Day 113: Cold Blue Anger Part 3

Tony stared at him and could tell that he was restraining himself from saying something.  Tony ignored it and went to get his gas can out of the trunk.  After he got the gas can filled to the brim, he hopped in the car again.  Andrew had the radio on, tuned to a pop music station.  The tension between them grew as the songs progressed.

After the fourth song, Andrew shut the radio off.  ‘I don’t like that song.”

“I don’t care for it much either.”

“Tony, there’s a fact about my life that I didn’t share with the class when I gave my little speech.”

Tony’s attention was piqued.

“I was almost engaged, to a wonderful woman named Marci.  I planned a special night for her and everything.  Before I was going to leave to pick her up, a friend of mine called and invited me over to the bar for a drink to celebrate.  I had some free time, so I agreed.  I ended up staying a lot longer than I had originally intended.  When Marci called me up, she was furious that I had never shown up.  I thought I’d make it up to her by taking her out to a restaurant, but on my way to her house, I got into an accident.  No one was hurt, but I got a DUI and was required to go to AA meetings.  Marci broke off our engagement when she found out about the accident.  I went to anger management shortly thereafter, when I had finished AA.”

“Whoah.  I had no idea.”

“Not many people do.”

“No offense, but how could you get such a nice girl if you had such an anger problem?”

“I was never really angry with her.  I guess she saw some good in me.  I promised her that I would change, and I had even started to cut back on drinking.  It just wasn’t enough.  I found out she married another guy a couple years later.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

For some reason, Tony had been reminded of a speech, one out of several like it, that his mother had given him while he was in high school.

“Mark my words, Tony,” she used to tell him in her strong Bronx Italian accent, “One of these days that cocky ego of yours is going to knock ya square off ya feet.  You want to end up like your cousin Robbie in jail?  Armed robbery?  You’re too smart for that.  Act like it!  Don’t give your ma a heart attack.”

 Tony would laugh at his mother.  He had promised himself he wouldn’t make the same mistakes as cousin Robbie, but he didn’t see the need for caution.  He wasn’t going to skip school like that screw-up did.  He was smart, and that’s what set him apart from the rest of everyone else.  Little did Tony know that his mother wasn’t far from the truth.

After suffering through working at the café for six months, Tony had gotten a job in the technology department at his dream company.  He was ambitious.  One day, he was going to be the manager of the department, then the president.  He stayed hours past his shift, tried to help his co-workers with their workload, and gave his advice whenever he could.  Everyone at work remarked what a bright, talented young man he was.

“Tony’s gonna go far,” his co-workers would say.

It’s no wonder that Tony started getting mad at work.  He continuously got promoted over the next few years, but he reached a certain point in his career where he stayed as stagnant as pond water.  He tried everything he could to show his worth to his boss.  He proposed money-saving tips for the company and new directions they hadn’t considered.  Yet whatever he tried to do, his boss didn’t seem to take him seriously.  What was worse than that was the fact that Tony soon found himself doing work he was under-qualified to do.  He hated having to do work that seemed to waste his time and talent.  He knew his ideas would work, if only his arrogant boss would listen to him once in a blue moon. All the long hours that he did put in and the flawless work that he produced time and time seemed to go unnoticed.  Tony got fed up with it all.  The liars, the unappreciation, the backstabbers, those that piggybacked on his work or plagiarized it as their own.  He was tired of it all.  It wasn’t at all how he expected his “dream career” would go.

Mitzy had begged him not to get so upset.  “They’re not worth wasting your energy over, sweetheart.  You’re too good for them.  If you ask me, you should quit and find a job somewhere else.”

He should have listened to his wife, but he had been too stubborn with his goals and proud to take her advice.

“We’re here.” Andrew brought him back to reality.

“Oh, so we are.”

“I’ll stick around to make sure your car starts alright.”

Tony filled up his gas tank and started his car.  The engine roared to life.

“That’s what it needed,” Tony stated.

“Good!  Well, be safe driving.”

“Yeah, you too.”  Before Andrew drove away, he added, “Thanks for the lift.”

“Anytime, Tony.”

Alone with his thoughts again, Tony pondered his conversation with Andrew. 

“I suppose there could be something worth it to those anger management classes.  I’ll give it a week or two more.”

His wedding picture that he had hanging from the front mirror bobbed as he went over a small pothole.

“We haven’t been that happy in I don’t know how long.  I wonder if it’s too late to go back.”

On his way out of the supermarket, Tony decided to buy a single red rose.