The Magic Commute

The door slammed, suddenly knocking the anger out of him as he realized he wasn't as in control as he thought he was.

"Nevermind," he thought quickly, "I have to get to work now."

Walking quickly and with animated purpose to the car, he deftly unlocked it with his trusty key fob. The engine was turned over almost before his other foot was inside the door. If he had been slightly slower, the door would have come closed on said foot. That would have further set his day off on the wrong track.

A commute to work is a magical thing, at least for Jim. No matter how frustrated, angry, or even joyful he is when he leaves his house, all of those thoughts are gone by the time he gets to work. A quick stop for coffee to get his day started, this time with an extra set of calories to offset what he missed this morning due to an argument. Plastic is swiped quickly and emotionlessly. He never even mentally processed the price.

The morning's argument was almost a distant memory by this point. Thoughts of his calendar and tasks to accomplish throughout the day have crowded out the swirling emotions. The mental box for those feelings had been safely put away, bouncing around with energy and in anticipation of being opened up again.

Jim had looked to get some eggs for breakfast while everyone else slept. Even after moving seemingly everything out of the way in the fridge, he didn't see any eggs. He also couldn't find a single slice of bread to make any toast with either. The alien situation started his aggravation. As he sat in hunger drinking some water, his wife Sarah had come down.

"Why don't we have any eggs or bread?" Jim tried to ask politely. The words 'good morning' were not in his current vocabulary.

"You ate the last of them yesterday. I can't go to the store because we don't have the money for more food right now." Sarah replied, disappointment and brewing fear of the impending argument thinly veiled.

"What do you mean we 'don't have the money'?!"

"Just the words that I said, Jim, we don't have the money."

"Nonsense! Just put it on that new card we signed for last week. I'll have more paying jobs at the company by the end of the month."

"Jim, I don't feel right buying food with borrowed money at 30% interest!"

"30%?! No way, I looked at the terms myself, it wasn't a point over eighteen!" Jim was rather confident he had just won that little battle.

"Whatever, just go to work. I don't want to deal with your crap right now. The kids will be up soon and I have to figure out something for them. Just go do whatever you want to do for your own food."

The words hit Jim harder than he had expected. He couldn't express his feelings at the moment. The only thing he knew is that he was angry at these words from his wife. With his fresh anger barely under control, he headed toward the door.