32

The sun surprised me. More that it caught me off guard. Emerging from prison. Again.

You know, it wouldn't be such a big deal if they didn't actually keep me on display out by the main entrance. Anybody that I had relations with for more than 3 days would stop by, stare vacantly into the plastic divider between them and me, blaze up a smokable drug, and finish with a twitch of the eyebrows and a spit on the ground. Not a word was ever traded.

The halfway house I was assigned to was missing a lot, namely other people. I had the run of the place in which to turn it into a place of worship, never specifying the denomination. Nobody came. Not because of the inherent confusion, but because I had mined the front lawn.

I figure, hey, if they care enough, they'll try.

It wasn't until much later I realized that everyone had better things to do, namely combat the massive amount off radiation that was headed towards us all due to some technician not getting laid by his wife, but not wanting to cheat, so being in the moral stalemate he was, he promptly threw a bowling ball into a crucial part of Reactor #8. It was one of the few things he had bought for himself. Everything else he spent on her.

It was nice that nobody was begging me to bail their asses out again. Really.

But it's nice to feel wanted. Sometimes.