Tom Reilly: Our First Focus
Facts About Tom
61 years old.
Irish, irish, irish.
Very neat and clean.
Shaves in the shower because it saves time.
Wears button down shirt, gold chain, blue jeans.
possesses numerous expensive suits that he
hangs from the ceiling of his cubicle
6 years
living in a room 7 feet long and 4 feet wide
with a chicken wire ceiling
Everyday Tom Reilly hopes that he can get out of
the White House Hotel.
He doesn’t want to die there.
Tom wakes up by 5 AM. Showers, heads to the bodega next door
where breakfast is $3.
Then crossword puzzles. Tom Reilly lives to play crossword puzzles.
New York Times, New York Post, USA Today
Tom says the puzzles keep him from slipping into dementia.
Tom does at least 4 crosswords a day
and drinks the same number of rum and cokes
Tom sends out applications to positions as an enrollment
coordinator for highschools. But he hasn’t gotten a yes yet.
Three years ago he was hit by a car and got $27,800 in the settlement.
He’s been making that money stretch.
As a young man he enlisted in the navy where he was a radio operator
during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After that he was a minesweeper of the seas.
Out of the military, Tom was a commodities broker on Wall St. He married,
and had 3 kids.
But because of an addiction, Tom lost everything.
He doesn’t even think that he has a drinking problem.
Tom’s daughter recently graduated from law school.
She drives a BMW.
Tom’s sons don’t speak to Tom.
Tom doesn’t pay rent at the White House Hotel
because he serves as the Fire Safety Inspector.
Once or twice a week he walks from the 4th floor to the basement,
checks every light bulb, and every corner, and keeps a log of
violations in his notebook.
Every Tuesday night, Tom plays bingo at the Orange Valve.
He won last week.
Right now, Tom doesn’t believe he can make it out.
He bleieves he will die there.