The second beer went down even smoother than the first. He had quite a few more to go, but he’d gotten an early start and he’d be nice and unconscious before sundown. It was funny, really. He’d suffered through all this misery, and the solution was right here in a couple of six-packs of cheap beer.
He drank until he was comfortably buzzed, and then he drank some more.
“I understand that there are extenuating circumstances, but this is the newspaper business. No-shows are just not acceptable.”
Toby shrugged. “Am I fired?”
“You should take a leave of absence, until you get things sorted out.”
“Paid leave?”
“I can’t do that.”
“Then take this job, and twist it right up your ass. Just right up in there, all the way.”
“I think you should leave now.”
“Yeah, that’s probably not such a bad idea.”
“Hey, kiddo, how’s it going?”
“I miss you, Daddy.”
“I miss you, too, Hannah. Are you taking care of your brother?”
“He’s stupid.”
“Well, so are lots of people. You’re speaking to one of them right now. Did you do anything fun today?”
“Toby?” It was Sarah.
“I wasn’t done talking to her.”
“She has to get ready for bed.”
“Come on, Sarah, it’s not like I can feed her to a fucking monster over the telephone. I don’t even know where you guys are.”
“We’ll try to call you next week.”
Dial tone.
Toby wanted to throw the telephone to the floor and stomp on it until it was reduced to plastic powder, but he really couldn’t afford to buy a new one.
“Oh, yeah, I’m rockin’ now,” Toby told Owen. “I’m working at the fac-to-ry. Monkey work. You wouldn’t believe the crap that a grown man will do for eight hours a day. Hour two, I want to put a bullet in my head. Hour three, I want to put a bullet in everyone else’s head. Hour four, I just sort of space out. I can still do the job, though. I don’t know why they don’t have a robot do it. Probably because even a robot would go crazy doing that for eight hours a day-it would take out a gun and blow its microchips out of its head. I did draw a cartoon today, though. Started to draw one, at least. It was a piece of shit so I threw it away. Christ, my head hurts.”