Drudgery (HH) by Gruffy

Drudgery (HH)

Gruffy, Canine, Doberman, Drama, Family, Feline, Fox, Friendship, Gay, Humor, M/M, Raccoon, Story Series, Tiger, Wolf

#62 of Hockey Hunk Season 6

Drudgery (HH)

Hello, and welcome to the Hockey Hunk!

I am glad to be back, and hopefully still holding onto this schedule for now - let's all hope together that my energy keeps flowing, and this story continues to grow! I hope you have an interesting time!

Cheers :)

I don't know why but the bus drive seemed to take ages on that day. Could've been the weather that made me feel like that. It was raining, not the kind that seemed like it'd cause a flood but kind of a constant drizzle that still was enough to get my jacket wet on the walk over to the bus stop. That left me damp in the bus, filled with wet furs and clothing and with the windows covered in the stuff. The air conditioning hummed loudly and tried to keep the cold away by blowing hot air into the cabin.

I wish I'd slept better last night. The dream had come back, the one where I was staring at my guts and bits of red bowels were hanging out of my stomach and I couldn't speak and I couldn't yell. It always ended like that, me just staring at the dripping guts and trying to shout but there was no voice. There was no pain, just the realization of what had happened, a kind of a...I don't know what. Cold horror? I wasn't sure.

Thinking about in the bus, nose full of damp fur smell, even that was enough to make me feel uncomfortable. The dream didn't have a smell, but I suppose my imagination could do the rest, even when I was waking up.

Back when I was first in rehab in Walter Reed and my phantom pain had started to get a bother, the doctors had put me on Elavil. They told me then that it could cause 'dreaming', and they'd not been wrong. I still wasn't sure if the nightmares could be accounted for by the drugs or the stupid fucking_war_ I had to be in, but with the kind of nerve pain that stump could give me, I was willing to risk the occasional nightmare and take a shot with the pills. At least a beer before bed seemed to help, even if I wasn't supposed to drink.

My leg had been giving me some trouble. The skin flap was doing okay, I thought, but there were some sore spots that got angry whenever the bus drove over a bump, a manhole cover or something. Wherever my leg was resting on, the bump was transmitted directly into the stump, no matter of the gel cushions. I'd been trying to keep off the leg when I didn't need to be up and about, and to give the stump a rest too when I could. Of course I couldn't just keep the thing off me for too long, because then the stump would swell up and I could no longer fit it properly into the socket on the prosthetic and then things would just get miserable.

Just had to bite my lip and go at it. That probably applied to most things in my life at the moment.

The buzzer went and the bus stopped to take on more passengers by a gas station. I knew that it wasn't too long along the Southern Circular before we would finally reach the mall. Just another stretch of gray, rainy road, and the bus passing self storage facilities and a sofa warehouse and other bleak looking structures of urban life.

The Stepford Mall wasn't much better, in comparison, just a huge thing surrounded by the parking lots. At least the bus drove close to the doors. I didn't trust myself in crowds, with furs pressing to me from all sides and risking me losing my balance. That's why I waited until others had gotten out before I stood up and finally stomped out of the bus and out into the rain.

Shit.

I had to make my best speed for the doors, computer bag in one paw, backpack in the other. The rain was still the same as before. It was a thick drizzle that made everything wet and looked like a fog floating over the ground. I felt pretty much soaked by the time I got into the mall and hugely powerful fans blasted lukewarm air onto me from below in the cubicle between the different sets of sliding doors. That made my damp tail bristle.

Ugh.

I hurried out of the stupid air box. It'd made me shiver, even if it was meant to warm you up. At least it was a bit nicer inside the atrium, warmer, and not too crowded. I still felt lousy with my shirt sticking to my back. It was going to be there until my body heat would finally dry it up.

The stairs would have been good exercise for my leg, but considering all the crap that I'd been through today, I opted for the elevator to spare myself a few potentially painful steps. I ended up stepping to the upper floor smelling like the coyote who had accompanied me to the elevator. I was bristling again, but there was nothing to do about it ,when it came to wet fur and scents rubbing onto you. At least there were so many in the mall that it made it not unusual for everyone to walk around with plenty of them, borrowed or not. As long as I didn't stink. I didn't think so.

