Mikey Appleton: January 8th 1983
I wake up from my little nap to the sound of the phone’s “beep beep beep.” I get up, quickly answering it.
“T-This is M-Mikey Appleton, who’s s-speaking?” I ask, in a low manner.
“It’s the nurse at Greenwood District Hospital, it’s about your father: Dennis.”
My heart sinks as she mentions my dad. She goes on to talk about his current health while I remain indifferent until I hear something I never would have expected.
“Well, we discovered that he has liver cancer.”
I zone out, somewhat a half surprised at his diagnosis. I stare blankly into the rain cloud tinted gray of the office’s wall. I just don’t really know how to feel about this— happy? Sad? Indifferent to everythi-
“Uh, Mikey? Are you there?” the nurse questions.
“O-Oh! S-Sorry about that…” I reply.
We chat for a little while, once the call ends; I immediately look at the mirror which I have in my cubicle. Well, there isn’t really much I can do; I moved away from my hometown immediately after graduating high school. I take a sip of coffee, it’s 8:30 pm; the night shift is about to start. Sitting in my cubicle in the office, with our brand new computers introduced for our accounting job. The heavy rain and the pink, yellow, and cyans of the outer neon lights contrast with how dull I feel in the office. I play around with the keyboard, waiting for the rest of the workers to arrive. It’s much more versatile than the old computers I remember seeing in my teen years back in the late 60s and early 70s that were as big as the wall; I definitely would have used them to write my old comic series. I heard that you can program games and do complex software, though I don’t have the mental clarity to do so. After a while I see my coworkers trickle in—the graveyard shift. We get to calculating sales and all that. Soon enough however, it’s a little break time we get at around 10:30 pm. I head outside to the balcony, covered with a canopy to prevent it from getting wet from the heavy rain this time of year. I stare around the neon colored city, as bright as flowers fill every sign, billboard, and diner I can see. I pick up every sound of the city, I prefer to be alone to myself as my coworkers chat amongst themselves inside. However, I’m greeted by one out to take a smoke break; as it’s the only available spot to smoke on. I stare at the orange light which is emitted from the light. I look at it until he greets me.
“Oh hi Mikey! How are you?” He asks me, as I space out.
I continued to stare, the aroma of the cigarette smoke and the bright light brought a flood of memories, memories which I long to forget.
After a bit, my colleague snaps me back to reality, “Uh Mikey? You’re zoning out again.”
“Oh! sorry…” I stutter out, a bit shocked from returning to reality.
I see him place the cigarette in the ashtray, he slides over; watching over the city with me.
I continue to sit there watching over the city with my coworker sitting next to me.
“D-Do you ever, j-just wonder how m-much different your l-life would be if the p-past happened differently?” I blurt out.
“Uh… yeah, I have a few regrets and decisions I wish I did or didn't make, why do you ask Mikey?”
“I don’t know, I-I just,” I sigh, “Well, I do h-have something I-I should m-mention…” I soon begin to talk…