Queenpin Of Wales

Chapter 9

Every night it's the same dream replaying in my head. That guy, watching us. Everything happens but in my dreams. He doesn't miss me this time. I am hit by his car. Waking myself up. I shot up in bed unsticking my back from the sheet. Sweat dripped down my forehead. It was 3 am. The only light in my room was my alarm clock. I turned to my nightstand devouring an entire bottle of room-temperature water. It felt cold rushing down my throat. I cleaned my mouth off of the droplets. I swapped the bottle for my phone in hand. The screen light startled my eyes shutting them for a brief moment. I put my phone back in place as I slumped onto my side to face the wall. I had to stop worrying, it happened a week ago. I had to forget about it. My eyelids fell drifting off to sleep once again. 

My days turned into weeks. One week to be exact. The snow melted but our town wasn't out of the woods yet. There was a mention of more snow but it was a 40% chance. So the chances were slim. I was happy to come back to work, but as Sandy promised, nothing changed. It was just a normal day. Stock shelves, alphabetize books, and help customers when some come in. It was shocking, it was busy. There were dozen upon dozen of people in the store. Sandy and I went back and forth on the till, as we ran around stocking up shelves. I wore tan cargo jeans and my Dior cardigan. My Docs squeaked across the laminate floor like a little race car. I got my steps in today, I must have. I never stopped running. "Myla-moo! Get Dracula off the back shelf! We need it restocked!" Sandy yelled from the till as I was filling my cart up. I ran up the step ladder lifting the box of Bram Stoker's masterpiece off the shelf. I placed the entire box on my cart pushing it outside.

"Yessum. Got it!" I saw the lineup of customers. I darted to the book's respective homes. Sandy and I switched to let her grab what we needed. I rang up customers left and right.

"Do you have The Secret History?"

"Do you have the Godfather?"

"Do you have Lolita?"

Why can't avid readers think of better ways to ask if we have a certain book? I know it's normal but I can't stand hearing the same thing day to day. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a customer ask me that exact question I would be making more than my salary a week. Couples would come in doing cute book dates. My stomach fluttered seeing how cute they were however, it made me jealous. I wanted that. I wanted what they have. I want to walk into a store hand in hand with my girlfriend. With Catherine I mean. Quick glances and soft giggles were shared between them. God, I miss her. When will I see her? I stared off into space wondering when she'll see me again. We facetimed last night, Catherine was home in Wales. Attending a work meeting with her guys. She must've had scatterbrain because when she mentioned all of the construction equipment and materials they needed to buy and bring in from other countries she fumbled. I swore she said cocaine instead of concrete. Haha! She's always so funny with the way she messes up her words. Maybe it's a Welsh vs Canadian vocab thing. The UK invented the language, maybe were the ones fucking up.

All customers have left, and Sandy's gone to get lunch for us. It was quite boring, usually, it's never this boring but maybe it was over the fact I was away for so long. Constantly away, seeing Catherine. The way she smiled, no one has ever smiled at me that way. Though, she is the first person to see me naked. There's a reason she's smiling. The way her hands would touch me, like she's never touched another human before, though, scared to grab me rough for the fear I would shatter. She was exciting, everything we did was just that. It was ten times different than my life here. I wish it never ended. When will she come? Is she going to text or call when she does? A small part of me doesn't want her to tell me, just come and surprise me. Swipe me off my feet in a surprise.

"Moo? You finished the science fiction section?" Sandy barged into the store with Chinese food in hand. "Yeah, all the Bibles are stocked." My eyes were glued to the big windows seeing out to the curb. I was waiting. Waiting for Catherine. Sandy burst at the seams, cackling like she's never heard that joke before. "Come now! Haha! If you actually did that again go fix it. I don't want those snotty bible freak ladies up my ass again." She planted herself next to me in another chair untying the knot in the plastic bag. Wor wonton is my favourite. My favourite part was the baby corn and the large pieces of shrimp. You had to be careful which Chinese restaurant you went to in this town. One place makes really good wontons, and the other just tastes like pure salt. It doesn't even taste like meat inside the wrapper, just a ball of pure salt. We, unfortunately, got the salty wontons today. That meant I'll be eating everything else but them. I was having a good day, I don't need a headache today.