Otto got up every morning and walked to work, his sneakers squeaking like a metronome as he headed down Forest Avenue with a right on Ohio Street, left on Middle and right on Fashion Drive. When he first moved to town a decade ago, he sniggered at the name Fashion Drive with its Kelly-Moore paint shop, Ace hardware store, and Carl’s auto shop.
“Fashion indeed,” he used to say out loud to himself in his New York accent.
He always waved to Benny at the corner newsstand as he turned off Ohio, giving an a-okay sign with his fingers. Why he never stopped to pick up the daily newspaper from Benny was a source of conversation by those who knew Otto’s routine; instead he took an extra five minutes to stop at the Right-Aid drugstore two doors down from the auto shop. And today was no different as Otto pushed open the glass door promptly at 7:50.
Who is that new girl, Otto mutters as he looks over at the counter, expecting to see Alice in the white shirt she always wears. He has been saying, “Good morning Alice” every day for five years, and as the phrase slips out he catches himself before uttering the word Alice. The girl looks up with a youthful smile, her white teeth making her face sparkle.
“And a good morning to you too, sir,” she says.
Otto notices a faint southern twang and the long dark hair pulled into a ponytail and is reminded of his first wife the day they met in the high school cafeteria. He realizes it would have been their seventeenth wedding anniversary today. Overwhelmed by the thought, he walks out of the store, stands on the sidewalk staring into space, and heads back down Fashion Drive towards Benny’s newsstand.
- END -
Note: Exercise starters were auto mechanic for vocation, and he always bought the NY Times in a drugstore rather than the newsstand for unusual behavior.
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1 comment:
Bobbie,
I really like the way the death of Otto's first wife is only alluded to once, subtly, but becomes the subtext that explains all of his behavior. I also like the way you begin with a rather distant third person POV and then move in gradually to Otto's head: it's effective here, in that we get a sense of how the community perceives Otto as well. Make sure that your metaphors ring perfectly true (do metronomes squeak?).
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