The food places opening to either sides made me feel hungry again. The morning had been a struggle and I hadn't really eaten much more than a pawful of pills and a quick sandwich, and the scents of fresh coffee and frying eggs floating into my nose were a temptation. I continued on my resolute way, fox, backpack, computer, towards the Eye Center. They were already open, but not very busy. It was still very early, of course, so I guess the shoppers who just wanted to buy a pair of specs without prescriptions to look silly hadn't showed up yet.

"Oh heya Tate!"

That was Maya, the badger girl who was usually behind the counter. She looked annoyingly cheerful, considering the time of the day.

"Morning,"I said.

"How're ya doing?"she called out.

"Finefine."

I went past her and the waiting chairs where the first customers were already settled. My first stop on my own work day would be the staff room, because that's where I could hang my jacket and see if one of the bosses was there In case I had to ask them anything. I might have been going for a while at this design thing for them, but new things kept cropping up, especially when the owner double act decided on yet another idea of what could be done with their website. At least they tended to agree...but not always.

I didn't knock on the door when I reached it, I just stepped in. I'd decided that I wasn't gonna start bowing too much to these people, no' yes'sir's' for them. That kind of a life was past me. I was here to show I could do a job and the best respect I could give to them was doing that job as well as I darn could. Maybe it also made me feel like I was part of the staff, in my little way.

It smelled weird in there, stranger than usual, at least, because the tiger ate odd dried and pickled things sometimes, though it wasn't really that now. I also saw a striped tail pointing up to the ceiling while someone attached to the other end of it was going through the small floor fridge the room had.

"...damn...crap..." the tail muttered.

"Morning,"I said.

The tail shuffled from side to side before the masked face came into view and gave me a look.

"Oh, hello,"the raccoon said. "Did you just arrive?"

I began to unzip my coat.

"Yep."

He sniffled the air.

"Still raining."

"It does,"I said.

"Well grab a coffee to warm yourself up while you're at it,"he gestured at the coffeemaker with his tail. "I'm trying to find something to eat here but I don't think I can find anything edible here."

At this hour? Hadn't he had breakfast? My nose gave me an explanation, though, in the form of the plastic lunchbox on the little plastic-surfaced dining table. There was a jar of pungent smelling yogurt or something, and a salad in a little plastic box of its own. Maybe it was that sour yogurt that I had smelled on the door already.

"Sure,"I said.

I hung my coat to a wall hook next to another damp thing that must've belonged to the boss, while the raccoon muttered something about his diet, and then slammed the fridge shut. He landed on his chair with a heavy creak and a sigh, to return to his own coffee and the suspicious breakfast. My own coffee awaited on the other side of the room, although first I needed a paper cup from the big tower of them sitting on the table. I'd been well enough with my stomach lately - nightmares of it falling out of my belly aside - that I felt confident enough to risk it. The raccoon's idea of warming from the rain with a hot cup of coffee wasn't a bad idea.

The tie-wearing raccoon kept huffing to himself while he tried to eat another forkful of his green, dressing-free salad.

I didn't always get him. This Ashley guy loved to complain about how his wife made him eat healthy stuff, and today was not different. I guess I wasn't one to say anything about whether he should eat better or not, since my roommate Marker would've been really happy if every day was a burger day. I didn't have a ball and chain to nag me to eat salad and spunky yogurt, with the power to make me do that even from a distance, judging by this Ashley guy.

Yeah.

Maybe that's what love was called.

How the hell would I know?

I sat onto the free chair by the table and drank my coffee. The raccoon made funny faces while he ate his salad. He wasn't too keen on making small talk, either, just chewing away at his food. I wondered what he'd expected to find in the fridge before. A hidden emergency sausage? I imagined him leaning over towards a customer in his office with garlic-smelling breath coming out of that muzzle of his.

"Shit!"

Damn right. But that wasn't the raccoon speaking. The door to the staff room opened and closed swiftly, with a rush of striped fur and another muttered 'shit' from the throat of the tiger. The familiar swift of chemicals followed him around, impossible to identify but a kind of a combination of industrial and medical. Not quite like a hospital.

"Damn it!"

The other boss of the place was not dressed in his usual silly crocodile coat. He just had some plain pants and a blue shirt. He looked almost strange without a white coat of some sort, at least to me. I must've been too used to seeing him like that.

