Simple and utilitarian prose to maintain atmosphere and character.
Thanks for reading.
Anonymity
He woke up and went to the bathroom. Brushed his teeth. Watched the toothpaste suds circle the sink before getting stuck under the drain stopper he needed to clean.
He looked in the mirror. Noted his jawline looking pretty good today. His hair, too. Styled by his pillow.
He felt lighter, looked lighter. He deserved a coffee.
The streets bustled, even this early. He smiled at a woman in a gray coat that reached her knees. She clipped his shoulder as they passed. He told her he was sorry. She didn’t look back.
The bell hanging from a dingy string chimed when he opened the door. People with their noses in their laptops or phones, or in conversation with their neighbors on the long benches that ran through the coffee shop.
He made his way to the counter. Ordered a latte without the foam. Money was exchanged, and he waited at the counter for his order.
“Jim,” the barista called. “Jim.”
“Excuse me?” he asked.
“Jim,” the barista said.
“Latte with no foam?”
“This one has foam.”
“Oh.”
He left, the taste of coffee offputting.
If he had an office, he’d go there. He worked at home, so wandered around the city a little longer. It was still early.
Lunch came. He wanted to be healthy, so went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. At the checkout line, he put his groceries on the belt and took out his credit card.
The machine wouldn’t read his card. He took it out and cleaned the magnetic strip as if that would work. The cahier looked beyond him impatiently. He said he was sorry and left.
At home, he sat in front of his computer, nibbling on some leftovers. Pulled pork and rice. He checked his calendar. One meeting during his lunch hour. Great.
The camera on his laptop was broken, so he watched the other rectangles with faces. An avatar that vaguely looked like the torso of a human represented him. They didn’t ask him anything, so he didn’t speak.
Work took him well into the night. He thought about going for a walk, but there was no one outside. No fun going for a walk if there was no chance of meeting someone new. He shook his head and sighed at the thought, which belonged in a discount-bin greeting card. He shook his head again, because that wouldn’t even work in a greeting card.
He drowned out his thoughts with TV. Local channels only. Cable and streaming services were getting too expensive. All TV showed him was that bad things were going on in the world and that there was a BLOWOUT DEAL at the car dealership on the corner of Grande and 16th.
He checked his mail piled inside his door. Just a bunch of mail addressed to CURRENT RESIDENT.
In the bathroom, he thought about taking a shower, but felt clean enough. He brushed his teeth and watched the toothpaste suds collect around the dried suds that hadn’t gone down the drain this morning.
He turned off the light and looked in the mirror. A shape that vaguely resembled a human torso.
He went to bed fitting into a depression that fit what he saw in the mirror, and he slept.
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