What was it with  Big Joe ? James thought.

He couldn't say that there was necessarily something wrong with him. Although if he were telling somebody the story honest, that's exactly how he'd describe Big Joe. There's something wrong with him. He's messed up.

But if James thought there was truly something...

That evening I checked into the motel late. The man, who I only could assume to be the owner, looked upset. Downtrodden. Didn't know if it was because he just hated being there or if he was genuinely having a bad day.

I say he had to be the owner because...

He scrolled up and down the spreadsheets. Shifted tabs. Highlighted some cells, deleted the data in them. Then quickly hit undo. He did this because it felt fun. He used to scroll through his contacts list on his phone. Up and down. Up and down. You could say that Mr....

He doesn't remember why he started going to Kev's. It used to be something the family did. The whole summer, he remembered when Kev bought the place. His dad and him were celebrating they had some, Mike, his dad, even brought some whiskey. It was a gift from work, a...

The Kid -- Charlie Samuels -- was poor. Or more accurately his parents were. This meant Charlie had to eat a poor child's breakfast: cereal and orange juice . He ate this every morning without variation. By the time he was awake his parents would already be at the motel...

The black  Tesla pulled into the parking lot of the  Apartment building that had its unit doors directly facing outside like an old school motel . 

Zach's goodbye felt nice. Like a sentimental ribbon tied onto a package that made all the things that had happened nicer. He needed that....