Escalators

After enduring a childhood in poverty with his alcoholic and extremely neglectful father, Jason Schultz is now a grown man suffering from depression. Between his strained relationship with his sister, a job as a cook that he despises, and his overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, he struggles to make it through each day. When he falls in love with a new waitress at his work named Lydia, he imagines a better life with her but believes he can never have her. As his depression escalates, he makes a decision that will dramatically alter the course of his life.

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Chapter One Driving, thinking this should last longer than he knew it would. The window was rolled down, and the autumn air was just beginning to get a little brisk. Smoking a cigarette, flicking the ashes outside in specks of orange. His radio was blaring, and he was tapping his fingers and singing along to the words he knew and mumbling to the rest. It was a song he had heard many times before, but he could listen to it over and over again without ever getting sick of it. Once the song was over, a crappy song by a band he hated started to play so he switched through a few stations. Commercials, DJs droning on about upcoming concerts he could care less about, and more lousy songs. He eventually settled on a song that was at least somewhat tolerable but by no means all that great. Jason loved this feeling of driving home after a long and exhausting day at work. It made him feel as if he were free to some extent, but that feeling never lasted for very long. The drive was too short, his time at home after work was far too brief, and the next day came much too quickly. This realization always seemed to shove the feeling of freedom down a garbage disposal. And as nice as it was to drive at night with no traffic and to feel the wind on his face, it was also disheartening to know that he was alone. There was no one sitting in the passenger seat, certainly no car seats in the back, and there was no one waiting for him at home either. He supposed he only had himself to blame for this as his sister reminded him of so many times. He worked too much and never went out anywhere. Any friends he had from high school were long forgotten, and he didn't have any real friends at work. He often tried to immerse himself in an imaginary world where he could be someone else, someone better, someone with a more exciting life. He could be like a character he watched in a movie. He could have a great job, a beautiful wife, and maybe even a couple kids. He wouldn't live in a shitty apartment or drive a ten-year-old car. These fantasies could give him some comfort for a little while, but they would vanish so easily as reality always seemed to take over. He was too busy at work to think about much else besides work. He was a cook at a restaurant, a bar and grill type place, nothing fancy. But it was almost always busy, and he worked with two morons so that made it all the more difficult. There was Steve, who was the owner's nephew so he got away with everything. He could come in late, leave early, and spend half the night texting on his goddamn cell phone. And Barry, Steve's uncle and boss, wouldn't say a damn thing to him. Then there was Lou, who was a nice man, but he was older than dirt and extremely slow. So of course Jason got stuck doing most of the work. And let's not forget about the waitresses. They were bitchy and demanding, and they never failed to give him a headache by the end of the night. So after working at least twelve to thirteen hours a day, six days a week under high stress conditions, it was hard to be optimistic about anything. And if one of the other cooks called out, which certainly was not unheard of, he would get stuck coming in on his one day off for the week. Then he would have to work for a ridiculously long stretch before he even got a break. Lately, he was having difficulty enjoying anything. He used to really appreciate his time off, but now it seemed like all he did was dread going back to work. He could feel dread seeping out of his brain and leaking into his eyeballs so that everything he saw was covered in it. Sitting at home on a day off, he could see dread smeared all over the bare walls, and he could see it draped over the trees outside his window. Nothing was beautiful, nothing was fun. It was all just a reminder that he would be trapped inside a hot kitchen for countless, miserable hours. His sister, Melanie, always told him that he was crazy to work so much—that Barry was a slave driver and an asshole. But Jason was the head cook, so he was needed there the majority of the time. He had been working there since he was thirteen years old when he started as a dishwasher, under the table of course. He felt a sense of loyalty and knew he wouldn't get paid as well working anywhere else. Not that he got paid all that great, but he had no trouble paying the bills, and he usually had some spending money left over. Besides, his sister always had something to say about everything. Melanie had moved to Pittsburgh about two years ago when her husband's job transferred him there. They had a decent sized single home, and they just had a baby almost a year ago. Pittsburgh was just on the other side of the state; Jason lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia. But it was still a very long drive, about six hours, so they hardly even saw each other anymore. She would call him on the phone, usually about once a week. And sometimes he would return her calls, and sometimes he wouldn't. He loved his sister, but there was only so much of her he could take. She would always talk about these great things in her life, and then complain about how hard it was to be a stay-at-home mom sometimes. Then she would get on his case about his life. He could just hear her voice in his head. "Oh, you'll understand one day when you have kids..." As if she was a fucking expert or something after only being a mother for a year. "Why don't you try online dating? I know a girl who ended up marrying this guy that she met online." Even after telling her he had no interest in online dating, she would still go on about it as if it was the greatest idea in the world. She couldn't understand why he wouldn't at least want to try it. After getting off the phone with her, he would want to drink himself to sleep, but then he would be reminded that he was acting just like their father. She would love to tell him that too. He was a miserable bastard just like Dad, except Dad could never hold down a job and never wanted to work. All he does is drink. So what if Jason liked to have a few beers after working all day and night? It's not like he would drink in the morning, and he never drank if he had to drive anywhere. He hated the fact that his sister always wanted to talk about their dad and their shitty childhood. He just didn't want to talk about it anymore. What was the point? They were adults now. None of that mattered anymore. Get over it. Our father is an asshole. So what? So are a lot of fathers. Just don't deal with him. Don't talk to him, don't call him. It also annoyed him that she felt the need to talk about it so much when she didn't have to deal with their father half as much as Jason did. Their mom died when they were very young (which by itself is a very fucked up story), so that's where their father's alcoholism started. It was hard not to feel sorry for him since he was grieving for his wife, but he had children to take care of. Jason was three, and Melanie was one. Their grandmother took them for a little while after their mother's death, but it ended up being too much for her to take care of them both. She was elderly at that point since she had their mother at an older age. Their grandfather had died of a heart attack before they were even born. Eventually, she just kept Melanie, and Jason stayed solely with his father. Their father was a severe alcoholic, who drank hard liquor like water. Since he was intoxicated most of the time, he often got fired from jobs for not showing up or coming to work while still drunk. They had very little money, but he always had enough money for alcohol. They got evicted from more apartments than Jason could keep track of, and they even had to sleep in his dad's car on more than one occasion. There would be many nights when Jason would go to bed hungry because there just wasn't enough money for food.