Chapter one
It was a long day at work, as usual. Dan's boss had once again anounnced to him that he would be staying at his job for volunteer overtime, although he had a date planned with Jenn from accounting. By the time he had gotten out, the snow had already started coming down, just like the meteorologist said it would. But that was at 12PM, and now its 2AM. Thick inches piled on top of each other, creating a barrier of white fluff that blocked eyes from seeing the true ground. It could have been great, if he hadn't have worked for 17 hours today. To make it worse, taxes had taken more than half of his hard money, giving him just enough to last the rest of the two weeks remaining in this month.
Dan opened the door to his apartment, tapping his shoes against the wall to remove the snow lodged in his treads. He really needs a car, but with the type of income he has now, its unlikely he'll even afford a motor scooter. Where DOES all his money go? Turning on the heater and walking past the light switch, flicking it in the process, he grabbed an open box of cereal laying on the carpet floor. As he poured a bowl of cereal and milk, he turned the TV on to some mediocre soap opra on TV. Only things like this come on when nobody is awake. He walked over to the answering machine and noticed a large numbers of messages awaiting him. Actually, there were 70 messages, the cap for this machine. Shrugging it off, he unplugged it and plopped in the only couch he had, contributed by a good friend. Flicking channels, the phone started ringing. At first he didn't get up. Why shouldn't he? Hes been working all day and deserved a rest. But after the seventh time, he flailed his arms over to the reciever, and picked the phone up.
"Hello?" said Dan with a voice that sounding like he just got hit by a car. But while he expected a telemarketer with some sleek new product, he recieved sobs. "D-D-Dan...Is this you?" "Mom? MOM? Why are you crying? What happened? Did you and Dad have a fight?" Dan then recieved more sobs, with a couple of choking noises and coughs. He wasn't getting the information he wanted fast enough. His Mom crying was like him losing $20. The sobbing then faded, and then was no more. A more controlled voice came over the phone, it sounded like she had calmed down. Once again he asked "Whats wrong?" His Mom replied with a saddened voice. "Have you been watching the news?" "Well, no. I've been at work all day. I just turned the TV on for the first time in 18 hours" he replied. His started her sobs back up, but caught herself and stopped before it got out of hand again. "I think it would be better off if we both never recieved this news, but there was a car crash today by the shopping center. They say a drunk was behind the wheel and killed 5 people in the accident."
Dan released a sigh. This is all? "Mom, I wouldn't expect you to be crying over a bunch of strangers, was it somebody you knew?" "More or less" "Then who was it? Silence. Dan's patience was slowly diminishing. "Mom. Who was it"
"Your father and grandfather."
By this time, the cereal bowl was on the floor, with all its contents spread across the burgundy carpet. He answered his Mom back with hanging up the phone. Dan walked over to the window and opened the white shades, revealing a beautiful scene you could only see once in a lifetime. A full moon so close you'd think you could touch it. There were little to no clouds, with a snall amount of snowflakes drifting from the sky. With a dark-blue sky to comment it all, Dan felt that it was nature playing a cruel prank on him. He then noticed he was crying.
After about a minute of thinking how this could have happened, he looked at the mail and found bills, bills, advertisments, bills, and a letter from his job. In it contained a check and a letter, in which he opened slowly at the thought of him being promoted. Yeah, it was finally his time. After all those weeks of being treated like trash, it was his time to shine. He then skimmed though the words, anxiously looking for the words that would lead him to his private cubile on the 20th floor.
He was fired.
Not that it could make things worse, but he noticed an eviction notice on the door, saying he had one week to remove all his belongings from the premises. Suddenly, Dan let out a loud laugh. He was laughing. He was laughing hard. He had to laugh, for if he didn't, he would have cried, putting himself into a position of suicide. It was the only way he could let his anger, frustration, grief, and other feelings out without putting him into a state of depression like no other. Why did this all happen? It had to be a bad joke. Nothing this bad could happen to one person in 10 minutes. It had to be a dream. Yeah thats it, it WAS a dream. He then got up and looked out the window once more, gazing at the moon with its hypnotic appearance.
A snowlit dream...
Chapter one end.
