It was just past noon and the clouds were clearing from the skies above Manhattan, New York. The sun welcomed many as it signified the near end of winter, within the next hour people would find this the perfect opportunity to leave there cramped apartments and enjoy the sun, it was welcoming to most except for one man who lied on his bed shielding his face from the bright gamma rays that shot through his window. This man was known as Tom Clayes, he had no immediate family and was famous for being the loner at the bar who always ran his tab through the roof. He use to be a saxophone player playing his art in many casino resorts, but after the jazz trend started to fade out he was left jobless and unable to pick up another saxophone job, he became an over-the-phone salesman.
“Ring Ring Ring Ring, Banana Phone!”
Tom didn't want to answer the phone, he had a feeling it was business related, and with his huge hangover he dreaded the idea of answering to another unsatisfied customer complaining about the cheap half-assed products he sold them. Instead he checked the caller id and then muted his cell phone.
“Unknown number my ass.” He mumbled as he got out of bed and slowly stolled to his bathroom. When he got to his bathroom mirror he looked at himself and wondered how he got three months without shaving, he was starting to vaguly look an old hobo.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK
Tom sighed and went to go answer the door, he highly considered the idea of not answering the door at all, but the more he thought about it the less he wanted to be a hobo and the next closes thing to a hobo is a creepy hermit. Swinging open the door he soon panicked once he knew who it was and quickly tried to slam the door only to find a foot blocking the door.
“That’s no way to greet a guest ya know.”
“What were you expecting a parade? After you backstabbed me and scammed me out of my life saving! you’re lucky I haven’t strangled you by now!” Tom angrily pondered as he tried harder to close the door to his rich cousin, Roger Pepsico.
“Oh please, that was just pocket change for an investment I was making. I’ll pay you back in full if you’d like.”
“Your pity pocket change won’t bring back my wife!”
“Your wife left you and it was your fault and you know it!” Roger’s voice grew angry “And sitting on your ass all day mopping around wont bring her back either! None of us even know where Cheerilee is! So don’t blame your problems on me!
“Just listen, I’m not a heartless business tyrant and I truly feel bad for scamming you, just let me in and we can discuss this over some coffee.”
“… Fine.” Tom finally gave in and let the door swing wide open and lead Roger to the living room, and left into the kitchen to brew up some Kuerig single serves and came back with two mismatch novelty mugs he got back at Las Vegas handing one to his cousin.
Roger explained how he was trapped in his car under a pile of rubble from a downed freeway bridge and how we was lucky that his car didn’t get completely crushed from all the weight. And how he was saved by a carpenter who went out his way to get a crew to lift the rubble and that’s when he learned about karma, the carpenter said that he must have really bad karma if a bridge fell on him and that he needed to clean up his act a little.
“And that’s where you come in, I’d like to offer you a job as a security guard at Nuclear Energy Research Lab so that you may start to get back on your feet.”
Tom was shocked by just how ridiculous and far out his story sounded, also he never really saw himself as guard material, but if his story was true he would feel bad for rejecting his offer, he then thought how badly he needed something to do before he died of boredom. The offer just sounded to good to be true from his perspective.
“Hello Tom? You going to say something?”
Tom reeled himself out of the trance he was in and took a small sip of the coffee he almost forgot was in him grasp.
I’ll take the job, but only if I get well above minimum wage, I have unrestricted overtime, I get to choose the hours when I work, and I get to play my saxophone during my break.”
“I think that can be arranged” his cousin replied “I do apologize but I have to be elsewhere. In the mean time here is something to hold you over till your next paycheck.” as he said this he wrote a check and placed it on the coffee table in front of him and set his still full mug on top of the check.
As Roger left Tom scurried over to the coffee table and pulled the mug away to find out how much his cousin left for him.
“Five hundred bucks!” Tom exclaimed out of annoyance, he expected to see his entire life savings back since it was his money in the first place, this could barely pay off his bar tab. Tom almost tore up the check but then common sense started to kick back in, he knew he was going to get the money from roger but not now. Instead of getting angry he cooled himself down and decided to go out for a jog, before he left his apartment his cell phone started ringing again.
“Unknown number again, don’t people leave messages anymore?” he scolded muting his phone as he did earlier.
What Tom didn't know was the reason it was an unknown number and wasn't leaving any messages was because the call wasn't coming from a phone at all. he would soon realize this for himeself