Tough Times
I was down to my last $10, stumbling down an empty road. The buildings rose on either side of me, their neon signs flickering in and out of existence, the road was still wet and so were my clothes, but where the roads shined in the dim lights, I just looked like a wet zombie.
The noise from inside the buildings was a mixture of yelling and laughter, almost deafening to my intoxicated ears. I shoved the door open to a building whose sign read  “the Luck of the Irish Pub”. A few of the people closest to the door stopped what they were doing to give me disgusted glances. They had seen the news, how could they not have? There were at least five TV’s scattered around the musty space.
They all skirted around me awkwardly, either avoiding eye contact or giving me pointed stares. How else would one treat the former CEO of a fortune 500 company after going bankrupt? I sat down at the bar and tried to order something, but the bartender took one look at my shaggy hair, ruffled and torn shirt, and beard that clearly hadn’t been attended to in a while and asked me to leave. Great. I mumbled, as if my week couldn’t get any worse, now I couldn’t even get a damn drink.
I’m not quite sure what happened after that, but I woke up the next morning in a muddy ditch practically dying from a hangover. I looked up and happened to see an intern that used to work for me. I tried to say hello, but it came out as more of a half-hearted groan. It did get her attention though and she stopped to talk for a bit. She told me how after the internship fell through she got a job in Germany and was moving there soon. Even though she didn’t mention it, I could see her taking in my somber state. She offered to get me lunch and we walked to the nearest diner.
It was quiet and peaceful; the only sounds were the low hum of customers talking and the faint sound of the chef working diligently. As we talked, my mood changed. I would beat this, I knew I would, I might have to work as a dishwasher in some back-alley restaurant, but I was going to fight with everything I had.