Jonah's Page

NOTE: THE EVENTS AS I BEST REMEMBER THEM

DAY ONE: 12:00 P.M.
For a few days, the news had been reeling on about the chemical spill the military was trying to contain near Knoxville. All access to the area had been cut off. Nobody was coming or going for 100 SQ. miles fo Knoxville. I really did'nt give a rat's ass about it as long as things did'nt effect me. Man, was I in for a suprise.......I woke up late that afternoon to a local news bulletin asking residents to please not report to the local ER unless it was absolutely necessary. Wierd, I thought. The kids had'nt woke me up yet. MY son and daughter usually beat me out of bed and challenged me to a game on the playstation 2 on the mornings I did'nt report to work early. I went down the hall to check on them. There they were. Playing that infernal contraption. The phone rang. It was Ken. The owner of Fatz Cafe in town where I worked. As usual, an out of place call meant he wanted me to come in earlier than scheduled to cover for someone. Even a nearby military operation could'nt keep us from business as usual. It won't be busy, i said to myself. Doing my best to make it look like I was doing him a favor, I agreed to be there as soon as my mom could be home for the kids. I placed the call to her, and she arrived shortly. Little did I know that today was the beginning of the end of my comfortable little world.

3:00 P.M.
I arrived at work to notice there were only two cars in the parking lot. Employees always parked across the road in an another lot. I got a look at Ken's car. It was smashed up in the front quarter panel, but still able to be driven. As i opened the side entrance door, I heard Ken yelling at someone. He was on the phone. Apparently, he was trying to get a police officer to come to Fatz so he could place an accident report. The dispatcher informed him that an unusually high number of calls had come in, and they would'nt be able to answer his call unless it was an emergency. Then he looked puzzled and said, "what attacks" as he shrugged. My curiosity was aroused, but I walked away to clock in and see who else was around. The place looked really dead. Only a few of us had reported to work.

5:00 P.M.
After a couple of hours had passed, I started to see that nobody else was coming to work. Two servers, Adam and Kelly, were the only ones there besides a few people in the kitchen, and Ken of course. Even our ads said Ken was always there. I had seated some tables since I came in, but business was terrible. I walked into the back to ask Ken what the hell we were all doing there. I peeped into the office to see him holding his hand up in front of his face to examine it. Wow, he had a nasty bite on it. A human bite obviously. When I asked him what had happened, he told me all about having a collision with someone at an intersection in town. He was almost yelling as he remarked on some guy who was obviously on drugs just letting his car roll real slowly into his Honda from across the road. Ken said it was like the crazy bastard was passed out or something and had let his foot slip off the brake. Then the story got weird. After the collision, Ken had bolted out of the car and ran up to the window of the driver's Mustang. In anger, he grabbed the edge of the window as he intruded his face into the guy's car. His rage quickly escalated as he saw, what looked like, the dude leaning into the passenger seat passed out. Ken said "passed out wasted", because the man's face and seat were covered in vomit. In a rage, Ken grabbed the guy's collar and pulled him up, as to make his face and neck stick out the window a bit. Suddely, Ken explained, the fucker opened his eyes and took a good bite on the hand Ken was steadying himself with on the window seal. The really weird thing was that Ken told me the dude's cheek looked like it had been ripped almost off. When the man was hunkered over, he could'nt see it. Only after the dude had tried to make a meal out of Ken's hand did he realize how fucked up the situation might really be. Then the office phone rang. "Thanks for calling Fatz Cafe", Ken mechanically recited into the phone. I was captivated by the story, but I had to get back up front in case a guest came in. Adam and Kelly sure as hell would'nt be watching the door for me. Back to it!