What bothered Levi most was that his short-term memory was useless when he was nervous. And when he was at heights, which was half the time in this job, he was always nervous. Even when Patrick let him tack welds Levi found himself sticking on the rod way more than he normally would. It was so frustrating that he would feel like throwing the rod oven over the scaffold. This day had not been going well from the start. He barely caught the bus because his alarm clock didn’t go off. The only kind of alarm clock that was available in the convenience store was digital, instead of a “real one” as he thought of the windups. He didn’t trust digital clocks because he didn’t trust himself setting them. He didn’t eat breakfast because he had not been able to ever since he started the job. And even when he got on the bus he tripped up in somebody’s foot and fell down in the aisle. As soon as everyone saw he had not hurt himself, at least half of them laughed out loud. Every climb up the ladder felt like the first, if not worse than the first.
