The Nerve of Some People

“I can’t believe that child has the nerve to be so underdressed this time of year! As if he can’t feel that cold wind coming in from the ocean. Here I am, in a wool sweater and a coat like a decent, normal human woman and that young man hasn’t anything more than a flannel shirt and…oh…disgraceful…jeans on. I hope that his parents don’t catch the chill that he’ll be returning home with soon.

Well, time I was heading back. Macy and Mitzi will be letting me know I was late for din-din. Bless their furry little selves. At least they can stay warm with their fur coats. I just hope my landlord doesn’t turn the heat off again. I still feel so cold.”

“Well, hello! Just when I thought this beach trip was going to be a snooze-fest, this fine piece of man just walked onto the sand. He looks like he could be buff and fine-looking under all that flannel. Wonder if he’s hooked up with somebody. With my luck, probably a wife or girlfriend wondering where he’s been all day. If I had the luck I wished, it would be me taking him on the sand and making him consider leaving them for the other side of the tracks.

 That could give mom even more reasons to cut me off, kick me out and end up here looking at the waves, wishing I had the nerve to just walk into them. But then this hot piece walks by and now I think that I’ll be okay. Now if only I had the nerve to go up to him and ask him to take me there on the cool, wet sand and make me forget that I no longer have a family.”

“No sign of a weapon. His stride doesn’t seem to indicate any hostility. No facial expression of hiding something. Still, for safety’s sake, maybe I should question him. See if he might know anything about that jewelry robbery a few weeks ago. A guy dressed like that. Keeping himself plain, out of sight, unremarkable. Could be a suspect. 

Damn it. Kenna keeps saying that I’m overly suspicious. So does Captain Foreman. I know that I had to take those two young punks into custody. They were outside a liquor store. They had to have been up to no good. They had to. I repeated that over and over to Kenna and the Captain. And internal investigations. And.. Fine. Let somebody else collar him. I guess that I’ll follow Kenna’s advice and go find some way to relax. I wished that she was still home when I got there.”

“Oh dear. He’s all by himself. It’s nice enough out and he’s dressed appropriately, but he has no one to hold hands with, share dreams with, laugh with. Poor guy. Maybe he’s alone because he’s not appreciated enough and he left his partner or they left him after an argument. Or maybe he’s sick and his family won’t take care of him. It’s really unfair for somebody like him to be alone. For anybody. Including me. I couldn’t go talk to him. I’d hate to bother him. He’d rather be alone, I’m sure. Many of us would rather be alone. Or just need to be alone. Far away from them. From him too. It’s his fault, I bet. It takes two to tango. He should just stay there, all alone. 

Brrr. That draft came in quick. I probably should get back to try and get the furnace kicked on again. I’d usually ask that nice-looking young guy at the gas company, but I bet he would rather be left alone. I don’t know how else I could get the furnace set up by myself.”

“The beach got crowded faster than I thought. Wonder where all these people came from?” Nathaniel shrugged his shoulders, cramming his hands down his jeans pockets further and began heading back to the jeep over the hill. “The sun is going down, too. I’m glad that I took the doc’s advice to go walk on this beach after the hell day that I had at work. Maybe Nadine was right about just leaving the job behind for a few minutes and spending a little time in the quiet. I guess that I’d better get back. I hate driving on the twisted roads through the hills here. He noticed the odd arrangement of people glancing his way. Looking him up and down like they were reading him. Like a book or a short story or some character outline.

“Oh for crying out loud! Maybe Gene was right, I can’t put two words together decently anymore. Maybe I have lost my touch!” Marvin shoved himself back from the table, the chair legs screaming at him, adding to the already damaged tiles. He got up, looking for more coffee, but the remainder of the mornings’ pot started to congeal in the bottom. The sun had actually been coming down in the time since the auto-warmer went off, so the elixir of life he brewed went dead again. He will probably wait until the next morning to clean it and make a new pot while he starts his daily frustration-fest.

“Okay, fine. I know the routine.” He slapped the chipped pot back onto the over-taxed warmer. Like his patience, the coffee maker was on borrowed time. It was all he had since he stopped smoking. “Maybe I should go for a walk on the beach.” He allowed himself a laugh. “I don’t know what to do with this loser. He’s just wasting his time walking alone on the beach, thinking he’s relaxing after a hard day at his lousy stupid job and these other losers are watching him, telling some lame stories to themselves about him. 

No clue. No clue at all what he’s really like. Maybe he should just tell him the truth. He did rob that jewelry store. Maybe he is lonely as hell. Maybe he would turn gay enough to have his way with that guy on the sand….Maybe…Oh, why am I doing this to myself again?!”

The black arrow moved to the “File” tab, hovering, like it was waiting for cargo. It moved down the stack of options and Marvin’s finger pressed “Send to Trash”.

*Are you sure?*

“Phhht. Of course I’m sure. Damn AI”

*Yes*

The lines ran across the box in the center of the screen. Then, that day’s work was gone. Marvin didn’t bother with a redundant back-up for the mess he apparently made. He sighed and sent a text to Gene telling him that he would need more time and coffee. There’ll be other characters, other plots. It’s not like they’re real people. He didn’t need them anyway.