Millionaire Hill
Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia
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"My friend owns this place."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's a perfect place for a coffee shop. People get off their trains and bam, coffee right at the top of the stairs. Super convenient. And it's really good too."
"It certainly smells good. By the look of this line, your friend must be doing well."
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The Grave of Henry Disston
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"Not really. There's not much profit margin, and it's really hard to get good help."
"Do they blow off work? Quit?"
"They steal."
"You're kidding."
"No. I help him out by getting coffee here. If I see something fishy, I give him a call."
"Wow. Do they raid the register?"
"No, that would be too easy to catch. These folks know the little tricks. The main one is when they don't ring up the sale. They pocket the money and make their own change. Because it never hits the register, it never existed."
"Slick."
"My friend knows this place is busy as hell, but at the end of the day, the number of sales just don't make sense. It drives him nuts."
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A Princely Skeleton of Stone
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"Why doesn't he put in a camera?"
"He could, but it's expensive, and then someone has to review the tapes every day. It's a hassle."
"I guess so, but what if he put up a fake one? As long as the employees buy into it, that would do the trick."
"Yeah. Maybe."
"Excuse me. I didn't mean to yawn in your face."
"Tired?"
"Some Mondays, I wish I could just lay down and sleep forever."
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6 comments:
At first I thought this mausoleum was turned into a coffee shop.
Fun read, and great photos! Glad your train ride is over. You'll be doing the snoozing on somebody else on your way back ;-)
Cheers,
Those pics are awesome. Imagine how much it would cost to build something like that nowadays!
Sigh...
When did I have to wake up from my childhood dream that everyone was honest? I like the irony in characters here. The coffee shop owner is debating whether to catch dishonesty with his own fake camera.
Great story, my favorite line is, "some Mondays I wish I could just lay down and sleep forever". That says everything.
Thank you.
Church Lady, this one was experimental. :) I was juxtaposing the tired kind of life stress with the alternative.
Strugglingwriter, when I see things like that (it's the largest, most elaborate private masoleum I've ever seen), I wonder if there are even people around who have those skills. Old style stone cutting and carving is probably a dying art.
Mermaid, humans are a complex breed. Lots of mud mixed in the gene pool.
Inside, definitely the most important line. :) That was the key to the message. Someday we all will sleep forever. Is what we are doing right now the best use of our time?
cool! i enjoyed that one!
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