Scratched

Nine

NINE

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Lark was right there was nothing to this job. I’d been working here for a couple weeks now, and when I wasn’t doing anything, I sold records. It wasn’t stimulating or challenging but at least I got paid. Besides, it wasn’t like I’d done too much at the Mart anyway. It was as boring as this job. The upside to working here was that I could actually do things not related to work which was probably the most beautiful thing I had ever heard as far as things involving jobs went. Getting paid to do whatever the hell you want? Yeah, that sounds amazing.

I didn’t immediately catch onto this though.

My first day here I was completely lost. Did I just do what Lark said or do I take initiative? I had no idea where I stood. It wasn’t like there had been formal training or any at all—for that matter. And Lark didn’t give me any sort of tasks. I just stood around and stared at the wall for hours. There is nothing quite as mind numbing as doing nothing. When I couldn’t take it anymore I started wandering around the store, hoping to find some excitement. What I found was Lark. He was huddled into a corner of the store, playing the hell out of a Gameboy. Beside him was a bowl of popcorn and a gallon of Kool-Aid. When he saw me he just smiled, pointing to the screen. “I just made a shit ton of rupees, Piper!”

At first I was horrified. How could he do that while working? Where was his boss at anyways—or was he in charge of the store? I wasn’t really sure on the details and it wasn’t like he told me anything anyway. It was just ridiculous though. Did he always do this kind of thing? Eventually, I was just mad. I didn’t care if he was a slacker or careless. I cared that he was having fun, rocking Zelda while I had been standing around!

So I did the only thing I could do. I followed his lead—after all he hired me. From that point on I was never just standing around. I read magazines, painted my nails, and smoked Lark’s cigarettes. It was a bad habit but a good way to pass the time and he didn’t seem to care. I got the impression there wasn’t much I could do to upset Lark. He was always flying high as a kite anyway, plus he was as mellow as they came. Basically though I just did whatever struck me at that moment and I loved it.

I was really starting to like it here.

At the Food Mart everything was all laid out. There was nothing impulsive or unpredictable about it. We worked the registers, stocked shelves, and went home. The whole place was a drag—just white on white and florescent lighting. I hated it. At least here I had variety that broke up all the hours of nothing. It was great. I felt like I was doing more than just getting by like I had before. I liked to think I was doing just fine on my own, maybe better than I had in Riverview.

♪            ♫            ♪

It was finally the weekend which meant I would get paid today. The record shop closed on Fridays. That is quite possibly my favorite thing about working here—other than the part about getting to do nothing all day and still get paid. I always hated working on weekends. At the Mart weekdays were bad enough but working on weekends could make you suicidal. I wasn’t the type of person to over-exaggerate or be melodramatic but it really was a nightmare. I used to dread showing up there on the weekends because I knew that it would be swamped, and I would have to put up with them all. But that wasn’t the case with working at the record store. People were hardly ever in the store. It just wasn’t that kind of business.

And that’s when I had noticed something. I couldn’t say I had learned a lot since I started working here but I had learned one thing. It was that no one was ever at the register. The only time we would be was if we had a customer. Otherwise, we’d be in our designated spots. For example, Lark’s favorite haunt was the “library” as he called it. It was a maze-like area of book shelves cluttered with records and cd’s alike. It was dimly lit and was easy to get turned around in. I suspected he liked it for the privacy and the fact that he could nap there at all hours of the day with limited exposure to sunlight. It was also good for viewing his Gameboy screen which was very important to him.