The Beginning of the End

Meli was exhausted. She had picked up a second job cleaning houses and the occasional office building. She was not used to being sleep deprived, so she moved some of the MN brew pub boxes around to create a hidden napping spot in production. It was a sanctuary to sleep, a tomb in a tower of boxes. Being a light sleeper, she could hear her name being mentioned or yelled from the press room. DJ or Connor would mumble, "Where the fuck is Meli?" And she would scramble out the back corner and show up and say, "I was counting t's," or "in the bathroom," or "I was talking with Nelson." Connor and DJ didn't care if she disappeared while they were setting up the press; however, once a job got going, they needed her ASAP.

The 45 boxes of misprinted t's had become a fixture in production. DJ had declared them "a step pyramid to failure," but after a few weeks the pain of the failure disappeared and no one even gave them a second thought. They were now a treasure of test t's and rags. It was DJ op…