Spongeberg tried to ignore the long haired, slightly smelly man sitting in the phone booth next to him while retrieving his canned drink from the machine. But no good.
“Umm, spare some change for a Green-Grey war veteran?” he prompted as Spongeberg was about to move away after a refreshing sip.
He glanced over, detected no immediate disability. “Depends on what’s wrong with you,” he decided to say unfeelingly. Can’t even bother to pick up his cup for begging, pheh, he thinks. Lazy bum as well. Then Roth moves more into the light to expose his hands that weren’t there, also exposing the reason the cup had to remain on the ground in front of him.
“Oh,” said Spongeberg to this, still considering whether to give him even a hard earned dime of his money. He drops a nickel into the cup, prepares to move on. He walks slowly so as not to rattle all the change that still remained in his pockets. Didn’t work. Roth watches him with his own disdain as he fades into the distance…
Up the road connecting Highway 13 and Highway 14 over the mountainous beige spine of Lower Austra separating them he goes. Aiming to catch a Second Lyfe to Real Life plane back home to Whitehead Crossing before dying again on the road like a dog in this cursed world, his own severe handicap here.
The two men could have become chums then and there, sharing Spongeberg’s drink while discussing disabilities personal and societal. But Spongeberg chose to remain free of all that, not tied down to a new friendship, despite the benefits he might reap.
This is actually an alternate story to the one presented here in photo-novel 13. But also a warning. Extreme freedom sometimes has a price, and something like a nickel won’t cover it.
Sunklands 