All in a Day's Work | {Penguin}

If you ever feel like I do when you slip between cracks,

maybe then I'll see why nothing stays intact

Finally, the sun was beginning to rise and Dorian took this as his cue to get out of bed. Even with a miniscule change in the tone of the sky, Dorian could tell that it was morning without any second thought. Dorian stretches his hand out to his night table and search for his pair of glasses, and finally gets a grasp of them, and puts them on to make the dawn even clearer for him to see. In a swift movement, he rolls out of bed, and slowly trudges to his wardrobe to find a combo of a black t-shirt with a couple holes in it and black denim pants. Black is just about the only outfit colors he owns.

Today Dorian has obligations, so he can't sit on his back porch and play guitar as he always enjoys doing. Recently, he picked up a job as a woodworker's assistant, so that he could pick up a little bit of extra cash, and so that he could relieve his parents of some of the stress of their own jobs. The only downside is that now he hardly has any free days to do as he pleases, but he knows he ought to get into the real world eventually.

Hungry, Dorian makes his way to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast before heading out to his job twenty minutes away from his house. An apple will suffice to his needs, but he takes a second for the road to be certain that he will be satisfied. One red and one green. Making sure the door is locked, he begins his walk to the woodworking workshop. His boss is not the nicest, but he's inciteful and he does pay hourly, so there's no real purpose of complaining because a job's a job.

After working for several hours in a sweaty, stuffy room, it's finally time to go home for the day. It's about four-thirty and the afternoon heat is still strong. Walking home, Dorian's mind is wandering, he's not thinking much about what's happening, finding his way home doesn't take much thought since he's lived in District 7 all his life, he knows it like the back of his hand. He's letting his mind unwind, then suddenly from behind him, he hears a rustling. The sound of a leaves and the shuffling of feet, not human ones.

Curious, Dorian wants to see what the sound is coming from. He'd determined that the sound was from the bushes that were on the side of the pathway he was taking, the question was: what is it?  Seconds later, he'd get his answer.  A furry creature leaped out of the bush and knocked Dorian off of his feet.  The small, cinderblock-sized animal pounced on top of his torso and scratched at him.  He managed to evade the first attack, but the second slaw dug into the skin of his right arm.  It was at this point, that Dorian realized he was having a tussle with a stray cat. A rather bulky one, but still a likely feral feline...

The critter continued to rabidly attack, unprovoked.  The thought of getting trampled and dominated by a cat came to his head, and he made sure to slip out from underneath the cat and stand back on two feet.  Leaping forward, the cat made an attempt to regain control over the much bigger mammal, but unsuccessfully, as Dorian managed to sidestep the aggression, and managed to trap it underneath a trashcan that laid conveniently aside him.  The scene was splattered with blood, and it was only human blood.  Maintaining balance became a challenge, as the loss of blood and trauma was enough to put DOrian into a state of vertigo.

Blood still spilled down his wrist, and he wanted to rush home to tend to himself, but then a voice called out...

"Hey, over there!" he shouted. "Did you happen to see what caused this?"

Embarrassed, and in a bit of shock still moments after the strike, Dorian hesitated before answering, then  warned, "You might want to stay away!"  before Dorian could try and make an excuse, the cat began to give all of its effort to escape from its imprisonment and was succeeded!

banner credit: google & admin kay
lyrics: SayWeCanFly

If you ever feel like I do when you slip between cracks,

maybe then I'll see why nothing stays intact

Knocking over the trash can to release itself was only the first part of the rapid, cat's plan.  The next part was the continuation of its aggression.  However, this time, it changed targets.  My words had not been informative enough, and left the boy in a state of curious confusion.  The stranger stood in a confident stance, as if he were expecting a reasonable answer to his previous question, but words wouldn't suffice.  

Maybe out of embarrassment or maybe out of rage, the feline maybe a beeline for the boy, and an imperceptible, likely expletive, word escaped the boy's mouth in a quick breath.  In seeing the damage dealt by the beast to me, the other male ran to avoid the assault of the lynx instinctively.  The in-shape lad could easily manage to outpace the likes of cat, even while tripping.  Eventually, in realization that it had no chance to catch up, the feline left the scene, and the guy walked back, winded at most.  It was evident by the boy's scrapes and more his eyes, that the chaos of the event startled him, which I don't blame him for.

Upon arriving to the place where I stood still at during his bout with the cat, his words were apologetic,

”Thanks for the warning. Sorry that I didn’t exactly listen at first…”

The boy, around my age, seemed amused and dumbfounded at the same time, which in retrospect, from a bystander's perspective, we had certainly made a scene, to say the least.  One to easily, change up the blazing hot, long, summer day.  Shrugging, in not knowing what to think, my eyes fly everywhere, like an investigator on the scene of a crime, only the scene the two of us stand in isn't a crime.  Or at least I hope.

"It's okay, I was a bit unclear,"  in an attempt to save us from an awkward silence, I outstretch my bloodied arm to introduce myself, "I'm Dorian."  Why did I have to pick the most boring words? 

banner credit: google & admin kay

lyrics: SayWeCanFly