"Any luck?"the raccoon asked from him.

The tiger went directly for the coffee. I wasn't sure if he noticed me sitting there as he went through the motions of pouring himself a cuppa.

"No,"he declared laconically.

"Dang!"the raccoon said.

The tiger turned around and faced the room with his back to the kitchen and his cup up to his muzzle. He seemed to see me now, though, because his ears flicked. I gave him a small nod in return, and seemed to mouth a "hello", though nothing came out of his muzzle.

"Can't get a hold of anyone,"he said,"how can they be so busy?"

"Beats me,"the raccoon said. "It's not even really bad weather."

"I called the shop and they just said they'd be getting back to me,"the tiger said.

"Did you try anywhere else?" the raccoon asked. "I always take my car to Wolpert's."

The tiger shrugged.

"I don't really have the time to call around,"he said, "I've got Mrs. Curtis' diabetic retinopathy coming in five minutes and then I've got kids back to back until noon."

"Guess you'll have to steal the time somewhere,"the raccoon said. "Maybe from your lunch hour."

"Ah, maybe," the tiger said. He appeared upset, and was squeezing that cup so hard that his claws were probably ready to break it.

"Speaking of which...wouldn't fancy some homemade salad for lunch?"the raccoon tilted the plastic box in the cat's direction. "Totally Kosher!"

He just sniffled.

"No thanks,"the tiger huffed.

Damn right.

"Bhuh..."the tiger rumbled. "If I can't get it sorted out now, I guess I'll have to take Paul's car tomorrow."

"Can you carpool with him tomorrow as well?"

"I don't know,"the tiger said. "And I 'll probably have to take a cab today because he's going to be working till noon and then he has classes until late in the evening and he won't be home until eight."

"Damn,"said the raccoon. "Those kids just keep on going, don' t they?"

"Ouhhh..."the tiger breathed again.

He shook his head, and doing that, his eyes caught a sight of me and he looked me directly in the eye. Maybe he only not really realized that I was there, with his mind too full of his car breaking down.

"Oh, hello,"he said, "I'm afraid I'm a bit preoccupied, my car refused to start this morning and put all my plans into disarray."

"Morning,"I told him in turn.

The tiger gulped on his coffee.

"Were you and Hal talking business here before I came in?"

"No,"I said.

"Alright,"the tiger said. "I'll try to catch up with you at some point when I have the time, if you don't have anything for me right now in the next...30 seconds or so?"

I shrugged.

"No,"I said. "I'll mostly be looking at behind the scenes stuff today, anyway. Architecture."

The raccoon chuckled.

"I don't know about you, Patrick, but that sounds really impressive to me,"he said. "Not sure what It means but..."

"Heh,"I smiled a little.

The tiger crumpled up his cup and tossed it into the trashcan.

"Alright, laser-burnt retinas awaiting," he said. "Catch you all later!"

"Seeya," I mumbled.

The raccoon only nodded. He looked at the salad in his box and huffed.

What was he thinking? That the missus was spying on him whether he'd eat his packed lunch? Was she some kind of a food police? She must've gotten him by the balls...if she could find them under that belly.

I probably shouldn't have been thinking about his raccoon balls.

"Huh...hhmmm...damn..."

...

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<p>Enter a number and click OK:</p>

<p>If the number is less than 100 (the input's min attribute), an error message will be displayed.</p>

function myFunction() {

var txt = ";

if (document.getElementById("id1").validity.rangeUnderflow) {

txt = "Value too small";

} else {

txt = "Input OK";

}

document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = txt;

}

</script>

</body>

</html>

I blinked and scrolled down the editor page again, watching the code change in front of my eyes.

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<p>Enter a number and click OK:</p>

<p>If the number is less than 100 or greater than 300, an error message will be displayed.</p>

function myFunction() {

var inpObj = document.getElementById("id1");

if (inpObj.checkValidity() == false) {

document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = inpObj.validationMessage;

} else {

document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = "Input OK";

}

</script>

</body>

</html>

Right...

I was deep at thought with my code, and was startled when the door suddenly banged open. My ears jumped and my stomach did that nasty thing it does when you are scared - kind of a falling sensation I knew too well and had learned to fear at one point. My eyes found the source to be the tiger, whom had stormed into the room, crocodile coat and all.

