Though it felt like I worked at the comic book store for many years, in actuality I was only there for eleven months. Those eleven months were the most eye-opening days of my life, where I learned to deal with a terrible boss, a terrible wage, and a complete lack of both employment benefits and social interaction. Every so often a woman would wander into the store, though it was usually at the behest of their nerdy boyfriends. And then I got a surprise.
It was a typical day at the comic book store, I hadn't had a customer in two hours, I had cleaned all of the glass cases, twice, and had read through seventeen different Marvel comics. I was about halfway through my crossword book when the door swung open, and I looked up to see Grace.
She took two steps into the door, spotted me, and stopped dead. There was a brief silence where our eyes met and we considered each other's place in the world, and then she pointed at me and yelled "OH MY GOD, IT'S YOU!"
She toddled into the store, tripping over her feet as she flailed toward the counter, rambling about how random it was to find me there and asking how I had managed to get such a sweet gig. I told her all about my shifts working as a busboy, and how I had gotten a call from the comic book store when I really needed it, and the rest was just history.
In asking her what had brought her into the store that day, she told me that she rarely had the chance to come in during the summer, but now that her next year at the community college had started up again, she would end up spending her afternoons at the local library reading manga and doing her homework. The only reason she had ventured into my neck of the woods was to see if there were any new books for her to buy, as our library wasn't as fully stocked as the comic book store was.
Every student knows what it's like to want something and be unable to get it because of a lack of funds. So when you've got an in at the only specialty-store in town, you're going to abuse that relationship to get some perks. Don't get me wrong, I never encouraged, or allowed, her to steal anything, we just came to an understanding that she was free to read whatever she wanted in the store for the company that she could provide me during my long days without anyone to talk to. How that store ever made money I have no idea.
Looking back at my job, I can see how many labor laws were broken during my day. I would typically work from 10am to 6:30pm, which would be fine, except that, during my day, there was no one around to relieve me for a break. There was a tiny, tiny fridge kept behind the counter, but it was almost constantly stocked up with my boss's meals, and I could rarely fit anything of my own in there, even if I had wanted to.
Somehow, along the way, it was deemed appropriate for me to ask Grace if she would be willing to walk across the street and get me something to eat from one of the local fast food joints if I gave her the money for it. Not wanting to kill her free ride, she was more than willing.
I remember laughing the first time that she had gone across the intersection to get me a meal because I specifically asked her if she could get some ketchup for me. I had expected two or three packets to be placed into the bag and it never struck me as much of a problem to get them there. When I finally heard the door opening up again, I noticed Grace walking in, slowly, her elbow pushing the door open while she held the drink tray in one hand, the bag containing my meal and her own clenched between her teeth, and her other hand gripping onto two overflowing ketchup cups.
When she put everything down on the counter, I looked down at the cups, then at her, and said "...were they out of the packets? It seems like that would've been easier," and she shook her head, smiling, "no, they had a bunch, but I thought you might prefer the cups the way I do."
I smiled, thanking her for her thoughtfulness, and then asked "why [she didn't] just put the empty cups into the bag with a bunch of the packets so we could fill them here." She stared off into space for a moment, her jaw somewhat slack, and said something akin to "dammit! Why didn't I think of that?!" I was also going to ask why she didn't just balance the cups in the drink tray, but I didn't want to blow her mind.
After the first few times that I had asked her to travel back and forth across the street she seemed to learn my ordering habits, and it came to the point that, when she came into the store after her classes were over, she would appear along with my order ready-made, which was always a pleasant surprise when it happened, but kind of a downer when I had grown accustomed to my meals and they wouldn't show up due to her class being cancelled or it being the weekend.
I stopped getting delivered meals when I stopped working there, but Grace and I still had more fun times ahead of us.
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