Chapter 8 > Tangelo

I almost didn't write it, but I thought I should. Needed a chapter with me at work. This might be the final chapter before part II starts. OOoh! =D

o.0

4:05 am. My work clothes are sitting in the dryer, I should really get out of bed and take them out so they don’t get more wrinkled.

I smashed out of bed, my pajamas draped over me. My mangled limbs carried me down the stairs; reaching into the yawning metal. I snatched my clothes and went back upstairs, laying them gently on my pillow. Then I flopped back under the covers, slushy footsteps behind my eyelids. Sound waves, resonating.

Alarm goes off at 8:45. I am so tired, thoughts of a freshwater shower on my bedroom fur.

Shower, changed into my light blue jeans, & a white tablecloth shirt.

I had tofu with jam, hash browns, & toast for breakfast. Delicious. Then I blow-dried the tips of my hair that were still wet and straightened it. Then I put it up, and put in some nice earrings. I smeared some rose brown around my eyes with heavy mascara.

Gathering up my work clothes, keys, nametag, money, black socks, and shoes. I slipped into my cute shiny pixie shoes with the bows and left for work.

Locking up my bike, walking in, waving to everyone. The cute courtesy clerk was working and I smiled at him and he said hello.

I typed in the code into the door and went upstairs. The staff bathroom was smelly and grimy as usual. I locked myself into a stall, throwing my clothes over the door and pulling on my black pants, giant khaki green shirt, and apron. I put on my socks, ugly leather flats and placed everything back into my Feist bag.

I put my shoes in the room where all the bakers put there clothes, and went to my locker to put everything else. I was actually on time and I tumbled down the stairs back into the store.

I went to the Customer Service desk to check my schedule. 11:30 – 3:30, carts from 2 – 3. Ok.

I walked out, hoping I looked especially pretty, smiled at the cute courtesy clerk again, and started picking up all the baskcarts from the check stands. There were a lot so I got a little rolly stand and I pushed them along. Eventually I got to check stand 9 and saw that Twila was working. Twila is amazing, the first day she bossed me around and everyone told me to look out for her. But since then she has been absolutely the sweetest, & she tells me interesting things.

Hi Tyler, are you gonna come bag for me?
Sure!

I loved her nicknames for me, I felt so special. Twila had long blonde hair, she braided it to the side and it hung down around her hips. She had a worn sarcastic face, she was so tall. She had told me about her life one time when I was outside with her watching her smoke.

She had lived on a farm when she was younger, and she had been very short. Her entire teen years were people making fun of her and beating her up, which was when she learned to fight. Her parents raised horses, and at that time they were the only ones there for her. Her dream was to be a jockey, she would ride every day and care for her horses and tell them everything. She had a real friendship with horses from a young age. At 17 she left home, and traveled across the country. She took a lot of odd jobs, many on farms. She was known as being an amazing caretaker for horses. During her 20’s she grew, and she knew she could never be a jockey. She traveled, a lot happened to her then but she never told me much. Eventually she came around to Winnipeg. She bought a farm, and raised horses there. She raced them, and made sure they were happy. She told me about her horses a lot, and wanted me to come to her farm and be her jockey. So now she works at Safeway, everyone that comes to her check stand knows her and they talk about hunting, borscht, horses, drinking, and there lives. She knew some rough people that would open up to her; I loved her for that; just the ability of being able to understand people so well.

I came to her check stand and said hello.

Hello!
Hi, oh you are such a brat. Doesn’t she smile like a brat?

The customers laughed and I laughed, bagging their groceries with care. A man bought 20 cartons of soy milkshakes, the man who looks like Igor and his short electric haired wife came, lots of people talked about jockeys. There were many people who bought a lot of cakes or coke or wieners for Canada Day BBQ’s.

