Through Glass Eyes

            “Another day, another dollar.” I have always hated that phrase. To some it sums up the great work ethic of America’s working class, a motto of a sort, but not to me. To me those words represent the never ending daily grind. I spend every day as a worker bee, server the greater hive, just to come home at the end of the day and watch people live out their dreams on TV.

            Monday – The weekend ended too fast. A snap shot of happiness, a taste of freedom, just enough to keep you coming back to work next week. The boss is in a bad mood, but I don’t think I have ever seen him in a good mood. I watch across the room as the assistant manger get’s her head chewed off. In a few minutes she will be passing it along to me, with tenfold aggression. I burned my tongue sipping my coffee.

            Tuesday – I have grown to hate clock on the wall. Every second ticks slower than the last. Over the years it has come to a standstill. While I get older, more tired, my body weakens and my passion burns out, but the clock stays the same. It refuses to let this moment go.

            Wednesday – “Happy hump day.” My co-worker spits out like clockwork. I don’t know what I hate more, the three phrases he uses like a pull string doll, or the way he loudly chews his food slinging debris all over the place. No, it’s the talking. The constant, never ending talking. The same stories I have heard over and over and over. They never change.

            Thursday – It’s the worst. It’s not Friday. Just one more day, the thought that plagues my rotting mind all day long. If I can just make it one more day, just one more day and this terrible week is behind me. And then it all starts again.

            Friday – It’s here. I have waited all week for this. I start my dance with the clock on the wall, negotiating with it, begging it to tick just a little bit faster. What was just one more day is just one more hour. I can leave this building care free, pretend for just a little bit that I am free. And FINALLY the time is near. I watch the countdown with the anticipation of a child in the 60’s watching Apollo 11 launch.

            My heart sinks as I see the boss crossing the floor towards me. I whip my head back to the clock and double check the second marker. It’s almost there. As I look back to the boss time slows to a standstill. My brain does a million calculations per second. As he gets closer it becomes sickenly clear who is going to win this race. And then he does it. He launches an attack at the last remaining part of my soul. “I am going to need you to stay late.”

            He assures me it’s appreciated, he leaves me with a parting gift, the icing on the cake. My co-worker is to accompany me all night. He calls it an afterhour’s party. I want to throw up. I want to cut out my eyes. I want to die, no, I want to kill. I want to kill him. I want to beat his skull on the table. I get lost in blood lust for the smallest of moments, but a brief light shines. It’s time for a ten minute smoke break.

            A puff of nicotine, my drug of choice. Everyone has their own preference that get’s them through the week. I am starting to get a migraine. My head pounding out the sides, it’s either the stories of my co-worker, or something in my head trying to bust out the side of my skull. It’s worse than usual. I want to make it stop. I pound a few aspirin, but the pain doesn’t go away. A ringing engulfs my ears, and my vision blurs. Flashes of static in my brain, another symptom of getting older? Make it stop.

            Suddenly an intense pain, like nothing I have ever felt before, takes over my entire body. I feel like this could be the it, this could be the meltdown that has been hiding just beneath the surface all these years. But suddenly it stops. The ringing becomes a silence; the world turns an eerie shade of black and white. The pressure in my head starts to subside in the most disturbing fashion.

            I feel… crawling. A slimy substance slips out my left ear canal. A big ball of ear wax? No, it’s far too large. I feel the blockage push its way out of my head. My heart stops at as my brain tries to processes what I am seeing. It’s a large green mass, covered in slime, 8 inches in length and thick in width. My first thought is sheer stun, but the second thought that passes through my mind wonders if this could be my way out of work. Before I could process these thoughts my attention is drawn back to the mass… It moves.

            What is this!? How long has this thing been inside of my head!? It’s not simply ear wax; it’s a living creature, a slug or work of some sort!? The sheer disgust shivers through my body. I don’t want to touch it, but I have to know. I pull a ball point pen from my pocket, kneel down and poke it. It twitches; clearly it’s not doing well, something I can understand. I stand up and contemplate my next move.

            Suddenly it comes to my attention I am not in the same environment I was just a moment ago. No, it IS the same, but different too, almost unrecognizable. The sky is still blue, but not just one blue. Like a broken TV, thousands of different shades of blue. I have to assume they are blue because it’s honestly colors I have never seen before. There is almost a limitless variety of shades filling my retina, something I can barely comprehend; the only way I describe it as shades of blue.

            I could spend the rest of my life gazing at the sky interpreting the wavelengths and renaming the colors, but my attention is directed to my sense of smell. I am immediately overwhelmed with the worst odor I have ever smelled before. Is it the slug!? Did it die or something!? I look back down at it but quickly realize, no, it’s the world that smells, and it smells so bad. My gut wrenches. What the hell is happening to me!?

            I can hear the flat feet of my co-workers obnoxious tennis shoes approach me from a mile away. In my panic, I had completely lost track of time, he is no doubt on his way to fetch me and drag me back to hell. I turn my attention in his direction but my blood runs cold when I make eye contact with him.

            THIS IS NOT MY COWORKER! He is dressed like him, despite many more blinding colors emitting from his outfit. His face was unrecognizable, the features of a human face that we are trained to look for are not there. There is no eyes, nose or mouth, just an endless void. As he speaks, a distorted boom fills the air, but I can’t make sense of what he is trying to say. Something is terribly wrong here.

            I pull my phone from my pocket, but I don’t understand any of the characters on the screen. The clock for instance is replaced with unknown symbols rapidly changing at an alarming and anxiety inducing rate. At first it seems to be a glitch, but it soon becomes clear it’s far worse. Time has broken.

            I look around and notice things are happening all at once. Thousands of “people” with voids for faces all existing at the same time. Some of them are wearing modern clothes, others are dress from hundreds of years ago, and the rest are wearing styles I can’t identify all together. A Neanderthal slumps passed me, seeming unaware of my presence.

            A terrifying thought crosses what is left of my fractured mind, are we just vessels for these slugs? Are we vehicles to be piloted by a creature we haven’t discovered with modern medicine!? How long have they been here, is it everyone!? My heart flutters and feels like it is going to stop as my blood pressure begins to drop. I feel like I am suffocating. I feel like I am drowning. I can’t live in this world, I can’t breathe in this world.

            I frantically pick up the slimy mass on the ground, it oozes with some kind of biological fluid I am not familiar with. I don’t waste a single moment thinking about it, I slam the creature back into my ear canal, driving it deeper with my finger tip. My vision flickers and I feel like I am having a stroke. I shove my entire finger into my ear, drilling deeper into my brain. I hear the sound of a thousand screams around me, but I give one last violent push.

 Monday –  Another day, another dollar. The boss is in a bad mood, but I don’t think I have ever seen him in a good mood. I watch across the room as the assistant manger get’s her head chewed off. In a few minutes she will be passing it along to me, with tenfold aggression. I burned my tongue sipping my coffee.