My day started bad and just got worse. The alarm clock didn’t go off so I was late for work. Then the bus was late too, so I was even more late. My boss, he’s okay, but he looked real disappointed. I don’t like making people disappointed. It makes my tummy hurt. So all day I was feelin’ crummy. My job is at the grocery store, stocking shelves, and it’s a lot of walkin’ and liftin’. By the time my shift was almost over, all I wanted was my bottle cap collection and to just chill out. I got some real old ones, from like the 50s, real neat stuff.
I was supposed to punch out at five, but someone called in sick, so they asked me to stay another hour. I hate sayin’ no. It makes me feel mean. So I said yes, but inside I was just groan-y. When I finally got to leave, the sun was goin’ down and I was super tired. My feet ached somethin’ awful. I just wanted to catch my bus and get home. It’s a long walk to the bus stop from the back of the store, and you gotta go past the front door.
As I got closer to the main entrance, I saw a bright red car, one of those super shiny ones that looks fast, parked right in the fire lane. Like, smack dab in the middle of it, right where people push their carts out. It wasn’t just a little bit in the fire lane, it was like the car was tryin’ to be the whole fire lane. There was this young guy, probably early twenties, leanin’ on the hood of it. He had sun glasses on even though the sun was practically gone, and he was lookin’ at his phone like it was the most important thing in the world. He just looked so… careless. Like nothin’ else mattered but him and his phone. I noticed Frank, our store security guard, a real nice older fella, was standin’ nearby, talkin’ to the kid. Frank looked tired, like he’d been tryin’ to talk sense into a brick wall. The kid just shrugged and kept lookin’ at his phone. I just shook my head. Some people, ya know?
I was tryin’ to walk around the car, just wantin’ to get to the bus stop without any trouble, when this lady with a full shopping cart came up behind me. She had a teenage boy with her, looked like her son. The cart was piled high, and I could hear her muttering about needing to get home because her special organic milk would go bad. I think she called her son Kyle. Kyle was kinda slouching, lookin’ at his phone too, but he had a real bored look on his face, like he’d seen this show a million times.
The lady, Brenda I think her name was, she tried to get her cart around the red car. But with it parked so badly, there just wasn’t room. She stopped and looked at the young guy, who still wasn’t lookin’ up from his phone. She cleared her throat a little, then a little louder. Nothin’. He didn’t even flinch. She took a deep breath. “Excuse me, young man,” she said, her voice a little bit tight. “Could you please move your car? You’re blocking the fire lane, and I can’t get through.”
The kid slowly looked up, took off his sunglasses like he was a movie star. He squinted at her. He didn’t look angry, just annoyed, like she was interruptin’ somethin’ really important. He looked at his watch, a big fancy one. “Five minutes, lady,” he said, real slow and drawly. “Just wait five minutes.” Then he put his sunglasses back on and went back to his phone. Like that was a perfectly normal thing to say when you’re parked illegally.
Brenda’s face got a little red. Kyle, her son, he just sighed real loud. “Mom, come on,” he mumbled, but Brenda didn’t seem to hear him. She put her hands on her hips. “Five minutes? This is a fire lane! It’s against the law! And my organic milk is getting warm! It’s a very special blend for Kyle’s… uh, sensitivities.” She gave Kyle a look. Kyle just looked down at his shoes.
The young guy, Chad, I heard Frank call him that earlier, he didn’t even look up this time. He just made a dismissive sound, like “pssh.” That really seemed to set Brenda off. She took her cart and tried to shove it through the small space in front of Chad’s car. There was a little scrape sound as the metal of her cart rubbed against the shiny red paint. It wasn’t a big scrape, but it was there.
Chad ripped off his sunglasses. “Hey!” he yelled, finally putting his phone away. “What was that for? You scratched my car!” He stomped over to look at the tiny scrape. He looked at it like she had taken a chainsaw to his precious car.
“Well, if you weren’t illegally parked, I wouldn’t have had to try and get through!” Brenda shot back, her voice getting louder and higher. “And it’s your fault my organic milk is getting warm!”
Just then, a really loud, wailing car alarm started blaring. It was Chad’s red car. It just kept goin’, this horrible loud noise that just screamed right through my head. Chad looked surprised, then mad. He started fumbling with his keys, pushing buttons, but the alarm just kept wailin’ away. He looked real frustrated, his face all scrunched up. It was so loud, it made my own bad day feel even worse, like my brain was gonna split open.
Frank, the security guard, who had been tryin’ to make a call on his walkie-talkie a bit away, walked back over, his face lookin’ extra grim. He shouted over the noise, “That’s it! You gotta move this car NOW, or I’m callin’ a tow truck!”
Chad yelled back, “I’m tryin’! The alarm’s broken! It’s not my fault!” He was still hitting buttons, gettin’ red in the face. Brenda, not one to let an opportunity pass, started yellin’ too, right over the car alarm. “Broken? How about you just move your illegally parked vehicle! The noise is giving me a headache! And my organic milk is going to be ruined!” Kyle just buried his face in his hands. I felt bad for him.
Someone near me, an older lady, tugged on my shirt. “Aren’t you gonna call your manager, honey? This is just awful!” I felt a bit put on the spot. I didn’t want to get involved, I just wanted to go home and look at my bottle caps. But the noise, and the yelling, and how unfair it felt for Frank and the other people tryin’ to get by, made me feel like I should do somethin’. So I fumbled in my pocket for my work phone. My hands were shakin’ a little. I dialed the manager’s extension, then held the phone to my ear, hopin’ someone would pick up quick. The manager’s office is up front, so I thought maybe they could come fast.
I waited for what felt like a long time. The phone just rang and rang. Nobody picked up. The alarm was still blarin’. Chad was now shouting at Frank, sayin’ Frank had no right to tow his car. Brenda was still yellin’ about the milk and the noise. Kyle was just starin’ at his phone with this super defeated look. My head was poundin’ from the noise. I looked up and saw my bus pullin’ up to the stop. It was the last one for another hour.
I didn’t even think twice. I just started walkin’ fast, away from the car alarm and the yelling. I got to the bus stop just as the doors opened. I stepped on, not even lookin’ back. The bus doors hissed shut, and I could still hear a faint bit of the car alarm for a second, then it was gone. I sat down and put my head against the window. I didn’t know how it ended. I hoped that Chad moved his car. I hoped Brenda finally got her organic milk home. Most of all, I hoped I never had to see Brenda at my store again. The thought of her yelling at me, or at anyone else, just made me feel cold inside.
