The Letter

The phone vibrated by his computer. It was his mom. 

"Hi, mom. What's up?" 

"There was a letter for you. I didn't get it because it needed your signature. It's from LA County." 

His heart skipped a beat. "Ok..."

"You need to go pick it up. I told them that you are at work and he said that you can pick it up on Saturday. They're open Saturday." 

His mind raced. There are so many things this could be. A few days ago his mom scanned and emailed a letter from the LA County addressed to him. It said something about money being taken by the government. He assumed it was his college debt, which he knew about; UCLA had just taken possession of his state tax return. But this was different. He had no idea what it was about and he did not want anything to do with it. He's had enough trouble with the law to know it never ends well. 

"Ok, I'll get it next week."

"Is this serious? Are you ok?"

"I don't know, mom. I'm at work right now. Can I talk to you later?"

"Ok. I'll scan the note they left me so you can go pick it up."

"Thanks, mom."

"Ok, bye."

"Bye." He hung up with a million thoughts running through his mind. This could be so many things. Did he do something to violate his probation? That would be the worst thing that could happen right now because it would mean jail time, losing his job, and starting all over again. What could it possibly be? 

He suppresses the need to call everyone he knows for answers. There's no point. No one knows what is going on and the only way for him to find out is to pick up the letter, which he can't do this weekend because he's going out of town. 

What could it possibly be?

Looking out the window

James looked out the glass door from his desk at the freight truck parked by the sidewalk. That truck is there every day without fail, at the same time to meet up with the same person. The truck usually parks a little before noon and a hispanic lady would walk out from the building next door 10 minutes later. The driver would open the passenger door for her and they would sit there for about an hour. They would eat and afterwards, they would go their separate ways. He's probably off to deliver stuff and she'll go back to her desk job.

James often wondered, what is their story? Is she a mistress? A friend? A wife? And what does she do? Is she a secretary or something? What about him? Is he just a loving husband who's trying to spend time with his wife? Or is he a deadbeat who's trying to slack off? 

He remembers back to a time when he visited his girlfriends at school, work, or the hospital. Those were good times. Everyone was happy. He would often get compliments on being such a great and loving boyfriend, bringing their favorite food and spending time with them. He was young, unemployed, and had too much time on his hands. It was perfect but only for so long. It never lasted.

Once, he had a girlfriend that tried to commit suicide. Actually, that happened twice with two different girls. He called the police both times, and both times they were arrested and taken to a hospital. Ironically, he had to spend the night with them as a last gesture of affection before he broke up with them for good and disappeared out of their lives.

Loneliness he can live with. Death he can't. Some people ought to be alone. 

The Heat and Friday

James chuckled to himself as he read the news article off his computer. It was about his cousin's neighbor. Apparently, the house was rented out to someone that grew marijuana, and it had an elaborate system costing over 40k.

"ROWLAND HEIGHTS - Sheriffs detectives discovered a secret pot plantation at a home in Rowland Heights Thursday afternoon.

Los Angeles County Sheriffs undercover narcotics detectives began removing approximately 725 marijuana plants from the well landscaped, upscale home around 3 p.m. Thursday.

The renters had been in the home on the 1300 block of Otterbein Avenue for 8 months and were stealing upwards of $3,000 a month in electricity.

The owners hadn't been able to get in touch with the tenants and asked deputies to make a quick check on the home.

When deputies entered, they found every room was being used for the high end marijuana grow, which contained high levels of THC.

"This is a really sophisticated grow," Deputy German Perez told KTLA. "This is one of the best I've seen.
The estimated street value of the drugs inside were about $1.8 million dollars, Perez said.

The bust was "totally unexpected," one neighbor told KTLA. "I did not know our neighbors had this big operation going on."

Some neighbors did notice people coming to the home late at night but did not smell anything suspicious.

Deputies said the suspects were using a $40,000 ventilation system.

The suspects are still at large."

He found this funny because a week before his cousin told him he suspected the house was used as a grow house. Turns out he was right.

James surfed the internet some more at work before heading out to McDonald's for Filet-O-Fish Fridays. It's the only time of the year where he can justify gorging on McDonald's because of the Filet-O-Fish sale for Lent. As expected, there were long lines and people were irate from the sudden summer heat. Just 3 days ago it was cold and raining. Now, it's absurdly hot. 

He ordered the usual 6 sandwiches, 4 for now and 2 for later. As his weekly tradition, he'll make a double Filet-O-Fish.

And as always, he felt sick afterwards. The human body wasn't meant to consume so many calories in one sitting. Good thing it's only once a week until Easter. 

Just another day

James sat in his air conditioned cubicle waiting for the day to end. For some reason, the work week seems to fly by when he's at work. It felt like yesterday when he got the job and told himself that it's only temporary. Just until my other projects take off, then I'm outta here! Now, 9 months later, he feels trapped. Trapped by his attachment and loyalty to his coworkers. Trapped by the money. Trapped by the fact that his other projects failed miserably and will not bear fruit for another 3 months. And trapped by the health insurance offered by his employer. This last one is important because he's not getting any younger and some of his friends are developing health problems.

It scares him to death actually. He already has a chronic cough due to second hand smoke from his father. Plus the 10+ years of smoking marijuana as a youth. Sure, he works out and is considered pretty fit but that's all on the outside. He has no idea what his insides look like.