Willowbrook

      November 23, 1985   If you expect disaster, it always comes. Leaving work at 6:30 a.m. with no one there to finish the disaster is a recipe for disaster. So, at 6 a.m. I began to worry. The store is supposed to open at 7 a.m., even though it is in the mall. John M told me yesterday he would be coming in early. This surprised me at the time. So, when he did not appear, I began to think he was going down the same road as Tommy, only at a faster rate. I remembered the talk about giving Tommy a second chance since he was the one scheduled to come in. I kept thinking John M did not have the endurance to keep making up for what Tommy wouldn’t do. But John M says one thing and often thinks something else – which is why I don’t always trust him. Five days ago, before his own trouble started, John M mumbled something about Phil being “one cold-hearted bastard.” I don’t think he could get the Tommy thing out of his mind, how Phil turned on Tommy, and how John M expected ...

    November 22, 1985   Change is in the air, needed change by my thinking – here in Fotomat as well as Dunkin, not to mention my private life. Just working out here at the edge of the known world in Fotomat makes me feel better. Part of it is being closer to Jimmy again, somehow being connected to that part of my life that I thought lost. Ledgewood is only a few more exits along Route 80 and conversations with my old boss from Willowbrook Dunkin reminds me of how well things once were, and how evil Phil is, and how quickly good things can turn into bad things if we’re not careful. Dunkin has become an inquisition. Fortunately, the focus has shifted from me to John M and his buddy, Mike. They are chief suspects as troublemakers. Phil and Rich have held back their paychecks until they can grill the two suspects. There is a discrepancy in hours worked, too many hours for one, and an overlap that suggests both managers were working at the same time. The problem is both manag...

    November 20, 1985   In business, everyone is expendable. With Phil, this even means close relatives. From the first day, Phil had nothing good to say about Tommy. While there is a lot of bad things I could say about Tommy, too, there are good things as well. I heard about Tommy before I actually met him; so, I expected him to be an idiot when he turned out to be something short of a goof ball instead. He was a fellow with a wicked sense of humor. Slightly taller than me and with dark hair and a thick black beard, Tom was always looking around at the girls – even when his wife was around. His sense of humor nearly cost him a passing grade as Dunkin Donuts University since he insisted on telling jokes – which, of course, aggravated Phil to no end. Phil hoped I would be the responsible party. But I left two months after he took over the business – caught up in school, my uncle, and a general romantic delusion that I could not make my living as a writer. Ha! So, Phil ...

      November 21, 1985   American capitalism like politics is a vicious road; to have a heart often means heart failure. The underlying structure isn’t just about making money; it is also a violent penetration of power that generally isn’t spoken openly about. And few people really understand it until they get run over by it. Where as politics claims “winner takes all,” terms like “sink or swim,” “Everyman for himself,” or “Dog eat dog,” reflect the constant struggle that goes on in an attempt to get or protect power. With Phil, his road to power came as a stroke of luck. He was the trusted employee of a Pepsi distribution company.   He was one of those indispensable underlings on the rise with an eye out for an extra buck, but an upwardly mobile soul with no place he could go in a small company that could not pay him what he thought he deserved. There was a roof over his ambition he could not break through. Then, the owner of the company made a mistake, some...