The Machinist

The bell had rung, and all the students of the high school had begun to bleed out of the flat building to load into the circle of buses that awaited them. It was a friday; one of the many identical days of frigid February, distinguished only by the aura of happiness the student body was exhuming - a happiness that only a prospective weekend could bring.

Eric, a senior who was able to leave slightly earlier than most other students, sat in his car and watched as the specks disapeared into the yellow vehicles. He liked to let them leave first, it was calming to observe everybody, like how a silent mechanic would admire a machine's moving parts. With all the people stowed away, the buses took off out of the parking lot and went down the highway in a line. After admiring the emptiness of the previously crowded (...more)