Prologue

I had a string of, shall we say, unfortunate events. I was working as a newspaper delivery dude. It was all going fine and dandy until on Saturday my girlfriend, whom I was in a long-distance relationship with, broke up with me. It struck a lot of sour cords since I was in the relationship for four years, and in my sadness, I forgot to go out one morning on my delivery. In doing so my boss, or former boss I guess now, got a lot of complaints regarding not getting the newspaper they pay a subscription for. He noticed that all the complaints were on one particular route. MY route.

The next day when I went into work, he called me into his office and told me to have a seat. I may not be too bright, but when your boss tells you to have a seat with a fairly serious face, and knowing you messed up the day before, you have a strong feeling where this could head. He had told me about how many complaints he had received about my "irregular deliveries", and he had informed me that even though this was my second slip up, my first being I overslept my third day in, he was going to have to let me go. He offered me his hand and said, "I'm sorry Ryan, I truly am, but I'm going to have to let you go".

I took his hand and sighed and responded, "Thank you for the opportunity. I'm sorry I couldn't live up to your expectations." I turned to leave, feeling dejected before he called out to me. "Hey Ryan, did you really think I wasn't going to pay you for your hard work." He gave me a sympathetic smile and handed me a check for my pay that week. "Take this is as a final farewell and a gift, and I hope you have better luck at your next job, because you deserve it," he said. I looked at him, my eyes started to tear up, I smiled and said, "Thank you, I hope that too." I walked back home and was having trouble keeping my mind clear of depressive thoughts invading my head, not sure what I should do next, but decided I would play some games and go out the next morning to cash the check I had received.