#1 (Apartment #402) Beets

The day started with a beat. And a beet. I was going through the motions at my job, shelving food at Plaza Mayor grocery store, and then the beat came to me. I was just walking around making music in my head and I lost myself. “TOM, get back to work!”- my stupid boss Mark yelled at me and snapped me out of my daydream. I can’t stand him, all he does is make me work. I told Mark that he made me forget my beat and that just made him more furious. He doesn’t understand my craft of being a musician. I’ll show him when I blow up. Well Mark got so mad over my beats comment that he decided to punish me and made me re-sort our entire beet display in the market. He probably thought he was being clever or something but he’s not. Sorting the beets didn’t even matter because no one even goes to this dumb market anyway. It’s too expensive for most of the people in Winthrop Place; all of them just go to the discount grocery store right across the street from them. Plus Plaza Mayor is all the way on the wrong side of town, and I mean, this town has seen better days so our market is on the wrong side of the wrong town. We are across the street from an abandoned swimming pool, a haunted apartment building, and an empty lot. Talk about great neighbors bringing great foot traffic by our store! I guess our only respectable neighbor is the little State Farm building down the road but I don't even understand what they do there. It seems to me like that whole insurance thing is a scam. Well I organized all the beets for Mark but, get this, no one even bought a beet today. What a waste of time. I swear everyone in this town is tripping.

I haven’t even gotten to the big drama of the day. It was about 6pm, actually exactly 5:40, I was staring at the clock, counting down time til my 6:00 departure from work when I heard it. A ear-piercing boom coming from right next to my ear, man I hit the deck faster than a rock I was so scared. I didn’t get up for a solid 5 minutes and I ran over to Mark to ask what happened. Mark said he didn’t hear anything but I could have sworn I heard a gunshot. Mark said it was probably just thunder.

I ran home through the rain, trying my best to stay dry. On the way back to Winthrop Place I saw some cops by the abandoned lot, with police tape everywhere. When I see a cop my stomach sinks and I get really nervous but I can’t really explain why. I’m not breaking the law anymore or anything. Well I went up to a cop and asked him if someone got shot but he said they were investigating something else. I told him I heard a gunshot but the cop just ignored me. I think something weird is up with them.

When I got back to room #402 today I was exhausted. I was wet, tired, and hungry so I went to open my refrigerator and get this, empty. It’s a little ironic that I work at a grocery store yet I can’t afford to buy the food there. Well, maybe it isn’t irony, maybe it’s just life. I grabbed a box of dry noodles and some canned tomato sauce and made myself a humble bowl of pasta. I wish I could afford some beet-braised short ribs like my Mom used to cook em. I just got to keep up my work, day by day. I would stay up later and write more but I am just beat.