Daniel’s watch began to beep, signaling him that it was 4:25 PM. Almost time for him to start to clean off his office desk to make room for Mervin, the night manager, to put his things. At 5:03 Mervin walked in the front door.
“Sorry I’m a bit late Daniel. Traffic was terrible. There were at least four fire engines heading up 3rd and I had to pull over for each of em’. How’d we make out today?”
“Really? I wonder where the fire is. Hopefully nothing too extreme. We did alright, not bad for a Tuesday.”
“Great! Well I better get to work. Those damn busboys can’t do anything on their own. See you tomorrow.”
“Catch ya on, the later”
Every time Daniel tried to act cool around Merv it always came out wrong and he sounded like an idiot. He reprimanded himself under his breath.
“Catch ya on the later? What the hell Daniel, just say goodbye. That would do fine.”
The way back from the diner was always more stressful than the way there. Everyone in the city had just got off work. The sidewalk was swarming with average Joes, all eager to get home or to a bar, anywhere but where they were coming from. Daniel liked his job and the only reason he found it easy to leave at the end of the day was because he had his apartment to return to. It was perfect. Perfect in every way. Well, perfect for Daniel that is. Nothing made him happier than being in his home.
As he was crossing 50th he saw some smoke coming from the general area of his apartment. Daniel began to sprint, knocking people out of the way without apologizing. When he turned the corner at 57th he just about fainted. The windows of his apartment were spewing dense clouds of pitch black smoke; firefighters were spraying their hoses through the windows trying desperately to extinguish the flames. All Daniel could think about was the toaster. “Fuck! This is all my fault! I forgot to unplug the god damn toaster!”
Daniel sat on the sidewalk destroying himself mentally for an hour before he was allowed to enter what was once his home. Everything was a shade of black or gray. There were no remains of his toaster, or his color coordinated wardrobe, and his wonder bread was definitely gone.
A police officer approached him.
“Do you have anywhere you can stay, sir?”
Daniel stopped to think for a moment.
“No, I guess I don’t… I suppose I’ll just stay in a hotel until I can figure something out.”
Daniel checked into a Best Western a few hours later. It was the closest hotel he could find to the Comfort Diner. In fact, it was almost twice as close as his apartment was, only six blocks away.
Daniel was appalled as he opened the door to room 114. The air in the room wasn’t fresh and the thermostat was set about 10⁰ too cold. Daniel realized that the windows had been sealed shut, the reasons for which he could not imagine. The bathroom was lit by a fluorescent ceiling fixture that gave the room unnatural greenish tint. The small hair dryer was placed only a few feet away from the combination bathtub shower, just waiting to fall in while he was bathing. And worst of all, the shampoos and conditioners were in tiny, single serving bottles. Before the tragedy, Daniel used buy a half gallon of generic shampoo in a pumptop bottle every Friday. The soap was terrible too, aside from being in bar-form, it was tiny. Daniel couldn’t stop imagining himself dropping the bar and in an attempt to pick it up, slipping and falling on his head, instantly killing him. After inspecting the bathroom Daniel sat down on the end of the queen sized, fifteen year old mattress, with a flower patterned sand paper-esque bedspread and turned on the TV. The remote controls buttons didn’t make sense. The channel buttons were at the top of the remote, just out of reach of his thumb and the mute button was at the bottom. After accidentally muting the hotel welcome channel on and off four times he switched to channel 8, Court TV. Daniel always watched Court TV when he was stressed. It reminded him of his childhood, sitting with his grandma who always talked about how much she wanted to marry Judge Wapner. He was a man of the law, not like Daniel’s “good for nothin’, stealin’, cheatin’, drinkin’ grandfather.” At nine o’clock Daniel peeled back the sandpaper bedspread and folded the sponge pillow in half to get a little more support for his neck.
Daniel knew he could not stay at the Best Western for long. Aside from all of the defects of the room, it was also $130 a night. Daniel actually had enough money to stay at the hotel for some time but he always tried his best not to spend more than $80 on any one thing.
While Daniel was still in shock over the loss of his apartment, he couldn’t help but notice that his walk to work that morning was unusually pleasant. He was 6 blocks closer to his work, exactly 50% shorter. Daniel did not have to walk past the homeless man and there were far fewer streets to cross. He entered the diner a few minutes ahead of time, setup his desk and went out to the dining room as usual. Once again, the operation of the restaurant calmed Daniel. At least something in his life was still in order.
“Hey Geoff, How are yah?”
“Daniel! Guess what?! You know that big case I’ve been workin’ lately?”
“Oh yah, the one with the plastic surgeon and the woman with the messed up...”
“Yah that one. Well we won. Lady’s getting a HUGE settlement and guess who’s getting 10% of that pie?”
“Wow Geoff! That’s great”
“Yah I’m pretty happy with it, anyway how are you doin’ Daniel?
“Actually I’ve got a crazy story for you, you’re not gonna believe this but”
“You know what Daniel hold that thought, my car just got out of the detailers and if I let it sit out in the sun like that its gonna dull the paint. I’ll see you tomorrow.
“Yah, tomorrow. Congratulations again!”
Geoff only motioned goodbye with his right hand as he stuffed the remains of his jelly filled donut in his mouth on his way out the door.
“Bob’s not here today” said James “he told me they were pouring concrete this morning and he had to be there earlier than usual.”
“Oh that’s too bad, how are the pancakes this morning?”
“Absolutely perfect, there aren’t any berries within an inch of another. Bravo.”
“Glad you like em’”
“How are you today Danny?”
“Well, it’s funny you should ask James. The last thirteen and a half hours have been rough.”
“How So?”
“Well, I returned home after work yesterday to find my apartment on fire.”
“Oh my goodness Danny that’s terrible! What happened?”
“The fire department hasn’t finished the investigation yet but I know what started it.”
“What was it? Why don’t you tell the fire department?”
“I forgot to unplug my toaster before I left my apartment and they will think I’m a total doofus if I tell them it was my fault all along.”
“Danny that sounds a little ridiculous, I mean, what are the odds that your toaster malfunctioned and actually started a fire.”
“James did you know that last year alone there were 13 fires in America that were traced back to a toaster malfunction?”
“Jeez that’s a lot; I’m sorry Danny I didn’t mean to belittle your problems. Where are you going to stay?”
“Right now I’m staying at the best western up on 51st but the place is disgusting and way overpriced, I’m gonna have to find somewhere else to stay.”
“Well do you have any relatives in the city you could stay with?
“Not in the city, the closest is my Aunt Audrey and she lives up in Buffalo.”
“Hey! You should stay at my apartment! I have a sofa-bed in my living room and extra sheets and a pillow and you can take the bus to the diner with me every morning when you come to work!”
“Oh no James I really don’t think…”
“Come on, what else are you gonna do, I know what all the hotels around here are like and they aren’t much different from that Best Western up the street.”
As much as Daniel hated the idea of living with James, he was right. He really had nowhere else to go. He would just have to put up with his craziness until his insurance policy came through.
“You should come by after you get off work and bring your stuff. Its been forever since I’ve had guests. Ill try to clean the place up a little bit. This is gonna be so fun!”
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