Matt spent the night behind McDonald’s, sleeping on cardboard with cardboard for a blanket. He slept poorly, with disturbing visions of totalitarian sugar plums dancing in his head. In the morning, he scraped some fast food off the parking lot that even the gulls didn’t want. It wasn’t enough, and Matt found a blind spot near the drive-thru where he could panhandle without management seeing him. <\/p>\n
He stood there for a couple of house without getting as much as eye contact. He needed a more aggressive approach, but he was so exhausted that he could barely form words. <\/p>\n
A Ford 150 pickup, two-tone, red and white beauty from the 1970s, appeared in the drive-thru lane. A few moments later, Matt saw a large elderly bewhiskered man with flowing white hair take his order and a coffee from an employee. The man put the truck in gear and moved forward. <\/p>\n
He stopped in front of Matt. He motioned for him to come over to the driver-side window. The man rolled it down and Matt did as directed. <\/p>\n
Matt expected some change, perhaps a breakfast sandwich.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want a job?\u201d the man said. He looked Matt straight in the eyes. <\/p>\n
There was no hesitation. \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just get out of jail?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got a meth problem?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know how to work?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt hesitated. \u201cI used to.\u201d<\/p>\n
A gigantic SUV appeared behind the Ford. <\/p>\n
\u201cGet in,\u201d said the man. <\/p>\n
Matt got in. <\/p>\n
The man handed him the bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cEat this. You can have the coffee, too. I hate their coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt realized he hadn’t said \u201cthank you\u201d aloud in years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy name’s Chris,\u201d the man said. He reached out and shook Matt’s left hand with his right. <\/p>\n
\u201cI’m Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man had a kind grip. The cab of the truck was warm and soothingly analog. <\/p>\n
\u201cNice to meet you Matt and Merry Christmas. You like Christmas music?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure,\u201d said Matt. \u201cThe old stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cPick one out.\u201d <\/p>\n
Matt saw a shoe box of cassettes on the passenger side floor. He perused it and picked out Willie Nelson’s Christmas album. He handed it to Chris.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood choice. I haven’t heard that one this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt took a sip of coffee and then opened the bag and began eating. Chris sang along with Willie. He steered the truck down Main Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinish your meal and then I’ll tell you about the job,\u201d said Chris. <\/p>\n\n
Matt spent the night behind McDonald’s, sleeping on cardboard with cardboard for a blanket. He slept poorly, with disturbing visions of totalitarian sugar plums dancing in his head. In the morning, he scraped some fast food off the parking lot that even the gulls didn’t want. It wasn’t enough, and Matt found a blind spot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4706,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions\/4706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}