What to do next

Augie walked out of the shiny, swift, silent doors with a huge grin on his face. He’d figured it out. He could have flown if he’d wanted to. But he didn’t. He really didn’t.

He moved into the open air to see that it had stopped raining. He looked around again, seeing everything he’d seen an hour when he was out here. The wilting flowers in the giant pots, the cars lining up to drop passengers, even his now disintegrating cigarette sitting in a puddle of water. He stepped off of the curb and hailed a taxi, pulling out the fresh pack of cigarettes as he went.

He lit up and waited, looking around, feeling as if the whole world was fresh. He felt the usual buzz and shake of the nicotine in his system right as the cab pulled up.

“Hey buddy, put that shit out,” the cabbie said as Augie pulled out the door. He complied, but only because he had something else on his mind.  By the time the cabbie dropped him in front of his shitty apartment, in the shitty town, in his shitty life, he was sure.

The phone rang and he cursed himself for becoming nervous.

“Hello?”

“Hey Dad.”

“Augustus?”

“Yeah Dad, listen. I’m finished with my past. I’m tired of trying to sort out what I feel about you or Amy or my mother…”

“Amy is your mother, son,” he replied.

He thought for a few moments about that. About how Amy had saved his life when he father wanted to end it. About how he should really be angry at his father, how she had done nothing wrong. But he’d just said it. He was finished bveign confused. He was ready to start with a clear head. He thought all of this, but said none of it. “I’m not coming home, Dad. I’m sorry.”

There was a pause that felt like an eternity. Instead of spending it trying to decide what to say or how to feel or whether he was wrong by being so frank he just stared at the ground.

“I love you, Aug,” his father said finally and he didn’t bother decide if his father sounded upset or angry or both.

“I love you, too.”

And then he hung up the phone, sliding it into his backpack and turned, facing the city block, and began to decide what the fuck to do next.

That's when he hard the sirens.
"What happened?" he asked a woman walking rapidly in the other direction. She turned to him, her face in that familiar expression of someone trying not to seem excited by something gruesome happening.
"There's been a murder," she said in a mock-solemn voice.
Augie turned again, deciding that his new life would best start safe in his apartment.