Anti abandons the internet.

He squinted his eyes into the gray sky, beneath over-sized sunglasses, and let the subtle wind take his hair off his forehead. There were three cars angrily honking their car horns at his truck, parked illegally in the middle of traffic (with the emergency flashers blinking) preventing anyone from making a right turn at the intersection.

The boy didn't seem to notice, though. He stood there on the sidewalk next to his truck, with his head tilted towards the sky, his squinty eyes have now completely closed shut, and his breathing deepened.

the wind stopped and he snapped out of it when his sweaty hair landed back on his forehead. the boy used the hand that wasn't holding a hammer to push the sunglasses off his face, and hold his hair out of his eyes, and reached for a plastic sign nailed to a wooden stick. it was leaned up against his left left.

he walked back to his truck with his middle finger pointed at the three cars, letting them know that their honking was futile, and perhaps making their situation worse. honking never made anyone go any faster, ever. but this was the normal scenario, people in los angeles rarely showed any tolerance for roadway inconveniances.

as he drove along to the next intersection that needed sign installation, he got a call on his cell phone from one of his signwalkers.

annoyed, he answers the phone, "hello?"

"hiiii it's pennay, i needah watah, i gots monies..."

"save your money, penny, it's on me. i'll be there in about 15 minutes with an ice cold water for you."

and he hung up before she could go on. he had work to do, this was no time to chit-chat with the crew.

on his way to fetch water, he drove by the corner that was supposed to have Norm-the-signwalker on it, and all he saw was norm's signwalker sign laying flat on the sidewalk, and no norm in sight. The boy threw the steering wheel causing the truck to chirp it's tires on into the shell gas station, and the boy came barrelling out of the truck at full speed to locate his missing crew member. he started by pounding on the public restroom door, "Norm buddy... you in there?"

no reply.

after five minutes of no luck finding norm anywhere on or near his corner, the boy decided that norm was fired with no pay, and grabbed his signwalker sign off the sidewalk.

the boys hands tightened on the steering wheel as he sped down the street. he grit his teeth and shook his head in disgust. and asked himself how Norm could be suck a fuck-off all the time.

He finally reaches penny to deliver her a water, and notices a slack jawed 15year old boy listening to his walkman, waiting for the bus to come, standing across the street.

5 minutes, and a lot of sweet talk, and the boy had the replacement for Norm he was looking for. he also took time on the way back, to explain in further detail the job he lured the kid into the car with.

everything was copacetic, until he arrived to find norm standing on the corner looking very confused and scratching his head.

"sorry norm, you're fired." the boy said coldly.

"what the fuck, mannn, i was taking a shit, i couldn't hold no longer, i no it wasn't break time."

"then why was there no answer when i was pounding furiously on the bathroom door, eh buddy?"

"THAT WAS YOU?!?! i was scared half to death!"