Midnight Memories

CHAPTER - 5:

I'm sitting in my office, which is behind a counter on a small but comfortable chair. I'm trying to calm my body, to shake off the anxiety I'm feeling. But I can't. I can't simply delete the image of the look of horror on the old dead man's face. Also, I can't help but feel guilty. If I hadn't dodged the ball, it wouldn't have hurted me that much. It wouldn't have killed me at the very least. The old man was lying in such a position that the ball went straight for his neck and snapped it in two. The two boys had run away almost instantly when they had realized the depth of what they had done. But some police officers were already present in the park and another man had alerted them of the crime the boys had committed and the police had succeeded in capturing them, and hence I was left out of the whole scenario. That second man acted as the witness while I had quietly walked away.
Jake, my "boss", is a good friend of mine. So when I told him that I had a car accident and that it was pretty serious, he believed me. Technically, I was not even lying. This could in fact be a car accident all along. But that doesn't explain my apparent absence for 7 days, according to Andy.
Anyways, I mostly do the job of a cashier, but sometimes I do the cleaning and serving as well just to maintain my good relations with Jake.
So here I am, sitting behind the counter, waiting for the customers to come. The wall to my right is made entirely of glass, and the view is pretty epic. The main entrance is actually quite behind the counter I work on, which is weird, because unless I turn my whole body to look behind me, I have no idea what sort of customers to expect. Jake says it will enhance my social skills, giving me very little time to judge the behaviour of the incoming customers.
The air is quite chilly, hence I go and buy a latte and 2 doughnuts. As I take the first bite of my doughnut, back at my desk, lost in my memory lane, I feel a chilly breeze on the back of my neck, and I know that a customer has arrived. Judging by the constant shouting, it's probably a mom with her children. I prepare myself to take the first order of the day, but nothing happens. In fact the shouting ceases and everything gets silent. Now I look behind me, and see that no one is in sight. Strange, I think to myself. Pretty sure I had heard at least 1 woman and a couple of children.
As I'm cursing myself for taking the meds Andy had given me, I see a car coming towards our restaurant, and getting parked in our very, very small parking spot, where at least 5 cars are scratched/bumped on a regular basis, and at least 3 fights breakout every time more than 10 customers arrive and are dining at the same time. I see the car stopping and I see a woman with two little girls getting out of it. Well, I couldn't be hallucinating that.
I turn my back and wait for them. The girls are screaming MOMMMMYYYYY with excitement and the Mom is shouting at them to calm down.

She orders 2 Happy Meals and just a Latte for herself. About 6 more customers come after her, mostly students, but also an old man. It's almost 12:30 PM and my break is about to start. So I start packing up my stuff ( just a very old and hardly functional laptop, and a couple of books, along with a sketching pad).
When I'm done and I stand up to leave, Rebecca, who takes over during my break, comes up to say hello.
"Hey, Rebecca, what's up?", I ask, trying to not look directly at her blue, oh so blue, eyes. It's as if I can see a billion stars, and the history of mankind in them. They look bold, confident, and genuinely happy, but also tell you to not mess around with her.
"Yeah everything's fine. What's up with you?", she asks as nonchalantly as possible. It must have been a slow day at work if she needs my personal stories to gossip about with her friends in the kitchen.
"If you're asking about my absence and this bandage -" I say, pointing to my head, "I got in a car accident and things got pretty serious. But I'm fine now."
She fakes a look of horror, but I know she is deeply disappointed in my very un-detailed story.
Still, I'm pretty sure she would come with something to spice it up. She is about to ask me something (probably more details), when I cut her off, saying I gotta go and leave my desk. She replaces me on the chair, and I exit the restaurant.
The chilly wind hits me face first when I take my first step out of the building. Thankfully, I am wearing my leather jacket that Andy had gifted me on my birthday, and it's pretty cozy. I start walking, my heart full of excitement, and fear. I'm excited because I might finally be able to get something by going under the mango tree and close this subject forever. I'm afraid because I know life doesn't work that way. The chances of me slipping and cracking open my skull are greater than me actually getting anything useful out of this trip. I turn around a corner, take a left here, and a right there, and there it is: The mango tree standing tall in it's full glory. It looks so majestic, so full of life and energy. I wonder how many people had their first kiss under this tree, and how many hearts were broken, how many friends had made memories and how many tears were shed. Instead of going under it, I go and cross the road and sit on a bench just opposite to the tree. I observe people walking all around it, pretending that it doesn't exist. Ignoring a 40m tall living creature, but focusing on their make up. Men having enough time to turn the heads to look at all the booties, but not enough time to look up and see the Mango tree.