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“I didn’t creep up on you. You just weren’t paying attention. Poor Monroe.” The lady sighed as she slid her cell phone into her front pocket.
“He got robbed for real? What happened?”
Lark popped her gum, gathered her thin hair into a ponytail and secured it with a bright pink scrunchie.
“Erin said he was out drinkin’, as usual, and while he was at the bar, he left his damn wallet on the counter. You know him bein’ an army vet ’nd all, some people believe he’s got money squirreled away in that house of his. Not only did the thieves take that man’s wallet, but they also took his house key, too, then went in and stole a bunch of shit.”
“I told you once, I told you twice, I hate mankind sometimes, Lark. That don’t make any sense. He don’t bother nobody. The only person he’s hurtin’ is him. The only thing that has the right to be mad at Monroe is his own liver. Do they know who did it?”
“Oh, yeah. Thankfully his neighbor saw ’em, called the police, and they were arrested in the act. Caught red-handed. Had some of his TVs, old wine glass collection, a computer and everything.”
“You know that could’ve ended up much worse. What if he’d managed to get home, saw them, and something happened?” Lark nodded in agreement. “Monroe keeps a Smith & Wesson revolver on him at all times. I heard he might be a drunk, shaky when he moves, and walk in a zigzag, crooked as them mountain people’s teeth, but he can shoot straighter than an arrow.”
“I heard that, too. They say in the 1980s he blew somebody’s head clean off from over one hundred feet away. Anyway, you know he ain’t been right since his son died twelve years ago. That’s when they say his drinkin’ gotreallybad.”
“Mmm, that’s too bad. We all got losses. Hope he don’t pickle himself before he can find a bit of hope at the end of that rainbow.” Iris yawned, wishing her shift was over so she could slide into bed after seeing her niece off to school.
“You wanna take a smoke break with me before Ginette gets back? She’s doing inventory but you know how she is. Soon as we look like we’re relaxed and mellow, she wants to give me some busywork, like counting how many bottles of dish detergent we’ve got on the shelves, dumb shit like that.”
“Yeah, I can do that in about ten minutes. Herman’s still not on his register; it’s just me, so I have to wait until he gets back.”
“Where is he? Sleeping?” Lark laughed, poking fun at the man who had fallen asleep last week, standing straight up at his register. It had been the damnedest thing to see.
“In the back doin’ inventory with Ginette.”
“Cool.” Lark started to scratch her arm. Iris glanced at the faded track marks, purple and pink flattened blemishes once caused by needles and fallen grace. The woman didn’t discuss this much, except to say that years ago while living in Florida, she’d had a problem, but now, after a few stints in rehab, she was well. She said in passing a few times that she still attended meetings and seemed pretty serious about not going back to that life again.
Iris dug in her purse for a piece of gum. The two would sometimes take breaks together, but Iris didn’t smoke cigarettes. Usually, she’d just stand outside the grocery store with her, sipping an ice-cold Pepsi and gossiping about work, or discussing their plans for the upcoming week. ‘Sara,’ by Fleetwood Mac, was now the tune in the store. Lark bopped about to the music, snapping her fingers with nails covered in sparkly chipped blue fingernail polish.
“My cousin loved this song. I miss her, Iris. Abigail has been gone a long time, but I think about her every day.” Sadness flashed in her eyes, but hope also showed in her smile. “They play the best music on third shift, don’t they?”
“I think so, too. It’s a playlist the old manager put together, the one that quit right before I started working third shift, they say.”
“Nelson. He looked like Kenny Rogers. How you like working at this time? You’ve been on it long enough to have a good feel for it now.”
“Since I switched from second a little while ago, I prefer it because it’s less people. I’m not dealin’ with the same nonsense, either.” Lark nodded in agreement. “I don’t mind cleaning up for the morning crew and helping re-stock, either. It’s almost peaceful, if you know what I mean.”
“Serenity. Like a spa… in a grocery store,” Lark teased.
“I wouldn’t go that far, but yeah, the pros outweigh the cons.”
Minutes later, the two slipped outside to the front of the building. The night breeze smelled sweet, tinged with the wispy white trails of Lark’s Newport cigarette. A dying roach twitched under an overhead light a couple of feet away. Iris kept staring at it, lying there on its reddish-brown back near a trash can. Lark leaned against the grocery store window near the icebox, curls of smoke wafting from her red painted mouth. Every now and again, a car or truck would go by interrupting their small talk—a discussion Iris wouldn’t recall an hour later. The buzz of another car dragged her attention away while Lark went on about a new candle scent from Bath and Body she wanted to get her hands on.That car is so bright… like a big yellow ball of sun…
Another vehicle passed by, then another…
The ones with loud mufflers drowned out the muted country music drifting from a little bar called Piggy’s, across the way. The sign sported a pink pig holding a pint of gin in its hand. It teetered back and forth, its body aglow in white lights. Lark tapped her cigarette over the open trashcan, letting the ashes fall inside, and looked straight ahead. Quiet. The star-filled sky felt like a blanket of amity. It was so perfect, as if God had hand-painted it just for the two of them.
“I’m done with Tom,” Lark announced, her voice a bit louder than before. “I’ve had enough of his shit. Kickin’ him out.”
Iris had heard this malarky before. Tom was Lark’s live-in, good for nothin’ boyfriend. He was good looking and mean. The bastard cheated like his life depended on it, and he was disrespectful down to his grubby soul, cursing her out and carrying on, regardless of who was around. Iris huffed, spit her gum out into a wrapper and tossed it. Then, she uncapped her Pepsi and took a hard chug.
“I’m serious, Iris. I know ya don’t believe me.”
“You right. I don’t. Last time you did this song and dance, you got me all wrapped up in it. I helped you, even assisted you with the light bill that was in his name and he refused to pay, and then you turned around and went right back to him like you’re called Lark the boomerang sensation.” The woman sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “You and I weren’t as close then as we are now, but I hated to see you hurting like that. I got away from my ex years ago, like I told you. I know what it was like. Now, y’all back together and he hangs up on me when I call. Got me out here lookin’ like the bad guy when it’s all on him. Don’t talk to me about no damn Tom unless you ready to be a woman of your word, ’cause I ain’t running to your rescue again. Fool me once… and you know the rest. I bet—”
“I know, I know, I know.” Lark put up her hand to stop her and closed her eyes. “I was still fightin’ for us… in my heart. I can’t do it no more, girl. I wasn’t as strong as I am now.”
“You mean reality set in.”
