Meltdown

Meltdown (PMxxi)

His breakdown was imminent,

even O could tell without

amy medical background.

He was close to retirement,

less than six months.

He used to be the best

carrier in the station.

His work was always done, first,

and he used to sit and smile

and drink a coffee

while he waited for final

call.

He would look out at the rest

of us as if we were inferior,

running around at the last

minute,

stuffing bags and getting them

off to the drivers before

they left.

He would sit there, smiling,

drinking his coffee

the supervisor never bothered

him,

always supposed he had the

job done,

one less person to

worry about.

One day around final call,

he was there desperately

putting up mail,

his steaming coffee was

on the desk next to him but

it hadn't been touched.

He was on fire, sweating

profusely and if I'm not

mistaken a steady stream

of curses was coming out of

his mouth.

I left before him, he had

finally sat down to drink

his cold coffee,

a look of defeat permeated

his being and I felt bad

for him.

The next day he lasted about

an hour,

trays of mail hit the floor,

the supervisor, stunned, asked

what was wrong,

he told the supervisor to

go fuck himself!

He walked out onto the dock

and tossed his coffee cup

at the back of a truck,

smashing the cup and window

into a million pieces,

he carried on to his car and

disappeared,

I never saw him again.

MCC