Day CLll

The Devil's Due

     Every day it was the same thing, then one day he decided to expanded his marketing. First it was Macy’s, then it was Lord & Taylor’s, Bloomies, you name it.They bought shit for their apartment, crap they didn’t need, new cool suits for himself, and outfits for her. They went way out of the way of their commute; they rode the train to thirty fourth street; then the cross town bus to Herald Square, to all the hoity-toity shops there.

     They shopped, and had fun with their new plastic toy. Hell, they weren’t paying for it, Visa or Master Card was. As smart as he was, he just never got it that one day the devil comes to collect. One day, about a month later, they came in empty handed.

     “What happened John, not feeling good?”

     “Yea man, wa’s ya day’s loot, man?”

     “Screw youses…lemme me alone!” he screamed as he walked off into the warehouse.

     A half hour later he came back, he lit up one of his Winstons, took a deep drag, as if he was sucking the life out of it, I thought he was about to inhale the whole butt, and apologize. 

    “I’m sorry guys!” he said, “Man we’ve been trying to quit this shit, and now… Hell, we got a helluva bill yesterday, and we really don’t know how in the hell we’re going to pay it. Guess we’ll be brown bagging it for a long time.”

     “What happened?”

    “Them bastids, they don’t bill ya right away, you know, so you know how much ya owe them. Oh no, they make you wait a freaking month, then they send you the freaking bill. Meanwhile you’re all heady, and euphoric, buying alla shit ya can carry.  Man, we took a pair of scissors last night, and cut up all the cards.”