What a sweet baby, he’s grown a lot eh?
Yeah…17 months now.
What a sweetie!
Yeah he is a darling.
You know, his face is so soft, he could almost be a girl.
Oh?
Yeah, like he’s a pretty boy. I don’t mean that to insult you. Every species has pretty boys. Like the boys that are so sleek and lovely that they could be girls. I think those are the best of the breed.
Thank you! Do you hear that sweets, we have a pretty boy.

The lady smiled and kissed her baby.

Yeah he is so cute.
God Paige you know who is cute? That Christian.
Christian?
The other courtesy clerk? He’s bagging like 3 down from us.
Oh him! I never knew that was his name.
Yeah he’s a really nice boy; you should talk to him sometime.
Hm maybe.

You know you and me made the board?
Huh?
Like the “thank you” staff board in the hallway?
Oh…
Yeah, Paige & Twila. They love us.

She smiled at me and I felt really proud. I was an important part of the Safeway Team. Weee.

I’m going on my break now Paige k. Don’t bag for anyone else, you’re my sweets.

The customers laughed and I felt really happy. Twila Twila Twila <3.

Twila left and I bagged for Stacey, the lady who took her place. But soon no one came.

Well this is fun.
Yeah, I think I’m going to go sweep or something.

I left and picked up the baskcarts. They hadn’t been piling up; Christian must’ve been doing them.

I went to the Customer Service desk and checked the Sweep Log. It hadn’t been done since the morning so I wrote in my name and left for the closet. I pulled out the hefty red dirt brush and shut the door.

Pushing along the dirt I went through my route. I started in the florist, I love going through the florist. Looking at all the new flowers and fancy pots. I stop at the freezer thing that holds the big bouquets of roses. Sometimes I wish I were a boy so I could send a girl roses. I wonder if someone would know my favorite bunches. I plucked some dead leaves off the ground and shoved them in my apron then continued into the Produce. The produce section is always dirty, tons of little Easter brown papers, cherries & grapes, and onionskins on the ground. I eluded customers and stock people and continued onto the back. I pushed the giant broom past all the eggs and milk and yogurts. I could go for a Yop right now. I would get the peach one.

I went up and down the dirty looking aisles or ones with things I enjoyed looking at. I ended up in the bakery, another of my favorite sweeping places. I eyed all the palatable soft brown goodies, pies, cookies, donuts, and my favorite, the fresh muffins. Most of the time on my breaks I would get an apple muffin with caramel filling. So warm, fluffy and delicious.

I swept in front of Customer Service and came back to the closet. I shook out the giant red dirt eater, and they hovered onto ground. I swept it all up and poured the grime into the women’s washroom garbage.

I came around the corner and saw that Christian was bagging for Twila. I checked for baskcarts, circled back and he was gone. I took his spot.
My little darling is back.
How was your lunch break?
Hmm okay.

I bagged for Twila for a while until one of the nice manager ladies came over.

Have you taken your break yet?
Nope.
Well, it’s 1:50; you can go if you want.
Ha, ok I’ll just finish bagging these people’s stuff.
Alright, great!

So considerate, I really do love my job.

Twila I’m breaking now, I’ll be back soon.
Alright Tyler.

I went upstairs and grabbed some money. I wasn’t very hungry because my breakfast had been so huge and yummy. I got a bubbly peach drink and some bulk gummy bears. I had just enough money.

I went back upstairs and got out my blue I M A G I N E notebook and my little new photo album. As I chewed gummy bears and sucked the foam out of my beverage I gazed over me and Jess’ colorful faces.

The first picture in the album I remembered naming Elephant Parade. Jess and me lying on her lawn, me squinting and smiling, Jess pouting with her eyes gently shut.

After I looked at them, I got out my notebook with the clouds and wrote down my hours for next week. I wasn’t supposed to work at all because Darlene had been a sweetie and let me have the week off for the Folk Festival. But my shifts hadn’t been crossed out yet so I wrote them down just in case.
I took an extra 10 minutes for break and then went back downstairs. Just as I walked through the door the music stopped and Darlene’s voice came over the intercom. She was singing Oh Canada and I laughed. Darlene is amazing.

