It was a day like any other for me. Slow. Boring. Usual. The kitchen garden needs to be watered today. Janice, my 3 year old Labrador is surprisingly quiet and nowhere to be seen. Which can only mean that my garden has been mauled, and the culprit is keeping away from me.
I get out of my bed thinking about the day ahead of me. While cleaning my teeth, I look at myself in the mirror. A lot has changed over the last one year. Let me take you to a flashback…
June 2012, New York – I, Samuel Ray David, was a smart and hardworking marketing guy in the fast growing petroleum sector. I was young and ambitious, which in corporate lingo gets translated as quick promotions and big paychecks. Needless to say, I was hungry for more. If my colleagues are punching 16 hours a day, I did 18. Any target that the firm gave, I would work to get the double of it. And I was good. The management had already seen the making of a long and illustrous career in me, and were going that extra mile to keep me happy. Life would only get better from here, is what I thought. But things didn’t work that way.
I was feeling empty from inside. It was as if all my emotions have been drained out of me. I had what many would die for. I knew for once where I would be ten years from now. And sadly that picture of a 36 year old me, was killing me from inside. I was dying to shout and cry, but tears would just not come out of my eyes! And that is when I realized that this is not it. What happened in the next 3 days changed my life forever and brings me to this day here.
May 2013, Anoka County, Minnesota – While staring at myself in the mirror, I didn’t realize that I was long done cleaning my teeth. I cleaned myself up, got ready and went down to the living room of my farmhouse. It was time to go to work. I am a history teacher in the local high school. I called Janice a few times, but she didn’t show herself up. I went to my kitchen garden. The carrot plants uprooted and destroyed. I think I know who did it. Smiling, I went back inside, thinking I will take care of this once I get back from work.
Just then a red Ford came and parked itself outside my porch. It was Phil’s car. Phil was my friend and colleague who was the music teacher in the same school. We travel together to work. “Mornin’ pal! Ready to hit the road?”, asked Phil. “Mornin’ Phil. Let’s go.”
To be continued…
This is the first part of a story I’m currently writing. Although I’ve written many stories before, this is the first time I am publishing it.