Lenny's creator inhaled the pizza. He had heard you were supposed to sit while eating. Otherwise you wouldn't enjoy it and your body would struggle to digest. He'd heard this on a
podcast
.
He had consumed countless podcasts over the past few years. There was a time when a new podcast might leave his mind and spirit occupied for weeks. He'd feel a change in the way he viewed
life
.
Now there seemed no end to the amount of new podcasts. That
inspiration
no longer present. Maybe it was after a year. Less than two years for sure. When he realized that he was essentially listening to multi-hour conversations about people espousing the same thing over and over again. Just different voices. Different people of different successful backgrounds repeating the message he had already known.
Lenny's creator initially was okay with this realization. He enjoyed having the sound of two people speaking. Wasn't really listening for the content anymore. He carried on listening for another year and a half like so.
Then he got a call. Dan Bordy from high school died. After getting off the phone he tried to resume the podcast he had been listening to. He couldn't get into it. He tried rewinding to listen to the last bit to ease back in. Tried to fast forward to see if there was a different topic that might entice him. He felt nothing.
Instead he shut his laptop and went outside and stared out into the street.
He wasn't close to Dan Bordy. They had hung out here and there when there was a crowd of people. But they never spoke one on one over text or made plans to see each other one on one. Lenny's creator couldn't tell why he felt this moved by the news of Bordy's death.
The funeral had already happened. The phone call where he learned of the death wasn't meant to inform him of the death. It was instead his friend wanting to chat and the death being a subject of it. Now Lenny's Creator kind of wished that someone had told him beforehand so that he could've flown back home for the funeral.
Lenny's Creator told his work that he had to go on vacation due to a friends' death, and then booked flights to return home.
On the plane they served no food. The flight wasn't long enough. Instead he snacked on Biscoff cookies and drank watery coffee. The girl sitting beside him was attractive from a traditional sense but he found her ugly from his own subjective taste.
"It's such a small place. I always wondered who might actually stay there."
Lenny's Creator smiled and pointed a thumb to himself. "Me. You found the only person who flies to Westcity and gets off there."
In Westcity Lenny's Creator stopped into a hotel.
Airbnb
s became all the craze years back. Then it had become a normalized form of lodging. But Lenny's Creator had disillusioned of the fees and the unpredictability that came with it and opted to stay at
hotel
s instead.
The Three Kings hotel. The name was so stupid that it intrigued him. He researched it online and found that it didn't look too bad. So he booked two nights there. If he ended up not liking it, he could change for the rest of his stay.
The room was on the fourth floor. When he finally set his suitcase down beside the dresser, he took a deep breath, walked over to the window and stared out into his view. All hotels felt the same wherever he went. All parts of a modern city surrounding an upscale hotel felt the same. No matter what part of the world he went. If he were to have his memory wiped right before coming to this vantage right now, he would not be able to recognize what city he was in. The only thing he would know that it was an urban place, but not a huge world class city.
This also meant that you couldn't find the world class amenities here. You couldn't easily and safely find upscale drugs as an outsider. Most of the drugs were bought and sold to locals rather than businessmen like himself. Instead he would stick to the traditional drug of choice. Alcohol.
By this point in his life alcohol was a boring ordeal. Not even classified as a drug. Rather an ever present part of evenings and sometimes afternoons. He'd take drinks without paying them any mind. Sort of like a pizza he might inhale after work on the way home, or a podcast he might have playing in the background.
He had no plans this evening. He no longer knew anyone in Westcity. So he would go to a bar and order a whiskey and wait for something to happen. No podcast. No looking at the phone. Maybe he'd nibble on some bar food.