[South Korean Lee Moon-sae (b. 1959) and Dawn (b. 1994)]
At 4:30AM, there are ten customers at the café on General Uprising, all men. Testicular humyns hang out at bars and cafés to escape home. Some drive long distance trucks or get killed in distant, voluntary wars for the same reason. Except for the pain, which may last months or even years, it’s arguably worth it. Oil rig workers may only get one week out of eight at home. This male need to stray from wife and kids dates back to our hunting pack days, undoubtedly.
Among the predawn regulars, there’s a Vietnamese American who’s around 80. I’ve never talked to him. My regular seat is front and center, just inside the entrance. His is not in my sightline. The guy rarely says anything anyway. Silent, he still feels that need to be among others. When a dog walked by, he swatted at its tail. Who knows what diseases, including mental, he’s breeding.
It was in Philadelphia that solitary confinement became a progressive innovation. Isolated, prisoners could contemplate their sins and chat with God often. Visiting Eastern Penitentiary in 1842, Dickens immediately realized its inmates had gone mad.
At 5AM, Tank Top and his son are here. Sitting right behind me, that fat kid with a vapid face is rat tat tat tating away, as usual. His only pleasure is to mow down virtual enemies. Just five-years-old, he’s insane. Hearing a loud gecko, he asked his dad, “What is that?” So many kids see and hear almost nothing that’s not coming from a screen.