Pages

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

the loner


by nick nelson



dusk, at the edge of a small city in north america.

a man walks down a sidewalk.

the sidewalk is old, worn and cracked.

it is made of cement manufactured many years ago in cabot pennsylvania.

the man is wearing faded chino pants, made in taiwan, a blue denim shirt made in south africa, a green jacket made in korea, and worn brown shoes made in india.

he has a wallet in his pocket made in egypt.

there are four one dollar bills in the wallet.

three of the bills were printed in fort worth texas, and the fourth in washington d c.

the man is hungry.

he sees a small old fashioned diner at the end of the street.

the diner has a cement base. the diner was built a year after the street was laid down, and the cement is from the same manufacturer in cabot pennsylvania that provided the cement for the sidewalk.

the diner was built by the j j norris construction company, long since defunct.

the fixtures in the diner, except for the stove and refrigerator, were installed when it was built.

the stove was manufactured in bangladore, the refrigerator in china.

the man enters the diner. it is empty except for a young woman behind the counter.

she is wearing a plain red t shirt made in taiwan, and faded blue jeans made .in vietnam. the jeans are faded. she purchased the blue jeans two years ago, when she was ten pounds lighter.

the young woman does not like her job, or the man who owns the diner. she does not make small talk with the customers unless she has to.

the man orders coffee and a piece of blueberry pie. he is conscious of the waitress’s mildly contemptuous gaze, and avoids it.

the coffee is made from beans from bolivia. the half and half he stirs into it was processed in binghamton new york, and the sugar packets he opens and pours into the coffee are from worcester massachusetts.

the blueberry pie, like the two one dollar bills he uses to pay for the pie and coffee, was manufactured in fort worth texas.

the coffee, half and half, sugar packets, and pie were all delivered to the diner by the jenkins distributing company, in a truck assembled in japan from parts manufactured in pakistan, australia, turkmenistan, china, and russia, among other places.

the man finishes the pie and coffee, which he paid for in advance, and gets up and leaves without saying good bye to the waitress or leaving a tip.

outside, darkness has fallen, and there is a threat of rain in the air.

the darkness is caused by the earth’s rotation around the sun.

the rain, if it does arrive , will be caused by a low pressure system moving west.

the man walks toward the interstate highway, which he will walk across to get to the next town.

alone.



No comments: