Entry One Hundred Four: Adam Mahoney, You Just Won!

[This entry is the current story I am working on. This is thirty-three of who knows how many will be posted. Enjoy it while it lasts...]

Chapter Fourteen
To stave off the omnipresent boredom and help ignore the ache in his gut, Adam began to branch out of his routine, trying things that only made sense in his unique situation. He broke into his neighbor’s houses, poked around in their belongings and sat on their furniture. At first he was afraid he’d find something alarming but soon realized everyone on his street was just as boring as Adam Mahoney. The one good thing about his adventures into their homes was he was able to find more supplies that kept him from having to visit the IGA again. He procured enough frozen meat and vegetables to keep him nourished for two weeks after his supplies started running thin. But everything about it wasn’t positive. After some time he limited the break-ins to need, less out of respect for the long-gone and more out of a desire to not be confronted by all of the family photographs lining walls, dressers and tables. They were painful reminders, ones that tore into him with an ache that refused to dull with time. He needed to stay busy but he was sure he could find things to do that didn’t require trips down Memory Lane.

Another activity he added to his routine was taking DVD’s to Sears and watching them on the big screen televisions in their showroom. He found a comfortable, leather recliner in the furniture section of the store and dragged it in front of the biggest TV, enjoying a movie or two without the worry that he would fall back into his earlier sluggard routine, something he did not want to repeat. It was strange the first time he tried it, sitting all alone in the aisle of a large department store, but the excitement of watching movies on a larger screen in High Definition quickly usurped the oddness of it all and he allowed himself to enjoy the movie with no lingering emotional side affects. There were no lines in the bathroom and he could stop and start the movie when necessary, which he did occasionally to ride a scooter he had absconded from the toy department across the linoleum floors and through the aisles. He eventually added speakers to the large television and created his own home theatre with surround sound. The movies were a diversion he allowed himself twice per week, limiting himself merely to save its novelty. If this was his life he had to stretch out new activities as long as he could, whether it be passive movie-watching or an engaging hobby.

Adam had always wanted a hobby; something he could work on in his off time between his job and eating. He’d never endeavored to start one and now that he had more than enough free time he made a concentrated effort to come up with something to collect or create. Like most kids, he had built model cars and collected baseball cards but it wasn’t an obsession; just something to do with his friends. Most of the cards ended up as flaps clipped to the wheels of his bicycle and discarded when they wore down and didn’t make enough noise. All of the models were eventually thrown out as he outgrew the desire to sit and glue plastic together. He laughed thinking about that, especially remembering all those folks who had spent all that money to collect, trade and cherish old player cards for investment purposes. They always said the cards were only worth what someone was willing to pay for them and his situation placed him in a unique position to comment on that canard. “Since I am the only person left to buy the cards and, thereby, am the only person who can establish their worth, I, Adam Mahoney, deem all baseball, football, basketball and soccer trading cards worthless.” It was his first glimpse of power as the last man standing on the face of the earth.

All words and images ©2007/J. Colle