MicShazam

Last Orders (the Chinese pirate market verison)
Joey walked down the Sunday morning streets, his bare forearms numbed from the freezing weather. Joey didn't really notice. He was still feeling the buoyant buzz from his night-turned-moring leftover-vodka binge and needed some cheap, piss-taste beer to hold him over until his usual mid-day brandy binge could commence. The beer would serve as a sort of break for his kidney and his mind. A constant top level buzz just doesn't happen - not without killing yourself. Joey had instinctively developed a routine of peaks and valleys.

This morning, Joey had forgotten his vallet. He didn't realize until his left foot hit the first of two steps into the local corner kiosk. Still in a slightly off-center, not quite calibrated for wise decisions mindset from the vodka, Joey absent mindedly pulled a hobby knife from his left pocket as he entered the store.

Just 12 hours ago, he'd been opening boxes and putting the contents into storage at a dead-end day job. Now, knife in hand, he found himself pointing the knife tip at a wide eyed store clerk, while demanding 2 six packs of Steel Reserve. Joey was as surprised as the clerk, although slightly more dazed and a lot less attuned to the reality of the situation.

15 minutes later, cops dragging him into their van, Joey felt an ecstatic connection to the realness of life. Didn't last long, but for a split second, Joey felt more alive than he had for years.

(this has been my first and possibly last contribution to this thread. many apologies.)