Late Night at Don's Donuts
by @d-simpson
It's two in the morning
and we find Sam still
awake, staring at the ceiling
of his cramped studio apartment.
Overhead, thumps can be heard
along with moans of squelched desire.
He rolls out of bed, gets dressed,
and begins his evening perambulations.
Don's Donuts is his destination.
Although he doesn't much
care for fried sugar bread,
it's the only place open.
He buys a few maple bars
and takes a seat at a bench,
near his overly-intoxicated peers.
The smell of whiskey and puke
permeate the establishment,
and Sam ponders why he doesn't
succumb to the same alcoholism.
Hey, Sam.
A voice registers
in his conscious attention.
He looks left.
He looks right.
He looks up.
He looks down.
No one is paying him any mind.
Besides, he doesn't recognize
the faces otherwise.
Yeah, Sam. It's me.
The same borderline authoritative
tone echoes over the drone
of the inebriated crowd.
Sam furrows his brow
and lifts the paper plate.
A small, luminous man
about the size of Sam's thumb
sits cross-legged under the plate.
He grins and golden emanations
cascade and unfurl from his
long (relatively), tied-up hair.
*It's okay, Sam. You're doing fine.
Everybody likes you more
than you think they do.
You need to stop being so hard on yourself.
I'm just here to give you some
encouragement. You've seemed
a little down in the dumps
these past few weeks.
Listen, man, I know you've had it rough,
but suffering isn't a pissing contest.
This, too, will pass.
And you'll be a better person for it.
Then maybe you can help people who
are going through the same problems.
That's all you really can do, man.
Just help the people you're around.*
Sam stands up which sends the chair
skidding across the floor into an
adjacent table. He flings the paper plate
(which still has a donut-and-a-half!)
against the window and screams
in a manner which contradicts
his timid demeanor:
"Who are you? Get out of my head!"
A police officer who, before this incident,
was finishing his third bear claw of the evening
observes the outburst and intervenes.
"Say, are you okay?" The officer puts
his hand on Sam's shoulder.
"What're you on tonight?"
The officer had seen a few
Drug War soldiers
exhibit similar collapses.
Sam feels threatened, he pushes
the officer out of the way
and hurries out the door
and down the street.
The officer follows in pursuit
and shoots his taser into
Sam's back. The electric
shock causes his heart's
circuitry to become irreparably
confused. He drops to the ground,
dead as the day before conception.