train. I'll have to hurry up now..."

"No. I can drive you to the hotel."

Joe was a bit perplexed, his hand hovering over the doorknob.

"You don't have to do that, Roger." Joe assured.

"Roger??" Rami was visibly confused, especially after Roger aka Ben gave him a death glare.

"That's your name, isn't it?" Joe would be insanely embarrassed if he was wrong.

"Yes and I'll get you back to the hotel now, so you don't need to walk barefoot trough the city. Follow me." Ben instructed and dragged Joe out of the bathroom before he could say anything else.

Rami was just very confused at this point.