Day One of the Valentine employment experience.
Current status: Somehow still alive.
The exit for Kensington appeared on my right. I took it automatically, muscle memory kicking in despite the unfamiliar vehicle. The neighborhood looked different from inside a Lexus. The bodegas and corner stores and chain-link fences seemed further away somehow. Like I was watching them through a screen instead of passing through them.
I pulled into the apartment complex parking lot.
Mrs. Delgado sat on her balcony on the third floor, cigarette glowing orange in the darkness. She always sat there at night, watching the lot like a guardian angel with a nicotine addiction.
I parked the Lexus. Cut the engine. Stepped out.
Mrs. Delgado's cigarette fell out of her mouth.
It tumbled three stories and landed on the concrete with a small shower of sparks. I watched it happen in real time. Her jaw hung open. Her eyes fixed on the car.
"Evening, Mrs. Delgado."
