RIP Story: Oct 1st, 2024

This wasn’t his dream job when he came to the city, but he felt like he had a foothold on life after leaving his hometown, finding some roommates and a regular job. He walked in the back door of the pizza place and the buzz had started. The buzz didn’t start until an hour or two into his shift. “It’s not even Friday night” he thought to himself. “Grab a ticket and go,” he thought to himself.

He didn’t think his motorbike riding in the country would be helpful on busy city street with narrow gaps and cars that were paid based on pedestrians knocked over and scooters dented. Maim but not kill must have been the collective car motto in this city. Despite all this, he felt like he had control over his scooter. Each passing day, his confidence grew, and he even started to like the challenge of delivering his pizza on time.

The day took a turn when he pulled a ticket for a part of the city he’d never been. The address stood out because it was just beyond their normal delivery range but the ticket had the “RC” at the top of the ticket. The order was called in every week and the owners were not going to cut off a regular customer. In his two months at the parlor he’d never pulled the order before and he was convinced the other drivers looked for this order. No one told him why, but he didn’t care, he had a job, and the finer points of parlor logistics would come to him in their time. Turns out that time was today.

The first hold up was a police block on the main road. Not a big deal, he had 20 minutes to find the place before the discount kicked in. The next hold up was thanks to a tourist not paying attention and getting knocked over by a taxi. The tourist was knocked to the ground right in his path. He was able to stop in time, but this was another hold up. He waited for the stunned tourist to get back to their feet while traffic kept passing them by. “how do these people not show some urgency, these cars don’t care!” he thought to himself. He later thought he could have helped them up, but he felt like a local by not helping. Maybe a little guilt, but time would quickly heal that emotional wound.

The greatest delay was the power going out just as he arrived to the block of the address. He had two minutes to find the place. He’d never been here and he didn’t know the shapes of the buildings. He didn’t have a flashlight and the light on his scooter didn’t point at the addresses on the side of the buildings. One minute to go and a car hitting a bump in the road flashed the 100 block he was looking for. He stopped the scooter and started walking, just hoping for another flash of light to “one twenty-two, one twenty-two and and eight,” he said. “They don’t have eights back home, FOCUS, 30 seconds!” he thought to himself.

The seconds ticked off when he called out, “where the hell is this one twenty-two and an either?” That’s when the ground started talking to him.

The ride back to the pizza parlor was quick, and when he got back he was in for a surprise. He opened the door and everyone was standing behind the counter waiting for his reaction. “Umm, Hi,” he said looking at all their faces. “Welcome to the team!” one of the drivers said. They asked him if he made it in time. He explained that he passed the pizza into a storm drain and the address shorted him because he was late and how they started talking about some philosopher and not paying full price for late pizza. He then started to explain his lateness when the drivers stopped him. “It’s cool dude, you did good. The first one is free. Welcome to the driver’s club.”

The rest of the night went on as normal and the owner sent him home with a beer and a pizza. “Thanks for the hard work your first two months kid.”

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.

EPILOGUE: TMNT for life!