Fear and Self-loathing (617 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by HendrixDDT<robinson.51.at.wright.edu> (View user info) at 2004-04-19 11:07:11 EDT
Two kinds of people scare me. Far too many of my friends have grown up in white suburbia and feel
the need to lock their doors when a black man walks past their car. Slightly fewer than that, but
still a fair number of people, are afraid of guys with tattoos and bald heads. What all these
people fail to realize, being blinded by their own fear, is that the people they're afraid of have
better things to do than to jack a car or break some random person's legs. Two kinds of people
scare me - only two.
No one had really taken the time to talk to him, and I can't say I blame them. It was strange to
see him living outside a big city, coming to a small town that had only recently evolved from
farming to factories. You expect to see people like this in a city. Every morning, he would make
his rounds to the dumpsters of the local fast food restaurants and dig for what seemed to be
hours, occasionally proving with an empty cheese container or tomato sauce can that one man's
trash is truly another's treasure. Luckily for him, all the restaurants in town had cropped up in
a cluster around the highway exit ramp that seemed to breathe life into the towns bustling
economy - his worn out Velcro shoes wouldn't have been able to take much more walking.
To call him a vagabond would be too harsh, not to mention technically inaccurate. Once a week,
I'd pull a single package out of the white translucent container sitting to my left and put it in
his mailbox. At first, I thought it was a little strange, but as time waned, I got used to the
idea. Each week, as I touched the padded envelope, I was aware that its contained nothing more
than a stack of money, but it was never worth the effort to report it to my superiors.
I'm pretty sure I was the only one in town, save a couple people who worked down in the municipal
office, who actually knew that the relatively unnoticed man who spent his time searching through
dumpsters owned the most expensive house in Brookville. This was the kind of place that inspired
ghost stories and urban legends, but since it had been built a few hundred yards off the road
behind a thickly wooded front yard, very few had actually seen the place. I think he liked it
that way.
I'm sure people wondered what he did with the trash he picked up. Every morning he would collect
at least an armful and carry it back to wherever it was that he came from. Every morning ends
today. With no friends, no family, and no one to love, life just isn't worth living any more.
Like I said, there are two kinds of people that scare me: those with nothing left to lose,
and those that have enough to lose it and not notice. I guess they'll start to wonder when I
don't show up for work today to make my daily rounds. Maybe they'll send someone else to do my
route. After a couple of days, I'm sure they'll send a sheriff out to look for me, and maybe that
person will find this letter. There are two kinds of people that I'm afraid of.
I'm both.
User Reviews
Submitted by Dead_0hi0_Sky (user info) at 2004-04-19 17:17:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
awesome. best stuff ive read in a long time.
Submitted by NotApologizing (user info) at 2004-04-19 17:07:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I like it too. There are several kinds of people who scare me, but none more so than bee keepers. I'm afraid they'll send swarms of bees after me and i've no pond to hide in and no reed to breathe through.
Submitted by hendrixjrr (user info) at 2004-04-19 16:37:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm glad you guys like it.
Submitted by necrofeelya (user info) at 2004-04-19 13:18:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow, someone posting something not shit. Great work
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2004-04-19 12:08:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good good good, I like it.
Submitted by Magicaddict (user info) at 2004-04-19 12:04:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good sentiment and powerfully put across.
Submitted by jwlmar10 (user info) at 2004-04-19 11:51:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That's pretty interesting. It reminds me of a little day in my life known as my first communion. With wafer in hand, I jumped in the air like a mighty-morphin-power-ranger and uppercutted myself into the third pew. I'm pretty sure that Abe Vigoda would have done things differently. Just watch Saved by the Bell and you will see what I mean.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2004-04-19 11:44:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
kewl
Submitted by iddqd (user info) at 2004-04-19 11:12:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
really nice piece of prose. really nice. really really nice.
a +2 for you, my good man.