I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be the last person alive. I remember reading a book a few years ago about an apocalypse,where an extremely contagious airborne virus was accidentally released into the wild. It was 99.99% fatal. The people who survived were starving for human companionship, they would roam the countryside looking for other people. All they ever found were warm corpses.
That idea was sad on so many levels.
I’m glad that was science fiction because I really like people. I enjoy people watching, and the interactions with strangers are the highlights of my day. It’s so interesting to see what people find important,what they like, what they don’t like.
I thought my new part-time job in the food delivery business would help me meet a lot of new people. You know; you deliver food, they’re happy when you come; they crack a few jokes, and maybe even give you a tip.
A definite change from my last job on the family pig farm. I didn’t mind all the hard work there,and I never noticed the smell, but I was sure glad to go away to university; I got very tired of only talking to pigs.
But this new job, somehow, is disappointing; in fact, it makes me feel like a pariah. Whenever I go out on a delivery run, the streets are deserted, almost like in the Apocalypse story I just mentioned. I find it so very strange.
I know it’s not me because I always shower before I go to work, and I never pedal too fast on my bike during the delivery runs and work up a sweat… but for some reason, people give me a very wide berth. I find it puzzling because I’m only delivering cheese.
I put up with the strangeness of this job, because, I really like the company. It’s young and upbeat, with a great catchy name: Up Your Nose Cheese. Their marketing brochures say they specialize in the extremely aromatic cheeses; their most popular is Limburger with a tagline “Funky cheese for a Funky Time.” Their most expensive is Epoisses de Bourgogne, with a tagline;“The only cheese banned by the French Public Transport System.”
As much as I love the company though, their tongue in cheek slogan, “Aroma to put you in a Coma,” probably needs to change.
Author’s Note: Thanks again to Alice for this picture.