10:45

Okay, Patrice. Here you go...are you happy now?



My mission was to find Mcdonalds. It was quiet. Sunday nights are always quiet. Fathers and mothers preparing for the misery of the next week. Children exhausted from weekend activities and the unemployed exhausted from doing nothing. That is how it was for me. I hadn't achieved anything and therefore, I was exhausted. I did not call any friends or family.I had not eaten anything all day. I read my book feverishly, desperate to get to the end, as if my life hung on every word. I was tempted to go to the catholic church, my childhood vision of safety and reassurance and do the rituals that used to have a calming effect on my childish soul but I opted for looking for alcohol instead. I went to my neighbour's, my sometimes drinking partner but this time, he had none. His wife asked why I had my coat on and I said I had thought about attending church. She said "but now you are here, asking for wine. This is the work of the devil". I agreed with her. Who else could it be but the devil?

I walked on the empty street, there was music blasting from TGIF and two men shivered under the artificial light outside, smoking their cigarettes. The whole atmosphere was set to decieve tourists that this was a town of fun and modern entertainment but I knew the truth. In a month's time, nobody will stand outside shivering. Everybody would be huddled under blankets at home, staring blankly at television sets and thanking God they had managed to find someone during the summer. Every pairing up during the summer, is in anticipation of the cold winter that causes people to jump in front of trains.

I found what I was looking for. I ate my burger by the window where I could watch people passing by. There is no shortage of sports cars in this city. They just kept passing by. Red, yellow, black, green. There is no shortage of couples either. Men and women holding hands, smiling and laughing. The world is a great place for some, I concluded.

I finished my burger and wondered if the other burger eaters thought I was pathetic. Eating alone by the window, lost in my thoughts, counting cars. Red, yellow, black, green.

When I got home, it was Twelve already. I had no idea it had taken me so long to eat a burger.

I was exhausted. As only the unemployed can be.