Turbulent Night

1) The Calm.

Ted woke up, precisely one minute before his alarm went off, that day, like millions, of days before it. He huffed at it, when it finally went off, and turned the damn thing off. He never used his cell phone, he stuck to the old clock his mom and dad gave him. It was one of the first things they gave him, it had seen very better days. A few mornings it had gotten 'accidentally knocked off the night stand, when he was still in high school.

Those were terrible, dark days, They called him all kind of nasty slang names from other countries. For a month he was the marapon, but the Spanish teacher quickly figured out that, and stopped it. For a while he was called pufter, he found that one amusing.

"Groan." He groaned while getting out of bed. He walked to the closest door, and picked out the fresh-pressed, pair of dress pants, and mostly wrinkle-free polo shirt. He tried to smooth it out, he even thought about ironing it, but knew that was futile. So continued to the bathroom to shower. He ran the hot water in the shower, and brushed his teeth. He knew by the time that was done, he could turn on the cold and get in.

Ted loved the predictability of his morning, and the rest of his day was like clockwork, the people changed, the things he did, a bit from day to day, so it still felt fresh. But he just felt sad, his mom called it depression, and he knew his mother had depression, so he had resigned himself to living alone, and being sad and lonely. He made breakfast, two eggs, two slices of bacon, and toast, today, wild current perseveres on the toast, Jelly, jam, and whatever else sounded good on his toast. Was never the same in a month. Just enough variety to keep his breakfast from getting stale.

He locked up for work and glanced at the sky South western Illions's weather was rather predictable. Red at night Sailors delight, red at daylight sailors firght." He smiled at another normal sunrise, and hopped on his not quite street legal moped, but he had his motorcycle instances, and 65 mph, was plenty fast enough for him. He slid on his helmet and drove to the next town, to work. He enjoyed the drive nonetheless, at least during the summer.

He parked his Moter scooter, behind the store, and opened the back door the old IGA. He took a deep breath, he enjoyed, the 'history' of the smell. The building had been standing for fifty years after all. He walked by the bread. "I am sure billions of loathes of bread have been sold from those shelves." He thought aloud to himself. He flipped the lights on, set up the till, for his cashier, turned on the open sign, and unlocked the door.

"Morning Teddy." Ms. Winters nodded at him.

"What can we get for you today?" He asked, containing his amusement at the lady.

"Oh..." She mumbled. "I think I have a nasty case of swimmers ear." She sighed. "I haven't heard right out of my left ear in days.

Ted, glanced at her ear, and almost sighed. "Ms. Winters!" He said loudly so she could hear him. "Have you replaced the battery in your hearing aid?"

"Teddy you are a sweet boy." She smiled condignly at him. "But your not a doctor."

"Very well." He nodded at her, and let her by. Ms. Winters took her walker to the back of the store where the pharmacy was Ted, prepared to ring out Ms. Winters, he groaned.

"I am old, not Deaf boy!" Ms. Winters hollard at him. Ted shook his head and raised an eyebrow at her, which she couldn't hear at least. "And don't look at me in that tone of voice..."

"How?" Ted lipped to himself.

"I have 6 children, and twenty-one and counting grandchildren." she laughed.

"So when did you go swimming?" He asked her scanning the swimmer's ear kit.

She glanced at her walker, and then looked at Ted as if he were an idot. "Boy, I'm too old to go swimming." She lectured him. He nodded at her, as she droned on.