A Simple Tune

Chapter III

The sun rose in New York City, on this warm spring Friday morning in the big apple; a young black man with New York baseball fitted cap, with a slightly trim beard and a loop nose ring on his left nostril, slowly made his way out of the after hour nightclub which just ended. With a muscular build he made his way down the busy streets of New York, the city that never sleep and never waits for no one. Zigging and zagging in a hurry in and out of the crowed he made his was down the street, suddenly his phone went off he quickly reach down his pocket and pulled out his cell.

"Alex… where are you? The store needs to open at 8!" a stern old voice from the phone replied.

"I'm on my way I'll be there in ten minutes," Alex said in a hurry as he began to run down the street and into the subway.

On the subway Alex lean against the side of the pole and felt unease, thinking to himself where is his life going, from DJing at night to working at a computer store during the next day and then later web designing. Looking back at his early life it seems that he has done well, from in and out of group home to finally able to gain a scholarship to a college prep school. He did his work and graduated from community college when many would say that he would never amount to nothing, from fighting as kid to living a productive life. But to Alex looking out the window into the blackness of subway, he seemed to want more and to accomplish something great.

Coming to his stop he snapped back to reality and made his way out as he walked out, forgetting all that he thought and moving on with his life. Alex enter the store that was connected to an old house, as he enters a bell rang and he made his way to a stacks of computers and extra parts that were place neatly on each side, behind the counter that took up half of the small store was old man in his 80's who began to speak.

"Alex when you came to me to ask for a place to stay and we agreed that you work the computer store because of your ease with electronics. We made this deal you can stay only if you kept the store open and running, so please try not to be late… I don't know why you late if you live here too," The elder man said with a chuckle.

"Sorry Mr. Longley, it won't happen again." Alex said this making way to his place, filled with computer parts that will help to fix a PC that needed fixing today.

Alex began to get in his zone as he went to work on the computer, Mr. Longley walk slowly toward Alex carry in slim hands a cup of coffee, the scent of fresh coffee filled the small room, that was filled with all types of computer parts.

"Here Alex take this hot coffee, help you wake up quicker," Mr. Longley whispered handing him the cup of hot coffee to him.

"Thanks Mr. Longley, but at this point I need to recover some sleep and actually rest," Alex said with a smile that made the old man chuckle; deep down knowing that would never happen. Alex was a type of person the live the moment and always believe that he would rest when he died something that the old man knew all too well about him. They both shared this vision to live life to the fullest and not be caught sleeping or it will pass you by, maybe this is why they got along so well. The old man saw himself in Alex and his fight passion he has the drive to be more than the next average joe. Mr. Longley in early life was semi pro boxer and for this he loved Alex fighting spirit. He was also amaze at the ease Alex had with numbers and computers, so they both fit well in this house slash work place in Brooklyn.

Alex sipped slowly on his coffee as he moves his finger on the part of the computers as if getting a field for them for the first time. He was quick with number so computer programing came to him with ease as he always strived to not let tech conquer him. His other life was spinning tracks at the club, just to get that extra cash for anything new that came out dealing with pc, while anytime left he would be caught web designing. But his real self was when he went into the internet and sitting here with the computers, it gave ease to let himself really talk and not deal with the many faces that people tend to show during real life, he felt naked and expose on the net and he liked it that way; whatever he wanted to find out he look for it or even if he had question he would enter the cyber space lounge and contact his many contact of all over the world.

He would navigate into many different sites, as if searching for unfound knowledge, many sleepless nights. Alex would jump into many philosophy eBooks and he would sit for hour some time asking a single question. As he fiddled around looking for parts he knew that he was destined for something bigger than life itself. He knew that he was changing inside him and he accepted this change with open arms. Alex stop and look into the black computer screen that was next to him that gave off a slight reflection of him, looking deep into the screen he fell into the abyss of all his wonder and all his question he had stirring inside him. He snapped back to the work at hand and he knew he had to finish it by today so he scrabbled as fast he could to finish this computer damaged hard drive and broke cooling system.

The morning light slowly gave way to the strong force of the Sun at high noon, as the light spread into the small computer repair store it gave way to sights of many parts that the room front part was divided in two by a massive large shelve that was made up all types of computer parts, on one side the used and on the right side the new. For Alex the morning went by quick, as he listened to the radio in old radio that he had made from broken computer parts, this radio was important to him it was the first thing he built in his early reckless childhood. Alex would give it a tune up every now and then but for him it was his first real success and the first thing he finally completed all to himself. The radio began with the news block and began to state the young women:

"It has been confirmed that Argentina was hit with a massive unknown virus that cripple the country, attacking mainly all data files!" Alex turned it up a little bit higher as not to miss anything. The young voice went on and stated, "The White House would look into these attack and would further give any new information as the investigation went on. Not give a lot to go by I think this could be serious."

The talking young voice and her co-host began to get into a discussion of political part of this issue. Alex slowly turned the knob to a good old fashion music station, he had something against politics and felt that it was all the same all over the world, a lot of talk and nothing is never done for the good.

Earth, Wind and Fire was on the radio so he began to fall into his work again, tapping his feet and humming "Very first time in September." While in his back of his mind he would later on at night would go digging on what was going in Argentina.

***

The day turn to early night and Alex was sleeping the best sleep he had in a while on the room on the top of the computer store and suddenly his phone rang. With startled he fumble the cellphone in his hand and he replied "Hello!"

"Yo James! It's Mike from the club I need you to cover for Lana, she out sick, I think she partied to much last night," Mike said laughing.

"Dude… Bro… It's my day off, I DJ almost every night and I final can catch some z's…" Alex was cut short by Mike rugged voice.

"Alex you'll get paid double your fee and you can choose your next day off."

Alex look up to the ceiling from his bed and he knew that he need the extra cash, so he agreed. "Let me take a shower and pack my stuff and be there, also tell Lana she owes me one."

"Yeah, Yeah, Bro you know it going to be a packed night tonight, a lot of reservation, so get my club bouncing, bring you're A game!"

"You know I always do Mike, peace!"

"See you in a bit James, I'll tell the chef to make something good for tonight." Mike said this and hanged up the phone.

Alex rose from his bed, he felt a little drossy because he fell into a deep sleep, a kind off sleep he never had. He walked into the shower and in five minutes he was out jumping to his loose fitting denim jeans, with a quickness he put on a tight black solid shirt over his muscular build. He added a little Aqua De Gio and grabbed his black bag. Ran out the door and suddenly remember something, he came back for his New York cap, off he went into the warm night and into the welcoming lights of New York City.