# 24: Harvey - Closed

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BrrrrrrIiiiNnnnnnGggggg
Same thing. Except that when he arrived at work there was a chain on the gate. There was a lock on the chain. There was a sign.

Closed
Put out of business by
ObamaCare and the EPA.
your checks will be mailed to you
Management.

Harvey was stunned. He didn’t know what to do.

Fifteen years ago the nice lady at the VA had set him up with a job and a place to stay. Harvey’s routine hadn’t varied in that whole time. During the week he was a sandblaster at the Power Brake rebuilding plant. On the weekend he did laundry and drank vodka.

Not that he didn’t drink vodka during the week. He did. He drank himself to sleep every night. On the weekend that was ALL he did.

Memories. Vodka helped him with the memories..

“Damn Cowards” Harvey heard a voice. He turned to see Chuck sitting in his old beater. “They didn’t have the balls to tell us themselves. They took the chickenshit way out, chained the gate, and posted a sign”.

Chuck spit a wad of chaw onto the pavement. Chuck was the foreman and always had a chaw going.

“You better get your ass out of here boy” Chuck told Harvey. Odd that, Harvey was maybe twenty years older than Chuck. Chuck was black as night. Harvey was white. For some reason Chuck got a kick out of calling Harvey “boy”. Harvey didn’t care.

Chuck got out of his beater and stood next to Harvey. Chuck was HUGE, even if he did have a wooden leg.

“When the rest of the crew shows up they ain’t gonna be happy” Chuck said.

“You’re the only white boy here” Chuck continued. “No telling what might go thru the empty heads of some of them guys. They’ll most likely as not find a way to blame you. You best leave”

“What about you?” Harvey asked.

“They won’t mess with me. Or they better not” Chuck ‘accidentally’ swung his shirt back so that Harvey could see his pistol. “go on outa here now. Git!”

Harvey swung back up on his bike.

“One thing Boy.” Chuck said

“Yeah?” Harvey looked back toward Chuck.

“You’re a good man.” Chuck said. “Even if you are a white man. Take care of yourself.”

Harvey just nodded. Something was in his throat. He didn’t trust himself to speak.

Harvey road away. He never expected to see Chuck again.

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Harvey just rode. He rode his bicycle all over town. His schedule was shot. For the last fifteen years he’d ridden to the factory in the morning. Worked all day, then he went home at night.

It wasn’t night, so he didn’t ride home.

Harvey just rode.

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The sun rose and he continued to ride. Harvey had no idea where he was. He wasn’t familiar with this part of town. It was the bad part of town near the river. He wandered around all that day too. He had been awake for the biggest part of two days. He was exhausted. Worse than that he didn’t have any alcohol.

Harvey feared dreaming while sober. That was the worst. He dreaded going to sleep.

Finally, when the sun was going down, he could keep his eyes open no longer. Harvey parked his bike and crawled into a culvert in a ditch. If it rained he’d drown but he didn’t care. He fought valiantly against Morpheus. Morpheus always won. Every time. He had no alcohol. He would dream. He feared his dreams. He went to sleep. He dreamed. For the first night in over fifteen years Harvey was sober when he went to sleep.

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