First Shift

The adjustment had been harder than Terrence thought. He predicted the early wake up to be difficult, but it was how early in the evening he was going to sleep that surprised him. It felt like he was living on another planet. Every day he woke up with the sun down, and got on an empty train. He would quietly greet the other five people working at the same time in his office, and then trudge through his day, until it was time to go home. Then he would climb on to another sparsely filled train, and sit at home, taking in as much day light as he could.

He hadn’t been seeing his friends much. They stayed out too late, and rarely got going before he was already feeling tired. He saw them on weekends, but even then, he couldn’t go out all night, as it would interrupt the delicate sleep balance he had built for himself. He felt trapped between the hard choices of a boring social life and soul deadening exhaustion at work.

One day, on the train, he was starting to nod off. This had happened before, and it brought a little excitement to the commute. Would he wake up in time? It was all the fun he had sometimes, and that made him sad. Just as he felt like he was going to fall asleep he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” the man said.

“What do you mean?” Terrence said.

“Working first shift,” the man said. “There’s a better life for us.”

“What do you mean?” Terrence said.

“You’re not alone,” the man said. “There’s a whole world of us. We’ve set up the lives we want to live, just for us.”

“I don’t understand,” Terrence said.

“Okay,” the man said. “For example, most bars happy hours start at six in the afternoon. What if I told you I know a whole list of bars that have a three o’clock happy hour?”

“Why have I never seen that?” Terrence said.

“Because you weren’t looking for it,” the man said. “We have restaurants that serve dinner at three thirty. We have clubs that get hot at six thirty. We even have developed sports leagues that exclusively play their games before five. We have meet and greets so you can get to know people on your work schedule. We can live our full lives. We have the organization.”

“This is amazing,” Terrence said. “This all sounds like a dream.” The man stood up stiffly and looked him right in the eye.

“Irving Park is next,” the man said.

“What?” Terrence said.

“This is Irving Park,” the man said. “Doors closing.”

He woke up quickly, and ran for the door, but it had closed. He would have to walk home from the next stop again.