The Package Part II
I get to work but I’m late, again. Mr. Gonzales notices I’m tardy and takes me aside to have a few words with me. “Mr. Marks your late for work again. I like you but if you’re late for work again, I’m going to have to let you go.” His voice is firm and swallow hard.
“I’m so sorry Mr. Gonzales. I missed the bus and I had to hot foot it here. It won’t happen again.” I replied.
“Make sure that it doesn’t. Now get to work.” He answers.
I leave without responding and get to work. Work is hectic and I’m distracted. I can’t stop thinking about the strange girl with the wild sneakers and electric touch. It makes it hard to complete my tasks in a timely manner and my co-workers are clearly irritated with me but it doesn’t matter. I would love to run into that girl again but something tells me that isn’t going to happen. Still, she did tell me her name so maybe if she wants to run into me again she could make that happen. What am I thinking like that for, a girl like that wouldn’t waste time with a guy like me. I try to put it out of my mind. I had work to do.
When my shift was over I remember the envelope I was given. Anticipation overwhelms me as I wonder what is inside. I slowly open the envelope which reveals a single sheet of paper. On the paper is a list of instructions.
Instruction #1. Read everything before doing anything.
Okay, I think I can do that.
Instruction #2. Quit your job.
Instruction #3. Go to the downtown library.
Instruction #4. Check out the book “War and Peace”.
Instruction #5. Buy a bus ticket to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Instruction #6. Give the bus ticket to the first person you see after buying the ticket at the bus station.
Instruction #7. Eat lunch 2 days from today at Dave’s Taco Shop.
Instruction #8. Order the Grande Burrito.
Instruction #9. Put an AD in the local paper with the caption “Lisa, please call me 661-245-6532”
Instruction #10. Pay for the AD to run for three days.
Instruction #11. Go visit your mother in the hospital.
Instruction #12. Bring her flowers.
Instruction #13. Go to the downtown library.
Instruction #14. Return the book “War and Peace”
Instruction #15. Say my name out loud.
That’s a really weird list. I can’t quit my job, if I quit my job I’ll be homeless in two weeks and my mother is not in the hospital and at the end whose name am I suppose to say out loud. The whole thing didn’t make any sense to me. This girl shows up seemingly out of nowhere and makes me sign for an envelope that tells me to do crazy things and I’m just suppose to do it. I have a life. It might not be much of a life but it is a life. I put the piece of paper back in the envelope. Now instead of thinking about the girl, I wrestle with whether I am going to actually follow all these strange directions.
I hardly get any sleep that night. The next day I made up my mind. I go into work the next day and I tell Mr. Gonzales that I quit and after that I walk downtown towards the library.
If you want to read part I, you can find it here