The alarm came on slow, from quiet to loud, until Frank couldn’t ignore the yelling radio mouths anymore. He dragged himself out of bed, shuffled to the bathroom to empty bladder, went to kitchen to make coffee. Out of coffee. Forgot the drawbridge went up thirty minutes early, would definitely be stuck in traffic. Air conditioning broken at work, he sweat through his shirt before lunch. No taco truck today, had to eat out of the vending machine. The ancient sandwich tasted like grass.
Frank woke with a jolt, realized he dozed off while eating. He looked around the barn, relieved everything was how he left it. Even the dry hay and damned scratchy saddle felt good compared to that nightmare.