The Lock In

Chapter 4

We had been given word that we weren’t allowed back in school for another three days. Apparently, when the firemen came to inspect the school, they didn’t find much but a couple of stink bugs. Which then led them to more stink bugs. The Academy had let the bugs loose all over the school, probably by dropping them in open windows or the ventilation system (they were crafty those snobs), and the whole place had to be fumigated.

Actually, there was no word yet on who had actually perpetrated the prank, but my money was on The Academy. Who else could it be, really?

So, I decided to bide my time until school started up again by picking up a couple day shifts at the Stop & Shop I worked at. I didn’t exactly want to spend the seventy-two hours straight listening to soap operas blaring from my mother’s bedroom. I didn’t really mind the job, though sure, there were better jobs out there than working at a grocery store. But my coworkers were friendly and the customers were nice enough. I actually enjoyed day shifts during the week more than my usual evening or weekend shifts because many lovely, elderly ladies tended to shop midday during the week. I always found their stories so endearing, and I like to think they appreciated and even enjoyed how willing I was to listen and converse with them.

But today, I hadn’t talked to a single customer - no one had even asked me where they could find a certain product - and I had been working for almost three hours. Needless to say, the day was going by grudgingly slow.

“Beep beep! Outta the way little lady!” A voice called. I looked up from the shelf that I was stocking to see a guy barreling down the aisle, standing on top of the empty dolly he was pushing. 

I shook my head, but couldn’t quite stifle my laughter. “Get down from there Eric before you get yourself killed!” I mock scolded my coworker.

Eric slowed to a halt just before the dolly reached me. “More like, ‘get down from there before you get yourself fired,’” He said, reaching over to lay an arm across my shoulders, his shaggy brown locks falling into his eyes as he did so. “How’s your day going, kid?”

Ugh. I shrugged his arm off me. “You know I hate when you call me kid,” I said. “You’re one year older than me.”

Eric had graduated from Wilford High just last year. I hadn’t really known him when we were in school together - he hung out with athletic crowd and though I didn’t really stick to one clique, my path and the jock’s paths never really crossed.

Eric had been on the hockey team, though he wasn’t the star. But, from the games I had attended, I gathered he had been pretty good. Then I knew he was good when I found out that he was supposed to attend a school on the west coast and play Division I hockey on scholarship after he graduated. However, the month before he was set to jet west, his father got sick. Eric decided to stay at home, so he could help take care of his dad. He took classes at our local community college at night when he wasn’t working.

When I first met Eric, I had thought it was strange that he chose to work at a grocery store rather than a better paying, more permanent job. Eventually, when I finally asked him about it, he told me that it was the only place that accepted his application immediately. It had always been just him and his dad, so he wanted to pitch in and help pay the medical bills now that his dad couldn’t work as much. It was sweet of him, really, to give up his chance at being a hotshot hockey player, and from what I could tell, his dad hated that Eric had to do that. But I could also tell that Eric’s dad really appreciated it as well.

I had been working at the Stop & Shop for about a year when Eric began working. I was the one who trained him, and I’d say he’s a quick learner, but it doesn’t take all that much talent to stock shelves, especially when you’ve been grocery shopping your entire life and have seen it done each time. But, Eric was a dedicated and hard worker, even though he liked to goof off on the job. It was the only way to make the hours of your shift do anything other than crawl by, really.