this tired penguin duo is not unlike the first two people i met out in the world today
—
stopped by the store at 9am
for a simple return
on my way to the rest of my day
the only other human i saw
was a slow-moving young employee
who began our encounter
by telling me he was sorry
for accidentally spraying a lot of cologne on himself
when mistaking the top of a bottle for the bottom
shared that he was really tired
worked until 11pm, closed the store at 12am
came in early at 6am, opened the store at 7am
in between
he drove home, ate, calmed down,
tried to get a few hours of sleep in
(no time for a shower, maybe explains his ill-fated cologne mishap)
we talked about how busy it would be as the day continued
when another employee arrived
who began her conversation with him by saying:
“don’t even talk to me, i’m going on break.”
his not unexpected response:
“but, you just got here.”
she quickly shot back a:
“i told you to not even talk to me”
when i left i thanked him for working
knowing they both
still had a very long day ahead.
—
“i finally got 8 hours, of sleep. it took me 4 days, but whatever.”
-author unknown