PART 2

TUESDAY MORNING:
After taking a shower and eating breakfast, Oliver got in his truck and started driving to work. It was his first day on the job and he wanted to make a good impression. He put on a sky blue Polo shirt and a paid of black business casual pants. He arrived to the site at 8:45 pm where he sat in the Lobby until Ms. Cara came and escorted him inside. "Good morning"
"Good Morning" he responded.
"This will be your work station, this is Claudia and she’ll walk you through a bit of what you’ll be doing. Today you’re going to be helping file"
"Hello"-he was greeted by a young woman with brown hair with blonde highlights. Her complexion was that of a light brown, she appeared to be about 5'5 in height and approximately 130 in weight.
"Hi, Oliver"-In an attempt to make small talk she asked him how he ended up applying for the job.
"Got a degree in Sociology and it’s been kind of tough without a masters. I did Disaster Recovery work for a little over two years and was laid off from the last project"
"Sociology? That was my minor. I majored in English Education. The certification exam is beating me down."
"I’m actually trying to start graduate school in the spring of 2019. I’m looking at Public Administration. In my interview actually, I was asked why I was drawn to this job. I majored in Sociology w/ the intent of going right to getting my MSW. I was going to take a year off. The storm hit. I worked for FEMA for a year. Normally, these jobs last 4 months, but they extended it. That ended, I was a part of a disaster recovery project that was supposed to last three years, however I was laid off after a year. Found another one that was going on, it was a housing assistance project and that one was a joke. I was fired out of the blue, no write ups, no nothing. Being at-will no explanation was required. I do little odd jobs here and there."
"I’m working a customer service job in the evenings, actually"
[  "Customer Service"? No ma'am.]
Continuting to file paperwork, he was told that they were getting ready for an annual event at the mall. It would be a in a couple of weeks. "Ms. Cara will tell you more about it in your meeting with her later on today. But it’s an event they do every year to promote the services of the agency"
"My brother is autistic. High Functioning"
"We work with autistic children of all levels".
As time went by he took his lunch. He took lunch for about an hour arriving back to work just in time for his 1:00 pm meeting with the director. They went over some of what he would be doing, the expectations of behavior at work and the rules on lunch.

He finished out the rest of his shift getting off 3:00 pm when he decided to call his mother.

On his way home, he decided to make a quick stop to a nearby convenicne store and purchase a bottle of grey goose and a bag of ice to go with the bottle of cranberry juice that he had in his refrigerator. He didn’t have much of an appetite, so the plan was to drink himself to sleep. At times he found himself drinking in order to keep from crying. He arrived at his house and as he was getting ready to fix the concoction, Damon texted him.

He looked over at his phone and said "I’ll get back w/ him later". Little did he know that Damon would call him shortly afterwards. He let the phone ring three times before he picked up.

But he didn't take a shower right away. He drank half of the bottle of liquor before laying in the middle of the bed. Looking at the clock he decided to make the phone call.
"Negro, you two hours late. Where you been?"
"Drunk"
"Damn bruh"
He paused and said "Man, I think I need to go back to work.""You don’t like working for your uncle?"
"I wanna keep that, I’m talking about a day job."
"Doing what?"
"Merchandising stores maybe, DRIVELINE is hiring. Plus Florida always got road work going on".
"This is Miami, jump on another drug cartel?"
"Fuck that, after witnessing my older brother’s murder when he tried to leave, Never again"
"you willing to ditch the SSA?"
"Yeah!" Damon said as he scoffed. "It’s a joke. The VA is okay, but the Social Security is a joke. My SNAP is a ripoff. I can’t even buy milk and eggs with that shit. If I was a woman with 7 or 8 kids, that’d be a whole other story"
Oliver had to laugh for a minute. "I’m laughing with your not at you just so you know" He cut the conversation short by stating that he was getting ready for the morning.
"Goodnight"
Damon sat up for a bit looking for odd jobs online when he came across an ad. "Oh damn, I gotta call Oliver in the AM" He then had a flashback to him leaving a hotel following an event.  He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and graphic t-shirt with a pair of headphones.
"$900 in one night? Not a bad way to spend time off right?" He asked his army mate.

"Right! Two weeks before we head to Germany, but this weekend we are going to get toasted"

"Man, so this is Miami? The women. There’s such variation"

"Look my brotha, you don’t need to be making no baby, you about to be deployed in two weeks. I saw you eyeballing that girl. You might not ever even see her again"
He wondered where his army buddy was at. If he was even still alive. After his flashback, he decided to go to bed.
PART THREE TO FOLLOW
STORY SYNOPSIS
CHARACTERS