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crumble even more inside.
    “It’s the damnedest thing,” he muttered as he climbed from the worn and sagging mattress and made his way across the cluttered bedroom to the bathroom, where he voided his bladder in the waterless toilet.
    Relieved, he returned to his bedroom and assessed his domain. The room was filthy, the floor littered with the remains of fast food meals, old newspapers, and clothes, both dirty and clean. He made a mental note to clean the place up soon, but right now just wasn’t the time.
    It seemed so long ago since Barrett had had the time to actually do things for himself. He’d been so damn busy with this new job. But at least he enjoyed this job, after he’d been let go from Rothmore Elementary. . . .
    He felt the emotions well up inside him as they often had done since that dark Halloween day. The costume parade for grades one through five had just ended when he was called to the principal’s office. Mrs. Gornett had never been one of his favorite people, but he’d believed that they had shared a mutual respect. After all, Barrett had considered himself one of the best third grade teachers and was sure the other teachers at Rothmore knew that to be so.
    Or at least he’d thought that to be true.
    Barrett pushed the thoughts of his past away and rummaged through the clothes on the floor. The shirt and pants he’d worn for the last few days still seemed to be fine, and he figured he could get another day at least out of them. But when he slipped the yellow dress shirt on, he noticed the red stains.
    “Damn it,” he hissed. He’d thought for sure that he hadn’t gotten any on him.
    Shaking his head in annoyance, he pulled off the yellow shirt and tossed it aside. He riffled through a pile of clothing on an old, folding chair and pulled a white shirt with vertical red stripes from the heap. He gave it a sniff—a bit musty, but it would air out as the morning went on. As he slipped the shirt on and began to button it, his mind drifted back to the day he was fired.
    No , he corrected himself. He was not fired, he was let go. But was there really a difference? What they had done to him—to his self-esteem that Halloween day was more than he could stand. They’d said that he wasn’t performing up to Rothmore standards, whatever the hell that meant. They even had the nerve to comment about his personal hygiene, as if that had anything to do with a child receiving the best possible education.
    But in their pathetic little minds, he guessed, it did.
    Barrett found his spirits sinking, and forced himself to remember the good that had come from such a horrible incident. For if he hadn’t been let go, then he would never have found his dream job. That put a smile back on his face and he went to a mirror leaning against the wall in the corner to look at himself. The mirror was cracked, and it distorted his reflection, but it was good enough to show that he still looked the part. That no matter what some nearsighted individuals with no true vision couldn’t see in him, he still saw it in himself.
    He was still a teacher, and he still had so much to give. Satisfied with his appearance, he left his bedroom in the house he’d shared with his mother for his entire life.
    She sat in a chair in the center of the living room, directly in front of the television.
    “Good morning,” he said as he passed the archway, going into the kitchen.
    He felt pangs of hunger but wasn’t sure if his stomach was up to handling anything of substance this early. He still got the butterflies before heading into work.
    He decided on some toast, going to the bread box and removing the plastic bag. The bread was covered in green and white mold, but that didn’t bother him in the least as he selected two slices and placed them in the toaster. Four cockroaches ran for cover beneath filthy cups and dishes as he pushed the lever down.
    “The place could do with a little bit of tidying up,” he called over his shoulder to