Another short "story"...

Here's another short story, free writing exercise, basically unedited, enjoy:

3/17

It’s so strange, to see him today. Completely transformed & totally out of character. At least out of the character that I, a complete stranger, thought was his. Today he is neatly dressed in a business suit, trailing two small children & a wife. He has removed a bunch of flowers from the bag in the bed of the truck & has placed them in the passenger compartment, where his family will soon be sitting. What a contrast to the way he normally presents himself to the public; a slovenly man in dirty t-shirt & baggy, over-sized (even for a man as large as he is), dirty pants that expose his over-sized belly & his over-sized rear-end. Normally his truck is parked directly in front of our business , motor running,(or trying to run), almost gasping for breath, as he runs into the store for another quart of oil, to keep it moving for another day. Today, his truck is quietly waiting in the parking lot to take the family to some unknown destination. Usually his face is twisted in a scowl, angry, almost like an unanswered dare to anyone who would attempt to speak to him, an angry bear in the wild. Today his face is almost soft & gentle, like a bear playing in a zoo. I'm not sure what to make of this stranger's transformation, except to say that 'normality' often depends on situation. Maybe this unusual side of the strange man is more 'normal' than what I usually see.

Short story by SAM

So today, since I'm tired & I need rest, I'm going post a "story"that I wrote. It's based on real life experiences & is basically "free writing," so unedited. Enjoy:

3/17

He's back again. The Coca Cola Kid just went in for his first Coke of the day. I wonder what he'll do today. There's no wall to lean against, as is his habit. He is always dressed the same, no matter what the weather. Like a character in a Moebius strip, all we see is a bit of his face under the blue hood of his big, blue down coat & above the blue collar that extends up to his chin. The coat is always buttoned to the very top & the hands are always covered with blue gloves. Contact with the outside world, the world outside his man-made shell, is limited to the face, which is averted whenever confrontation is iminent. Each day this cartoon boy, partly real, partly my own invention (as he is a stranger), drinks a full six pack of Coke, one can at a time, without stopping to swallow, as little contact between him & the soda/poison as possible. The whole process is mechanical & takes less than ten minutes to accomplish, even when taking into consideration that the boy must stop to pay for each of six cans separately. He leaves & I am left to ponder what motivates a person to dress so inhumanly & consume massive quantities of caffeine, like a ship consuming fuel. In the end, perhaps, it is not so odd, his behavior. The customers that frequent our little caffeine manufacturing spot have been known to stop by three & four times a day, sometimes stacked like robots waiting for a fix to make it through the day ahead. Not all of them dress appropriately for the weather & yet they are deemed normal. What makes this ice blue robot boy, this monochrome cartoon of a boy, different after all?

What do you think?
Thanks for reading,
SAM