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James Parker watched the television set with intensity and was
amazed by the swiftness of the media coverage. The third news van
arrived on site nearly twenty minutes before the first police car.
Only minutes later would the ambulance arrive. Sitting solemnly
on his plastic wrapped couch, watching the suffering of others had
become James Parker's pathetic daily routine. Occasionally he would
try to flip through the channels but he never experienced the need to
watch a fictional show anymore; all the drama was readily available
on “America's Newsroom” with Lana Diaz and her two thousand
dollar outfits.
The old man tried watching sports but he very quickly realized that
televised games were now three hour long advertisements. What
sportsmanship used to exist, had faded into showmanship. Now he sat
up for hours, absorbing the horrors of reality until ten in the
morning, at which time he hungered for more than the news. James
Parker would shut off his television, lace up his sneakers, grab his
coat and keys, shut all the windows, walk outside, go back inside,
check the windows again, walk back outside, lock the door, pause and
listen to see if he left the television on, and then start his daily
walk to Sammy's Diner.
And through all of this, Lana Diaz's voice continued to echo in his
head as he exited his apartment building:
Nevada
becomes the fifteenth state to ban violent video games after the
latest school shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas which
left nine students and three faculty members dead.
This walk to Sammy's Diner was the only exercise for the old man
these days; it was actually the only time he stepped out of his
apartmental jail. The time between locking his apartment door and
entering the diner was easily the worst twenty minutes of his day.
The old man always envisioned the stories from the television jumping
to life. And all the previous self deprecating thoughts of suicide
and death proved to be cowardly as he experienced very real fear
during this journey.
But, so far, the 2,556 days spent walking this path had proven
uneventful. As much as the faces in the city changed around him, the
city had remained the same. The building's facades were still
crumbling but the city's streets were far more polluted with things
much darker than litter. The homeless population continued to rise,
gang members no longer had specific territory, but occupied the
entire city freely.
Today, James Parker noticed the sky. He noticed how much the grey
has taken over.
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