Cassian

Coffee buddie

Here I am, again, laying on my bed, my alarm just turned off, I always wake up at 6 am, and that's exhausting, and I've been on the same routine every day for the last 6 years, does it really matter now if I'm getting exhausted or not, I got used to it anyways.

I adjust my posture and sit on the bed, I rub my eyes, stretch and finally stand up, I make my bed quickly and head to the bathroom, my eyes are still sleepy, I put my hands on the sink, I lift my head and I see someone staring at me, I get scared for a moment, and then realised that this is my reflection on the mirror, I chuckle at my stupidity, I mumble "I think I'm getting old earlier than I'm supposed to".
I shake my head, open the water, extra cold water and splash water on my face a few times, I decide to have a quick shower, I haven't showered since last week, what a filthy man!

While I'm showering, I talk to myself, "Is anyone else interested in working in my place? Does anyone want to see criminals and talk to them on a daily basis? Is this even a normal job?", I let out a sigh, "it doesn't really matter" I mumble to myself, I'm still feeling sleepy, I need some nicotine...wait what?..oh gosh forgive me I meant caffeine...I quit smoking in 2014, it's been ten years, oh time flies really fast.

At exactly 6:47 am, I take my car keys, my phone, some cash and head out of my apartment, I hop in the car and head towards the nearest coffee shop, I enter the shop and find the usual morning shift worker, my friend 'Jake', he smiles at me, I turn back the smile and sit on the table, after a couple of minutes, 'Jake' brings my usual order, caramel pistachio coffee with three shots of coffee, I thank him, take my order and head to my work.

I park my car, and step out of it, I see the usual depression filled building and the sign on it that is missing a few letters (Jail of Michigan), yes, unfortunately, I work at a jail.

I greet the workers on my way with a big smile to my small room on the second floor where I work, the 3 shots of coffee have finally kicked in, and now I can work without feeling the need to sleep.

I start my work by sorting files and documents, there are two main types of patients I work with, the first type is the ones that I only have to diagnose if they're mentally ill or not and that defines if they're gonna go to jail or not, and the second type is ones whom I have to keep track of to treat them, basically therapy sessions, and to be honest, I'm not loyal in my work, people sometimes bribe me to diagnose the *criminals* as mentally ill to get them out of jail, like really big amounts of money, at first when I was new in the field I didn't accept to get bribed to misdiagnose, but then I realised that I'm not even getting paid enough to care about the *loyalty*, so, I just gave in.

After two straight hours of sorting documents, I finally stood up and stretched my contracted muscles, I decided to have a look around since I have no other job to do, the first one I saw when I got out of my small office was the janitor 'Richard', he's a nice guy, I know him since I started working here, he started working here even before I came, so he's an old and a loyal worker,
- "Good morning Cassian how are you?"
- "I'm good Richard, how about you?"
- "I'm good"
- "How is your daughter 'Anna' doing?"
- "she's good, she just finished her midterm exams and is waiting for her results"
- "I hope her the best! Send her my wishes"
- "I definitely will"

He smiles at me as he continues wiping the floor, I turn back the smile and continue walking around the jail, I decide to go down to the first floor, I took a cup of water on my way, I was thirsty as hell, when I got downstairs, I see a group of handcuffed prisoners waling in a straight line, I approach a little bit and stand next to the 'George' the guard who's by the way a new worker, I ask him tilting my head closer to him
- "where are they going?"
- " today is their execution" and he takes a drag from the cigarette he's holding
- "oh shoot how did I forget this *special* day, anyways have you got any ideas about their crimes?"
- "Most of them are murderers, and a few of them are human traffickers"
- "and from now and on I guess we'll use 'were' instead of 'are' " and I laugh a little at my own joke
He doesn't say anything and continues smoking
- "every life will die, no matter whose life it is" George adds
I actually didn't expect such deep words to come out of his mouth, I nod at him and say "yeah that's true" I smile at him and continue walking around the first floor.