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