CHAPTER 3

I quickly run to the locker to check; to my surprise it was there, sitting pretty. The normal Mr Kendy would not have paid until we were two days into the next month. But I always check at the beginning of the every month like some doll being controlled by strings.

Either way, I`m glad I received my check when due. I am instantly motivated to work. There is no need to count the money, Mr Kendy doesn't slack in that zone. I start to whistle, walking back to the shelves; alone time with my precious, no better way you could live life.

Mr Kendy would say " Review them and make them mighty appealing to customers."

I must say that`s the only nice thing he does in my books - allows me do my favourite thing. Giving reviews to customers could bore them at times, but I try my hardest to colour my words and make them engaging.

It is time to open the shop. I do all the necessary things, give the shop a lively look to draw in customers. It's twenty-four days to Christmas the shop is decorated to match the festive season. I had put up the decorations on the last day of November. Applying to the reason that all the days in December must be bright and jovial.

Dancing my way to the room where the shop's VHS was situated. The film room could pass for a place where I gradually inhabited in the shop to specifically watch my movies. I do not have to bother about leaving the counter space empty, the bell on the top side of the entrance is structured in a way that anyone in the VHS room would be alerted of a new presence. There is a TV set hung right in front of my sitting area, but it comes with too many distractions.

Unnecessary chit-chat and questions I have zero zeal to entertain always pops up from customers. I can only vouch for one person in this town that is on the quiet side and Fenver had no choice because he was dumb. Aside from him, the rest were unrelenting chatterboxes.

''What are you watching?''

''Oh Goodness! Will that poor soul die?''

''This movie? I have lost count of the number of times I have seen it. In this particular scene, the mother slapped his face hard for disobeying her.''

''Let me stay a while and watch some before I leave.''

Hell no! I`m not going through that as long as I have a choose and right now, I do. Yeah, it could be on my job requirement as a salesperson, but every time they play the commentator role it becomes more obvious that I am not comfortable with it. The counter just isn`t the right place.

Mr Kendy doesn't know much about the film room. I just told him I keep the VHS in there to avoid chances of it being stolen. He was not inquisitive about it, nor did he show much concern. Getting him the exact money for the movies sold, was his main priority.

He cut my salary once because I was using the VHS. I keep wondering why he did that, was I expected to bring one from home - there is none at home; a knowledge I'm a zillion percent sure is no news to him.

Quite a epitome of evil and contempt.

I unfold the blanket I sneaked out from home and break open the packet of gummy bears I got from Everything Mart.

Settling on Old Larry, - my trusted derriere holder- I turn on the old TV set grumpy Mr Kendy abandoned after getting the attention-grabbing set which the customers go bazooka over.

Fenver was the first one in town to get a glimpse of it. The way his face brighten like that of a child who had been handed a stick full of cotton candy all wide eyed and flashing teeth. I got to see for the first time in my entire 24 years of living on planet earth the visual depiction of star struck. Afterwards, it rained wide eyes and flashing teeth daily.

I slip a cassette into the in player and throw a handful of gummies in my mouth with my focus on the rejected stone that had become a corner stone for me.

Sweet emotion

You talk about things that nobody cares about Wearing out things that nobody wears.

You're calling my name but I gotta make it clear. I can't say, baby, where I'll be in a year.....

Setting my back against the wall, my eyes savour and take note of every movement the actors on the screen portray.

" This is new." I mutter, absentmindedly.

I fall oblivious to the world I live in as I give my all to the movie on display. This is what it feels like to be reborn, I am undoubtingly sure.

DINGDING!

Urghhh! Why does this always have to happen? I quickly run to the counter, quite unhappy. Dazed and confused will have to wait till my shift is over because when a customer comes in, it almost always of certainty that more than a dozen customers will follow.

" So, would you like me to recommend some movies to you or do you already happen to have one in mind, Shaquan." I market skillfully, an ever-ready smile plastered on my face. 'Cannot wait to be done with this', is already an understatement or rather an exaggeration because I would still have to wait to be done with this.