Diminished

”Tom get back here. Your getting on my last nerve man. I swear to god this is my last time telling you to get your sorry no good...”

“Yo Boss. I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Ready?”. I said

“Tom what could you possibly have to say to…”

“You see that brick wall behind you?” We were both right outside of the construction site we were workin on that day. He usually gets pretty heated when I just up and leave. But never like this. You could just tell, that today, he just wasn’t having it.

“Tom if you don’t…”

“I’m asking you. You see it or what?”

“Sure I do. But who gives a flying..”

“Well take a good look at it pal. Cause you’ll get a way more productive conversation with that than you will with me.”His large stomach broke a few of his shirt buttons as he waddled his way over to me . I almost died trying not to laugh. I didn’t have much respect for the dude. But I had enough decency not to laugh at him. You should never laugh at someone when they’re really mad. It’s not worth it. It never is.

“Give me one good reason, why I shouldn’t knock every last one of those pearly whites outta that smart mouth of yours.” I’d say his face was about as close to mine as one could imagine, and I swear his breath almost put me into cardiac arrest.

“Hey man. Do what you gotta do. But based on how your wife looks everyday I’d say you’ve had a lot of practice under your belt. Ain’t that right?” Let me tell you something. When I say I have never seen a dude burst into tears faster, I mean it. This man was crying like he was the one that getting beat all the time. Now that really made me wanna start laughing. Some of this stuff is just comedy.

“I stuck my neck out for you, I treated you like family. And this is how you repay me? Please Tom, what do I gotta do to make you stay?”

“Listen Boss. If I was you. I’d save all this compassion for your wife. Something tells me she needs it more than I do.” I could tell he heard me when I said that. But I couldn’t tell if he was really listening. I’m at least glad I let that off my chest though, cause I’m gonna be honest. I don’t think there’s more than 10 women on this planet that get a kick out of bringing their husband lunch with a broken cheekbone. But what do you know, maybe he lucked out and found one of the 10. Or maybe, one of the 10 found him. Either way, I had to get out of there. No amount of talking was gonna do any good anyway. I knew that for a fact.

“Hey Tom, you there?”

“Yo Mark, how are you…”

“Tom I didn’t call you to chit chat. You know that. What’s your time?”

“Uh, I’d say like 30 minutes till the planes hit”.

“Jesus Chr… Alright how many people did you save?”

“Umm, well you know, I didn’t really…”

“Tom you can’t be serious. I told you…”

“Listen man, I got it alright. There’s still time I’ll just…”

“You were at that construction joint weren’t you?”

“Come on dude that’s not…”

“Weren’t You?”

“Yes, Ok I was. But I just wanted to visit it one more time man, I promise. And I tried to leave but then I got into this argument and…”

“Tom. I don’t care. I really don’t. Just make sure, that whatever you do, you don’t waste this opportunity. This is the one chance we get to go back in time and change things. And we’re all trusting you. So please, don’t mess this up, alright.”

“Alright man. I won’t. I promise.”

“I don’t need your promise. I need you to save lives.”

“Will do Mark. You can count on me.”

Now I remember why I don’t answer phone calls. I’m telling you, there’s always somebody out there trying to get on your last nerve. I guess I know how boss feels now. But I’ll at least take a look at the towers, see if anybody catches my eye. Who knows maybe there’s a few models out there in need of rescuing. We’ll see.

As I made my way onto Fulton Street there was just a bunch of lawyers and bums everywhere. I couldn’t find anyone to save. But as I turned around to head back this short haired woman bumped right into me. And let me tell you, she had the whole package. She definitely had the potential to be saved.

“Woah, my bad I didn’t see you there.” I said

“Sorry I just…”

“Are you headed somewhere?”

“Yeah I gotta go to work.” As I looked her up and down. Something wasn’t quite adding up

“Where do you work?”

“Listen dude I don’t have time…”

“Your an escort right?”

“Yes. I am. Is that all?”

“Are you happy?”

“Huh?”

“Well with being an escort and all, you happy?”

“I’m as happy as an escort can be honey.”

“That’s all I needed to hear.”