Terry’s dream had always been to have his own food truck, so when Terry Dogs went out of business he had no idea what to do. He would lay in bed most days for hours at a time; thoughts propping his head on pillows of self-loathing, memories pinning him down on the sheets with violent, vengeful fantasies. After a few weeks his family started to avoid him and he decided to look for a job and perhaps a bit of revenge. His food truck had often used a lot owned by the Ruby Parking Company and he heard they were hiring, so he stopped by their office one Tuesday afternoon. A short time later he was a parking enforcer, patrolling the lot where he had once reached into boxes of stars to pull out his not-so-famous hot dogs. Now his old rival Sierra Tacos sat unopposed, glistening with the blood of Terry’s failure. But it was not over yet. In the days before, he had inserted labels with the Sierra Tacos logo to cover up the Ruby Parking Company logo on each of the parking tickets in his book. Carefully he got to work, making sure that no one was watching as he ticketed every vehicle in the lot. When he was finished, he changed out of his uniform and watched patiently from a sidewalk nearby. Around five p.m. employees from the adjacent buildings began returning to their vehicles. Wrinkles of rage had already appeared in the ordinarily orderly lines of the Sierra Tacos food truck but now boiling accusations were spraying into unsuspecting eyes. Terry was able to keep up the ruse for another three days before the Ruby Parking Company fired him. He spent those days laughing like a warrior and plotting like a king.
July 31, 2025 [Issue 46]
Grey Sparrow Journal 