I let out a deep breath, and tucked my bristling tail under the chair.

"Oh excuse me!" the tiger yelped. "I didn't think...I am sorry if I surprised you unnecessarily."

I bit my lip. I hated the feeling of my heart racing. Nobody should be this jumpy.

"It's your office," I noted, dryly. "You can walk in whenever you like."

"Oh but I should have knocked!" he sounded genuinely unhappy about his behavior, so at least that was to his favor. "I should have remembered that you are working here. My sincerest apologies."

Why did it always sound so untrue when they added that to it?

"Yeah, well, it's okay," I said. "Really."

But I hated how nervous I suddenly felt.

"I'm just between patients and I just called my usual shop again and they say that they can't get it before the evening, and even then it might not be ready for a couple of days because they're so busy," the tiger detailed.

"Sounds like crap," I said.

His paw rubbed through his usually well-kept mane that was now pretty messy. With the crocodile coat and all, he looked silly.

"To put it mildly," he said.

"It's definitely a shitty thing when it happens," I said, "when your car gives out on you."

He shook his head.

"I would've tried to troubleshoot it, of course, but I was starting to run late and then my son had to drive me and I didn't want him to be late from work as well..." he babbled.

"I've been there," I said. "Considering the rides I've had in the past..."

"It's not even an old car..."

I bet it was not. This place made enough money to probably buy him a pretty nice ride. And his son had a car, too, and of course a precious son wouldn't have any kind of a crappy car. Throw in some nice clothes and an expensive phone and whatever stuff kids these days thought was important for looking rich. Like the kids who came here to buy those glasses without any prescription lenses, just to look different for a day.

America the beautiful.

"I'm sure they'll be able to fix it, though," I told him. "Probably something electric, I think. That's why the new cars usually stalled, the ones that were brought to the shop."

His ears perked.

"The shop?" he asked.

"I used to work in a car repair shop at some point," I said. "Before the army."

"Really?"

"Yeah," I said.

"I didn't know that."

Well I didn't put it on my fucking CV or anything.

"Helped me a lot when I was doing tech in the army, yeah," I said.

"Oh I'm sure it must have," he nodded energetically.

I felt like I had to say at least something nice at that point, so I did.

"Sorry to hear about your car."

He shrugged.

"Just messing up my day, is all," he said. "A little disaster, isn't it?"

A little disaster would've been losing one toe to a bomb. Losing the entire leg would probably count as a big disaster. I wondered how it would've gone for the croco-man here.

I didn't feel guilty for thinking about that at all. Served him right.

"Yep," I said.

He did some more brushing of his mane and then rubbed his paw over his muzzle.

"Excuse me," he said. "I should ask how your work is going, nonetheless, shouldn't I?"

I waved a paw at the screen.

"I've just been looking at some strings and loops," I said.

He walked over to the desk and took a quick look at my laptop. I don't think he even pretended that he understood what I was showing to him, but he did nod.

"Is it going well?" the tiger asked, leaning over the desk and me, partly too.

"Pretty good," I said. "Just a lot of data to input, is all. But of course this code automates it all, so I don't have to do more than to create the interface and then you can just add things to it a bit more easily. Something you'll learn too, so that you can update the site as you wish."

"That sounds really good" he looked at the code on the screen. "Did you write all this today? Make all this code?"

"Some of it," I said. "It's using some basic code, anyway, I'm just modifying it to use the parts of it I specifically need for your purposes."

"I see, I see."

Kitty cat didn't want to appear stupid. Good for him.

"Are you planning to work for long today?" he asked.

It was now what, eleven thirty? I checked the time on the corner of the screen. The code was calling for me.

"Not more than usually," I said. "Until two or so."

"Hmm...I see..." the tiger nodded.

"Was there something you wanted to ask from me, about the system?"

He rubbed his muzzle.

"Hmm...not about the computers, but...you wouldn't happen to have the time to look at my car, would you?"

My ears must've looked as puzzled as my eyes, because he immediately started to backpedal on the issue.

"Of course if you are too busy, I do understand, and it is not your job anymore, but I'm sure you could figure it out much faster than I ever would, and since the workshop is having so many problems too..."

He stopped to take a breath.

"...but if you could help I would be incredibly thankful and I would pay of course - "

Thank you for reading!

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