Writing Wednesday: Prompt 4

“The cards are one ninety nine,” a curly haired woman said as I scanned the rest of her merchandise. “Who spends four dollars on a card?” My blood was boiling at this point. My other coworker was watching and came over.

“No mam, all of those cards are four dollars each.”

“Well, then take those off I’m not paying four dollars for a card.”

I hit item correct on the register, then hit enter on the cards and pressed the number 5 the words ‘customer does not want’ were next to it on the screen. I then went to the telephone and paged, “Manager key to register two please, manager key to register 2, thank you.”

The curly haired lady rolled her eyes, “unbelievable,” she said. “I have kids to pick up in five minutes.” She looked at her watched then looked up at me. She then proceeded to take all the merchandise -including the cards- and headed out the door.

“Excuse me you can’t just-” the security panels beeped as she walked through the door and onto the busy sidewalk. The manager walked to my register with a confused look. My coworker and I explained what happened.

“She put one of them one dollar stickers on the cards and tried to tell her they were all a dollar,” my coworker said. “I looked over there and saw that none of the other cards that looked like that had those.”

The manager used the key to void the whole purchase. “You can go now,” he said. I closed my register and took my drawer to the back, clocked out, then headed out the door.

The wind blew my long blond hair as I walked on the sidewalk. When I stopped at the street crossing I rubbed my neck with my hand. Thank God that’s over, I thought to myself. I walked the crosswalk with a large group of people. People in suits and skirts, laughing, talking about business on phones -and then there was me. In khakis and a oversized mens polo -I couldn’t find any good ones for women.

I turned into a café on Park St, I could smell coffee being brewed and there were people on laptops and others talking business amongst each other. Mariana, one of my good friends, waved at me from across the register and I waved back. I took my string bag off my shoulders as I waited in line. “Hey girl, how was work?” she said. Her curly black hair bounced as she made a latte for the person in front of me.

“I’ll have to tell you once you get off your shift,” I said. “There’s just too much that’s happened today.”

“Okay,” she said, “hey don’t forget to help me with that science homework today.” She gave me what I always got there, it was only a green tea, nothing I couldn’t make at home, but I would buy one sometimes just so we could talk.

I sat outside and got my homework and pencils out of my bag. I sipped my drink as I worked on my math homework. Then a women came up to me who looked a lot like me. A freckled nose, bright green eyes, blond hair. Even our tops were the same color. “Can you watch this for me while I order something from here?” she asked. She sat a Chanel bag on my table before I could even say anything and walked right into the store. I just shrugged and continued doing my work. Glancing every once in a while at the white bag.  Who pays thousands of dollars on a purse, I thought looking at my string bag that cost me less than ten dollars.

Then I got stuck on a question and looked up at the people walking on the sidewalk. A lady with black hair in tight bun turned to face me and gave me an angry glare. She fast walked towards me and I noticed as she got closer she was wearing black pumps. “You stupid bitch,” she said looking directly at me. I looked around wondering if she was talking to someone else. She grabbed the Chanel bag, took my drink and tossed it at me. It got all over my face and my homework. “Steal my purse again you little cunt,” she said with her face right next to mine. “And I make sure you’ll never find a job in this whole fucking country.” She hit her fist on the small black metal table making it shake and then she left with her head held high. It took me a few moments to process what was happening.

Then I knew I had to talk to that girl in the café.