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His lips kissed his coffee cup as he wished he were somewhere else. He dove his hand into a pile of letters on his desk and one envelope dug its corner between a nail and a tender cuticle on his finger. Brick red welled up making his nail look polished.
"Fu cking sh!t." He said sticking his finger into his mouth. "I guess I should read you first."
He slit the top of the envelope open with flick of wrist and gold letter opener. He pulled a card out. It was a Wallmark Expressions Card. 'How intimately trite.' He thought.
The cover was white with the etching of a red bird rising from a grouping of ashes at the base of the card. Inside it read, 'Rise up.'
'Can I puke now?' He thought.
Handwritten in the inside of card was:
"While I love what your homeless shelter does, I am quite sick of all of your mailings. I am 80 years old. I do what I can to get by. Here's a five dollar bill. Roll it up and stick it up your a$s."
He laughed tears out of his eyes as he read it over and over. After he wiped salty happiness from his cheeks, he gazed down at the signature on the card. The name was his own. The card was dated May 23, 2051. The year he would be 80. He looked at the five dollar bill and the face that looked back at him wasn't Abe Lincoln's. He couldn't believe his eyes. The face was of Colonel Sanders. Next to his face it read 'In Taste We Trust'.
'Oh my God.' He said.
He read the card again. 'Rise up.'
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