I was desperate for work when I found the listing. I had been unemployed for several months, and my savings were entirely depleted. The advertisement was posted on a basic online job board. It was a position for an independent vending contractor, and the job required a clean driving record, the ability to lift heavy boxes, and a willingness to work the overnight shift. I applied immediately and received a phone call the same day. The hiring process was brief. I met a man in a small, unmarked office in a commercial district. He handed me a uniform shirt, a set of heavy keys on a metal ring, and a thick binder containing the training manual. He told me my route would cover the subterranean levels of the city transit system. The public metro network is massive, sprawling under the city in a complex web of concrete tunnels and train platforms, and my job was to drive a supply van to the designated service entrances, load my rolling cart with snacks and beverages, and restock a specific li...
I’ve been "renting" my neighbor’s dog for $20 a week so I don’t look like a creep when I come home at 3 AM.
I’m 28, and because of my job, I usually get home around 2 or 3 in the morning. My neighborhood is one of those too quiet places where everyone knows everyone’s car. After a few weeks of walking from my car to my front door in the pitch black, I noticed the curtains in the house across the street twitching every single night. I realized I had become the "suspicious character" of the block. To fix this, I made a weird deal with my neighbor, an older guy who has a high-energy Golden Retriever. For $20 a week, I rent his dog for a 15-minute walk the moment I get home. Now, instead of being the "creepy guy coming home at 3 AM," I’m the "dedicated local hero who helps a senior citizen with his dog." The neighborhood group chat went from Who is this guy? to God bless that young man’s soul. The only problem? The dog has now adjusted his internal clock. My neighbor told me the dog starts sitting by the front door at 2:50 AM every night, wagging his tail and whini...