Chapter One sample.

The full chapter should be up in a week. I'll delete this snippet when that gets posted. Enjoy!

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I’ve spent a lot of time, lately, feeling sorry for other people.

I’m not sure why. I never used to care so much. You wouldn’t blame me if you were in my position, either: I work the IT desk at a college. I have to deal with whiny assholes constantly, seldom receiving any thanks or praise for my work. As part of the customer service industry, I’ve learned to tune out the feelings of others and just focus on the job.

But now… now I can’t help but care. My heart is bursting with emotion for everyone. What the hell happened to me?

Take Tuesday, horrible, humdrum Tuesday. Some preachy Philosophy student had dropped his laptop on my support desk and demanded I fix the thing. Nothing new, that – I have to coax dozens of laptops back to life every day. Whether I’m successful or not I feel the same: happy. Happy, because some time has passed, bringing me a little bit closer to clocking out.

But this was different. I actually cared. I wanted to make this poor guy happy. I wanted to fix his laptop, I really did. But no matter what I tried, I couldn’t pry the back panel open. My fingers could barely grasp my screwdriver, let alone turn the damn thing. I felt helpless, and very, very sad for my customer.

So I jumped over the desk and bit him instead. It seemed the most natural way in the world to make him happy. A big ol’ piece out of his shoulder would fix him right up, I thought, though I only managed to nibble his neck before he pushed me away.

Now I’m at home without a job, so I guess you can change ‘work’ to ‘worked’. I don’t really feel like getting a new job, either: that will just distract me from making people happy.

But how? How can I bring joy into the lives of others? How can I show them that life doesn’t need to be a constant hustle-bustle, but rather a gem one can simply enjoy? How can I prove to the world that it’s doing the wrong thing by ignoring all that should be embraced?

I’m not sure. So I’m stuck at home, thinking, trying to turn on the television. Maybe the news will give me hints. I can’t seem to hit the buttons properly, however. This doesn’t bother me, though it is curious. My hands have lost much of their manual dexterity. Great news for a laptop technician.

And god, am I hungry. I’ve rooted through the fridge a dozen times today, lurching out of my seat every ten minutes to find… something. Anything. There isn’t a single item in the damn thing that appeals to the hunger in my mouth, though, and I wish I could get rid of the itch.

The dude I was helping tasted pretty good, even though I only got a sample of him. I wonder if knowing that would make him any happier. He was so pissed at his laptop being broken. You’d think a student of Philosophy would learn how to chill out.