In the Wind

With food ticket in hand, Danny thought about the long walk down the flights of stairs, maybe if he did some extra handyman work for the building czar, he could curry favor and get a room closer to the bottom, she was lazy and was always looking for someone to do work for her, best of all she was wasteful and maybe he could get some fresh fruit from her, she would not eat bananas with brown spots, and almost always gave them to Danny in exchange for housework.

 As he started his descent, he thought about that day 7 years ago, It was 2013 late January, He had been out back chopping wood, it was going to be a very cold winter, heating bills had tripled, he was 56 and in pretty good shape, but he felt the tickle in his throat and new he was catching cold, the weatherman was predicting 6-8 inches of new snow.

As Danny Stacked the wood, he thought happily to himself, that he would get his grandkids to shovel the snow, with gas at $7.55 a gallon, the snowblower would sit unused, He would rather throw some piggyback money their way, with a promise to their favorite sledding hill.

Dannys oldest son Mark, his wife and 3 kids, the twins Nikki and Ashley both 10 and Mark jr. 12, lived right next door.

He went out front to see if Mark was home yet, he was not, he looked over to the local High school and noticed the hub of activity in the football field, tents and shacks going up everywhere, first thing he thought of, was funnel cakes, must be a winter carnival.

As Danny entered the house, he could hear his wife Katie singing along to the oldies station, he could smell the grilled Cheese and new he was in for some good old fashioned Michigan comfort food.

Life was good, tomato soup, grilled cheese, hot apple pie and a big glass of cold milk.

Katie was an ER nurse, she knew right away Danny was catching cold, she insisted on some name brand cold remedy, Danny smiled and told her a couple of fingers of Jack before bed would do the trick.

They sat and watched the evening news, another riot over tennis shoes broke out at the local mall, Yep, gas was going up again and the stockmarket was crashing for the 4th straight day, Time for bed.

He was almost to the 40th floor when he thought about the events, the disbelief at what happened next when he awoke the next morning.

To be cont.