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Wakeup

Patrick Cleary

    Kevin was up for good by 5 p.m., having had a tough time trying to get some sleep, because the freebase cocaine was still working its way through his system, so still amped, jittery, he went for a walk down Fairfax to Santa Monica Blvd & West toward the ocean to clear his brain. He passed Debbie's Daycare just as the kids were leaving for the day, & he watched from across the street as pre-schoolers were being picked up by family & buckled into their safety seats. He almost remembered being that age, 5 years old, the memory producing a fleeting foetal tranquility, as he was excited to start school, hopeful to make friends with other kids, away from his brothers & sisters for a while.
    He continued the long walk toward the ocean, the cool breeze working its way up the Blvd. toward Hollywood & on past to downtown. He crossed over The Pacific Coast Highway & walked down to the beach, taking off his shoes, feeling the sand working on his feet, the wind gusts blowing past off the choppy sea. Seagulls circling, always searching for something, squawking, a few walking along the shore, their long bills poking at potential snacks there in the sand, moving along just beyond the incoming waves, skipping out of the way before the water rolled over them. He sat down in the sand on the berm just beyond the incoming tide, the evolving sunset in front of him just now choosing colors for this evening's performance, rearranging by mixing the existing blues & reds in the atmosphere with the heavy brown smog as a catalyst to develop a full frontal skyview for the end of another day. By watching this performance gain momentum, he could almost hear an accompanying musical performance, a coda to the dying day, as the low level yellow colors rose to meet the red-orange background, & above that the sign off from the light blue sky breaking through the cumulus clouds, & finally the protagonist shows up, the sun, orange & serious, filling the stage, just appearing for a few minutes, & sinking below the sky show & dropping straight down into the Pacific Ocean, & that's how it fooled him, as if it was disappearing, making the climax feel apocalyptic as darkness tightens, birds hustling & squawking to get their night together, & if this were the end, Kevin felt this dramatic ending would be much better than dying in a car crash on the I-5 interchange to Orange County.

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