July 2
2:10
PM
We see Toxic
walking on a sidewalk in San Francisco, California. He appears to be smoking a
cigarette. Looking into his eyes, you can see that he is tired. Many homeless
people sit on the sidewalks, becoming a part of the city… they are like scenery,
only opening their mouths to ask for money. Toxic ignores them. He wonders if
they think he has money to give them. Of course he doesn’t. He knows that he
could soon enough wind up like one of these homeless people… he could become
part of the city… just scenery, only opening his mouth for money. He had no
money. He had no job. An apartment with some cheap furniture is all he had. It
troubled him, how he could become homeless so easily. He could so easily become
scenery… something that people stopped to look at, to stare at in wonder. He
thought about how so much was being done to fix Alcatraz… but not much was being
done to fix up the streets of San Francisco. They would stay there like scenery…
as unmovable as the cement beneath them. Toxic looked across the street and saw
a homeless man holding a knife and robbing another man. He took his wallet and
ran away with it. Toxic took a long drag on his cigarette and then dropped it on
the ground.
5:30
PM
We see Toxic walk into a
restaurant and look around for someone. A man sitting at a table calls out to
him. Toxic walks over to the table and sits down. Now we have a better view of
the other man sitting at the table, and we can see that he is a somewhat chubby
man. He is almost bald like Toxic, but he still has some gray hair on his
head.
“Hi Rob,” the man with
the gray hair says.
“Hi. So what is it that
you want?”
“Hey I’m your father. I
want to see my son every once in a while. You could probably use some food in
your stomach anyway.”
“No, I’m
fine.”
“Don’t be
ridiculous.”
Neither of them say
anything for a minute or two before the waitress comes to the table. Toxic (or
Rob) asks for a cup of coffee and his father orders a cheese omelet and coffee.
The waitress says their orders will be ready soon and leaves. Toxic takes this
time to look around the restaurant. Not too many people are here
today.
“So, Rob, how’s it going
with you? How’s the job at the super market
going?”
“They fired
me.”
“Oh… Well where do you work
now?”
“No where, right now. I
might get another job; I just have to tryout first. I doubt I’ll get the job,
though.”
“What’s the
job?”
“Pro
wrestling.”
“What?”
“Pro
wrestling.”
“Don’t be
ridiculous.”
“Stop.”
“Pro wrestling? That’s
fake.”
“So what? I’ve done some
backyard wrestling.”
“What?”
The waiter comes back to
the table holding two cups of coffee. She sets them down on the table and walks
away.
“I don’t see what’s
wrong with wrestling,” says Toxic as he takes a sip of his coffee. “Damn, this
coffee’s hot.”
“It’s not wrestling,
it’s PRO wrestling.”
“SO?”
“It’s just plain
gay.”
“Gay? The way I see it,
it’s an art form.”
Toxic’s father
laughs.
“An art form… That’s the
craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Would you rather I had
no money?”
“You’re an embarrassment
either way.”
Toxic’s mouth drops
open. He couldn’t believe what his father just said. He picked up the coffee and
spilled it on his father’s chest. He then knocks over his father’s coffee so it
spills on his lap. His father is screaming in pain as Toxic walks out of the
restaurant.
July
13
11:30
AM
Toxic is at his
apartment, sitting on his cheap old couch, smoking a cigarette. The light blue
couch has tons of rips and stains on it. On the coffee table in front of Toxic
there are a lot of unpaid bills. Also on the coffee table is an ashtray with
hundreds of used cigarettes lying in it. The sound of a phone ringing breaks the
silence. Toxic walks into the kitchen and picks it
up.
“Who is
it?”
“Oh, hey Mr.
Dobczyk.”
“Ok,
Dan.”
“Yeah I’m gonna show up
on Tuesday.”
“I
know.”
“Alright,
bye.”
Toxic puts the phone
back and sits back down on the couch. He had to do a good job in this match… He
glances at all of the unpaid bills on the coffee table. What would he do if he
couldn’t pay for his apartment anymore? He had to get a job in the HWA or he’d
be living on the streets. It was kind of funny, how it all came down to
this.