Damien Sliker
Fiction
Bad Luck
He didn’t fall asleep until 2:00 in the morning, which was a problem since he had work in the morning. He slept through his alarm clock that was set for 6:30 am. Waking up at 7:00, he had a sudden realization.
There is only 10 minutes left for him to get to work. He gets dressed as fast as he can, checking the time. He sees that there are only 6 minutes left. He grabs himself a drink.
He puts his drink on his kitchen table so he can take out the trash. But when he comes back inside to get the drink he previously made, his cat knocks it over, spilling all over his table and the floor.
He lets out a faint sigh as he walks over to his cabinets and gets a towel and a spray bottle, cleaning up the mess the cat made. He grabs a new drink for work. On his way out of the house, he checks his watch. He freaks out when he sees he only has 2 minutes left to get to work.
He thinks about what the boss told him if he was late. So he starts to run as fast as he can through the streets to get to his job quickly. He runs until he is out of breath and walks into his work, making it only 30 seconds late.
Putting his stuff away and walking to his workstation, his boss calls for him. After putting his stuff at his desk, he goes to his boss's office. Standing outside of his door, he takes a deep breath and walks in with his boss greeting him with a smile and telling him to sit.
He slowly walks over to a chair and sits down. The boss asks him why he was late this time. He tells him everything that went on before getting here. The boss smiles even more and tells him that he will give him one more chance to prove that he wants this job.
He thanks the boss for giving him another chance and walks out of the room back to his workstation. He works for eight hours and finishes up his work. He grabs all his belongings and heads home for the day.
When he gets home he makes dinner for himself, since he had gone the whole day without eating anything. After he finishes eating, he takes a long, warm shower. He puts on a comfortable tee-shirt and sweatpants.
He sets an alarm for 6:00 so he can wake up earlier and have more time to get ready. He lays in bed slowly drifting off. He wakes up to not hearing his alarm and gets a little worried and looks at his alarm clock. But his worrying gets worse when he sees it flashing 12:00 am.
He jumps out of his bed and grabs his phone, seeing that it’s 7:05. He starts to have a panic attack. After hyperventilating for a couple of minutes that seemed like an eternity, he decides to call in to work sick to try to save himself.
The Store
He walked around the store, wondering where the cleaning supplies were located in the store, since they move them every week to different locations around the store.
He checks all over in the store for hours, struggling to find the cleaning supplies. He is slowly starting to give up on this store until he finds a sign labeled “cleaning supplies.”
He smiles a little and walks over, but his smile quickly fades when he sees that the cleaning supplies are all gone. He storms out of the store empty handed, asking himself why he wasted all that time just to not get what he came for. “Ugh, what a waste” he scoffs under his breath.
He goes home to calm himself down, telling himself that he will just go to a store the next day. The next morning he wakes up and checks the weather and when he sees it’s going to be a warm day, he puts on khaki shorts and a navy blue short sleeve shirt.
While waiting for his breakfast to finish cooking, he puts on his shoes and watches tv until the food is done. After eating, he leaves his house and goes to the store. He decides he is just going to go to a different store today since he feels like the store that he went to the other day still doesn’t have any cleaning supplies.
He realizes that he has never been to this store before, so he has no idea where anything is. He realizes that the store is also incredibly cold. His skin is covered in gooseflesh, but he refuses to leave without at least trying to find the cleaning supplies. He asks people where the cleaning supplies are located, but no one knows where they are until he finds a worker clad in a parka and snow pants.
He asks where the cleaning supplies are and the worker tells him that the cleaning supplies are located at the back of the store, so he walks to the back of the store and notices a sign that reads cleaning supplies.
He walks and closes his eyes hoping that the cleaning supplies are there, and not missing like at the other store. He opens his eyes and meets with the cleaning supplies that he has been looking for.
He grabs the cleaning supplies and lets out a sigh of relief. He walks to the front of the store and pays for the cleaning supplies and goes home. When he reaches home, he cleans a little and puts the supplies away and finally lays down to rest.
Poetry
Star Gazing
I walked in the field and sat
looking at stars in the sky,
thinking about when I was a kid
and how much easier my life was,
wishing I could go back to that time
and live that life again.
I didn’t have to worry about
losing my friends or jobs.
I stopped thinking about it since it the sky
unwound like an endless ball of yarn.
Rain started pouring,
so I walked home to rest.
Reminiscing
1 He sits and looks at photos
of his friends, remembering times
when they would laugh
and play games all night until school.
2 Tears roll down his face.
He wipes them off with his sweater
and gets up and walks outside.
3 He tries to get his mind off them.
He walks through dark alleyways
thinking of shadows
but can only think of his friends.
4 He heads home and lays in bed
and prays that he will be able to see
his friends again.
Dusk
1
The day is coming to an end as the
sun goes down with everything being devoured by the dark. Lights start to turn on
outside.
2
I walk home from my friend’s house shivering from the coldness of the
wind. I walk faster so I can get
home to thaw.
3.
The roads are muddy and slippery
from all the rain from previous days with the ponds overflowing and
flooding.
4.
I walked though some water
that was covering the road next to
a pond. My pants are soaked, so
I run home.
Flake
He feels a burst of
embarrassment like a cold breeze
streaking across his skin
as his feet are
tangled from the tug of the
mocking ground.
He walks into walls and runs
into people, always worried
about himself and the news on his phone.
He lives in shorts, not
caring about the weather,
growing number by the second.
Always alone, he doesn’t know
why no one wants to be around him,
never seeing himself in the mirror.
