A doughnut shop called Krispy Kreme. I was driving past when a red sign in the window lit up.
HOT NOW.
I have served three lords. None of them ever gave me an order that direct.
HOT NOW. Not "hot soon." Not "hot, when it is convenient for you." Hot now. A command. From the building. To me.
I pulled across two lanes of traffic. So did three other cars, which told me the building commands them as well, and that I had joined an army without learning its name.
Inside, a woman handed me a single warm doughnut. The glaze had not yet hardened. I had done nothing to earn it. I had simply obeyed the sign.
"First one's free when the light's on," she said.
So this is the wage. You obey the sign, you receive the warm thing. Discipline, rewarded instantly. No lord I ever served paid this fast.
I ate it standing up. I will tell you plainly: it was the softest thing I have put in my mouth on this continent. I understood, in that moment, why the army comes when the sign calls. I would come too. I have been coming ever since.
There are three Krispy Kremes within an hour of my home. I have learned the hours their signs light. The first at six. The second at six thirty. The third at seven. A man who leaves home at five fifty can obey all three before the workday begins.
My wife has asked why I smell of sugar at dawn. I told her I have taken an oath. She asked to whom. I could not answer, because the honest answer is "a sign," and a man does not like to say aloud that he has sworn his mornings to a sign.
But the sign said HOT NOW. What was I supposed to do. Read it, and keep driving? I am not made of stone.
I should mention to be careful with some CRTs being tossed out. They can be dangerous. If you need to throw one away because it’s not working, cut the power cord so no one accidentally takes it.
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