Dark moody skies greeted Dirk at the completion of his shift. The iron grey clouds dropped the desert into a darkness usually not seen until after sunset. For some reason the unexpected weather change put him on edge. He kept expecting to see Marty racing at him with a drawn blade.

As if to thwart any such feeling of precognition, nothing of the like happened and he got onto his mountain bike without mishap. A new round of rain did strike, this time complete with thunder and lighting, before he made it home.

It didn’t take long for every inch of him to become soaked. Lightning flashed, like blasts of sunlight, and the noise of thunder hammered his ears. Most people would have tried to escape the rain, if not the danger of the lightning, but Dirk had long given up thinking he’d ever be close to normal.

Screw it, he thought to himself. If I’ve gone through so much crap in my life so if I somehow get hit by lightning than this wouldn’t be a world I’d want to live in anyway.

Dirk made it home to find his roommate George, who went by G, sitting on the front porch enjoying the rain and Dirk’s discomfort. “Fun ride?”

“You mean swim,” Dirk muttered as he hauled his bike up onto the covered porch. The front of the house was brick as were the two pillars suspending the roof that stretched over their dumpster dived chairs. The wind blew in rain sideways, so most of the cement floor was damp and already small puddles formed in the corners.

G lit a new smoke with the ember of the last one, which had been just shy of the filter. Like Dirk, G had quit alcohol and drugs, illegal drugs anyway. He had become a caffeine hound and always had a huge 44oz fountain drink nearby. His smoking would have put a WWII vet to shame and Dirk often wondered how he could afford such a habit. Still, it was probably a good deal less that what his meth habit once was, so Dirk let him be about it most of the time.

After changing, Dirk had a seat in an old lazy boy that should have made it into the landfill before he’d started middle school. The rain made his back damp and between the wet chair and the increased wind driven rain, Dirk wondered why he had bothered to change into his dry clothes.

“So some PO was by here looking for you. Asked me when you’d be home.” He took a long pull on his smoke. “I didn’t tell him shit of course.”

“What? Was it a work thing? Why would they come to see me at home?”

“He wouldn’t say what it was about.” His friend eyed him from under his dirty baseball cap. “You haven’t been messing in anything I should know about? I thought your probation was over, I’m still the one the man keeps under his thumb.”

“Nope, cleaner that the driven rain,” he said while shaking off a little shiver. The sudden urge to drink hit him like a mallet. He had a few bucks. It would be so easy…

He went on, more to distract himself than anything. “It might be a work thing. So guy on probation tried to stab me today.”

“Really, no shit. Maybe that’s it, this guy looked pretty serious, he even had a guy riding along with him and these days POs usually work solo.”

Dirk pushed a strand of wet hair behind his ear. “Well, if this guy wasn’t headed for jail before, he sure as shit is now.”

Again the urge to drink or maybe just have a puff off a joint hit him. These were the bad times. So much of his routine used to be drugs and quick fixes. Get home from work, open a beer and do whatever else was around. Get stressed, drink a beer or whatever else was around.

Instead he felt like his whole evening loomed before him and it was empty. He had no girl, he didn’t have anything much. Even some money for a nice meal would help, but he knew he shouldn’t blow his wad or he’d be sorry later. Still, water and television sounded like hell, but so did going back into the pounding rain.

Dirk had the book he was reading and the song he’d been working on for a week. He chose his book and went in to get it. G informed him that he had a hot date and to not wait up.

Figures, Dirk grumbled to himself, but then settled in with his book.

He could only read about ten pages before his nervousness would get him up and pacing the house. As always, he remembered he had nothing to look for and returned to the sofa. The rain outside let up some and helped calm him. As the evening passed into a drizzling night, Dirk grabbed his sixth glass of water and promised himself he would make it to page three hundred before he turned in and got ready for another day.

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