Some Fiction

I figured this would be a good place to place some of the fiction I've been working on. It will give me, hopefully, some feedback, but also motivate me to keep writing. For those of you who have read this (both of you) and think I'm not giving you anything new...you're right. But keep in mind that I lost at least two chapters due to faulty Pocket PC batteries.


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So now I’m driving. My car, like any good Midwesterners’ car, intuitively heads west. The darkness of a country road envelops me like a warm blanket. Yellow lines and dots are my only scenery this night. Occasionally two piercingly bright lights break through my stream of consciousness, shocking me back to reality, keeping me alert for the next few moments.

The silence is killing me; I need some noise, some human interaction. On a normal night, some Dylan, some Beatles, even some Elton John (the old stuff) would be appropriate, but this is no normal night. In the middle of the deep blue-black Kansas night, I feel so alone. Nothing for miles. Just outlines of black hills rolling over black hills. I reach for the radio, and my ears are filled with AC/DC’s Brian Johnson wailing, “Yeahh, you, SHOOOK ME ALLL NNIGHT LONG.” I never thought I would be this happy to hear music this bad. There is something so Kansas about that song; it just works here.

Anyway, this isn’t about me heading west through Kansas in the middle of the night, it’s about why I’m heading west through Kansas in the middle of the night. And the reason is that I’m going to visit her. Maggie is the reason that I’ve been getting up in the mornings for the last year and a half. You know, “working a job you hate so you can buy shit you don’t need” – it’s all for her. They say that a ring should cost two months salary, but when you make $6.50 an hour that’s just not going to cut it.

The great thing about working retail is that you get to see the state of humanity so clearly. It gives perspective to the rest of life. This happens more than an office where it’s all stuffed shirts and posturing. Everything is real in retail. The customers, the product, the fake employees and their pasted on smiles: “Have a good day”…yup, it’s all real.

Retail is where the stuffed shirts come after they’ve had a “helluva” bad day.

These guys, these stuffed shirts, these “men” come through my section looking at me like…well they just seem to have this sense of entitlement – like they deserve something from me. Like I should be grateful that they showed up tonight. You really see this when something doesn’t go their way: slow service, something is out of stock, “high prices”, or some other minor inconvenience causes these shirts, these men, these CONSUMERS to get riled up, like I owe them something. Like they are better than this.
Listen, I don’t even know you, don’t call me “buddy.”