Instalment One Hundred and Fifty Four

Always get me in a full night’s sleep. Heard that preacher once say how you is when you die is how you is in Heaven and I'll be damned ‘fore I spend all of eternity beat as a badger.

 - Surely you can take a catnap in Heaven, it’d be plum Hell if you caint.
Didn’t hear no tell from the preacher bout napping but sure as tarnation he don’t allow it church.
 - If what you say is so then I hope I die as half way through my second glass of beer of an afternoon. If I went and died after suppin' just one beer I would spend for all time wantin’ a second. And well if they don’t allow naps they sure as heck won’t allow me a second beer. And if I died two beers deep, you just know I’d be all full of gas. And can you imagine me burpin’ up there, I’d rather die right now. But if I got to die after one and a half beers, well I’d be nice and giddy, just how I like, forever more.
Tired and Drunk boozed till dawn like they’d live forever, which they did not.

Instalment One Hundred and Fifty Three

It was the kind of a day that made people want to do better.

Be better.

It had come from nowhere, predicted by none of the weather seers. What was meant to be a frosty early spring day had been trumped by a balmy tropical beach honeymoon afternoon that escaped to the city for a change of scenery.

A gift of a day.

Each person warmed by the rays or refreshed by the breeze knew they were lucky to receive the unseasonal gift. They sucked in a deep breath and thought to themselves, “I need to be the kind of person that deserves a day like this. I’ve got to try harder.”
Unseasonable.
The shy of work swore they would knuckle down, get a job and save some money. Starting tomorrow.

Students begged teachers for class on the oval.

Office drones updated resumes.
CEOs gazed out floor to ceiling windows across their city promising themselves they would try and take the kids out on the boat this weekend.
It was a day bought and paid for by Promise, who lived to produce such gifts for people. Beautiful boxes topped with bows. Empty boxes of course, that you must fill yourself.