After she was done I clapped and smiled at her and walked into the big entryway with all the carts in it. It was almost empty!

I went to the Customer Service desk and looked in the little Tupperware thing for the Cart Key. Again it wasn’t there so I asked Chris for a quarter instead.

Here you go, hey you were here last night weren’t you with a friend?
Yeah I was!
Wow, you look really different. In a good way!
Haha I’m sure you do to!

Chris is so nice.

I went outside with my quarter and pushed carts back and forth.

When the cart room was ¾ full I went back in. I only had about 30 minutes left so I decided to do an extra thorough sweep. I went to Customer Service and filled out the log again and started though my little routine.

Courtesy Clerk to Customer Service Please, Courtesy Clerk to Customer Service.

Bossy intercom.

I pushed my broom to Customer Service.

Paige, could you help this man shop?
She caught me glancing at the clock.

Nancy will take over for you at 3:30, don’t worry.
Okay sure! Thanks!

I pushed my broom out of the way by the Lotto desk and walked back to the guy.

Hi, so my name’s Paige and I’m going to help you shop today!!
Haha okay, here’s my list, which way should we go?

His list was scribbled on a tiny notepad in permanent marker. Cookies, Potatoes, Coffee, Macaroni Salad, Cheesecake, & Ice Cream.

Well let’s go this way okay?
Alright.

He backed up and turned around his little electric wheelchair and we started towards the Bakery/Deli side.

You know I tried to drive one of those once and I almost died!
Hahaha, it’s sort’ve hard to get used to but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I held his hand so he knew where he was going, his vision wasn’t too good. We wheeled towards the Deli and I approached the counter.

No, I don’t want it fresh I want like a tub.
A tub?
Yeah a big bin of it, I think it’s over here by the buns.
Oh like this?

It was an ice cream tub size of macaroni salad. Looked yummy actually.

I placed it in his hands and he felt the size.

Yeah just like this! Can you put this in the bag in the front? There’s coffee in there already so watch out.

I put it in and we went to the big cake table.

Okay so you want a cheesecake? What kind?
I don’t know, what can I choose from?

I realized upon looking through all the cakes the only cheesecake was strawberry, everything else that looked like a cheesecake was a mousse cake. Whatever that is.

Okay well pick a good one.
So now should we get the cookies?
No, we’re close to the meat so we can get the potatoes.
Potatoes?
Pardon?
Potatoes!
Oh, yes the potatoes.
But potatoes wouldn’t be with the meat.
No, frozen potatoes.
Oh…ok. Let me ask a lady if they have those here. Hold on.

Ummm do you have frozen potatoes?
Yeah, like TV dinners. Here.
Thanks!

I brought it over to him and he said that was what he was looking for.

Get me another one.

I brought him back another one and he smiled.

Okay so now can we get the cookies?
Well isn’t the ice cream right over there?
But the cookies are here!
Is your middle name cookie?

I laughed and we went down aisle nine. It seemed the whole world was shopping for cookies; we had to push everyone out of the way. We had a short decision about what kind of peanut butter cookies to get and I decided he should get the kind I have at home.

They’re reaaally yummy.

Then we continued to the ice cream, and I picked out some Butterscotch Marble for him. Then Nancy showed up.

Well I got him everything so you can just take him to the checkout.
Okay great.

Thank you Paige, you were very helpful.
No problem, have a great day!

I walked over to the doors leading upstairs and glanced at the clock. 10 minutes past when I was supposed to leave. But that’s okay because I took an extra long break anyway.

I went up and got changed, made sure I had everything, and then went back down. I said goodbye to everyone and biked home.

At home I had a regular evening, ate food, watched Seinfeld with my dad, listened to music. My bedroom lumbered closer as dim lights ran down my cheeks.