in the night, part 2

by nick nelson

part 2 of 2

bradley johanson woke up. he looked up at the ceiling and thought, something really good is going to happen to me today. bradley was born in carthage missouri in the early years of the 21st century. he was the only child of judy, a single mother who was herself the only child of a single mother, janelle, who was one of the few survivors of a small community in north dakota described by local media as a “cult”, most of whose other members had died of a mysterious illness which spread through them during a severe winter. bradley was an awkward child who did not make friends and was devoted to his mother and grandmother and wanted to make them proud of him. he did poorly in school. judy tried to help him with his homework but was not very effective at it. when he was not in school or trying to do his homework, bradley watched television - network television, as the small family could not afford cable. he did not care much for the religious shows judy and janelle watched - although he never complained when they were on - and liked the movies occasionally screened, especially the wizard of oz, and star wars and srar trek movies. bradley daydreamed of writing screenplays for such movies and making large amounts of money, but had no clear idea about how to go about doing so. judy and janelle died within three months of each other. bradley left high school without graduating and found work as an uber driver. on an impulse, he moved to a larger city closer to a coast, and continued with uber in his new surroundings. on the day bradley woke up and felt something really good as going to happen to him, he put in an uneventful day of driving, and when the sun went down he made his way to a small burger king a block from his apartment. it was more crowded than usual, but he found a small unoccupied table for two by the window and sat down at it with his bacon cheeseburger and fries and iced tea. ll an ordinary looking white man about his own age, whom bradley thought looked familiar but whom he had never spoken to, appeared. mind if i sit here? it is kind of crowded. no, go ahead. the man sat down with his spicy crispy chicken sandwich and lemonade. neither of them spoke, but looked out the window as they ate and night completed its fall. bradley finished his bacon cheeseburger and tossed half his fries in the trash along with his wrapper and paper cup and and then left and went home to his apartment. it was eight thirty. the day had three and a half hours left. he had forgotten his feeling in the morning that something really good was going to happen to him. bradley watched “smooth jazz for lovers” for two hours on you tube and went to bed and fell asleep immediately. * when the guy he thought looked a little bit like himself was gone, pete took his time finishing his spicy crispy chicken sandwich. then he got up and left, leaving his tray and wrapper and naokins and paper cup on the table. it was a little before nine o’clock. he would have liked to go to a strip club, but decided to save his money and go to a sports bar on the next block instead. he did not see anybody in the sports bar he knew. he took a seat at the bar in front of a big screen showing a baseball game between the los angeles angels and the los angeles dodgers, with ohtani pitching against clayton kershaw. the dodgers knocked ohtani ot of the game and went ahead by six runs in the fifth inning. pete was not a fan of either team, and he had not bet on the game and now it was too late. he suddenly remembered getting up in the morning and feeling something terrible was going to happen to him. he had totally forgotten about it during the day when he was driving around. there was an hour and forty five minutes left in the day. what could happen? the sandwich at burger king had not really filled him up. he was trying to lose weight, but the food at the bar was not half bad as long as you made safe choices. he ordered a cheeseburger.