Other Than This
by KJ Kabza
The Weston H. Dawley who is worse off than the rest lives alone, and has been unemployed for 4 years.
He begins each day in a shitty apartment, moaning “Christ on toast,” as he awakens. (Other Westons say this too, but with those Westons it is because the Q3 reports look bad, or because a girlfriend has frolicked inappropriately where the press can see.) Our Weston rubs his eyes (as another Weston in a separate Beijing kicks back with a beer) and wobbles to the bathroom, where he ignores the dirty laundry and carpenter ants.
He faces the toilet, tugs down his sweatpants, and experiences a mediocre piss.
(Weston the astronaut, on Space Station Kiev II, carefully urinates into a bag.)
Our Weston gives himself a shake, pulls up his sweats, and flushes. He looks in the mirror reflexively. In some other universe, another Weston wakes in the arms of his wife and smiles; another Weston rides the disoriented high of the insomniac, grading philosophy papers and gulping down decaf; another Weston (a.k.a. DJ Scratchet) mixes his ninth record.
Our Weston washes his hands.
He also wonders if he will ever be anything other than this.
KJ Kabza writes fantasy, horror, science fiction, and the occasional regular-type fiction piece. He invites you to google him to find more of his work archived on the web, and suggests that you purchase the anthologies Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths and The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008 if you’d like some of his work concretized on your bookshelf.
