“I’ll work a few nights,” Megan volunteered. She wasn’t thrilled about it, but she figured she’d used up all her bad luck for the summer. Besides, no one would try to rob the same store two nights in a row…. would they?
“Good,” Vern said. “I’m sure you could use the money.”
Megan did a double take. Was he actually smiling? Tragedy certainly had an odd way of affecting some people…
Of course, not everyone was as optimistic about Megan’s decision as Vern had been. Her parents objected to it outright and they had a rather nasty confrontation.
“Megan, no,” Nancy said exhaustedly after the news was broken to her.
“SOMEBODY has to do it,” Megan protested.
“And it’s good that you recognize that,” Drew pointed out. “But we can’t allow this.”
“Dad,” she argued. “NOBODY is going to try to rob the same store two nights in a row.”
“We realize that,” said Nancy. “But even if there was no robbery, we don’t like you working nights. The whole idea of you walking to your car in the dark alone…. it worries us.”
Megan chuckled then abruptly stopped. “You guys are serious?”
They nodded. Her lips curled and her gaze nodded. She was a grown woman; what right did they have to treat her this way? The lessons of the summer were easily forgotten and all Megan could see of her parents’ concern was that it was a hindrance.
“Well,” she told them, trying to avoid sounding like a brat. “I already said I’d do it. Maybe I can cut back the number of nights…”
Though they weren’t thrilled, this compromise seemed to pacify them. Megan found that she was becoming quite the negotiator.
“Don’t be surprised,” Drew cautioned her. “If I should happen to stop in there. In case I need anything.”
“Dad!” she admonished, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “You mean you’re gonna check up on me?”
“Yes,” he said and went back to setting up his fantasy baseball team as if nothing had happened.
Despite her confident display of defiance, Megan more than saw the validity in her parents argument. She had heard from her coworkers that a lot of strange customers came in at night. Stoned teenagers bought chips and shiny things en masse; horny old men purchased issues of Maxim. Almost anything was possible. Almost anything.
Before she began her first night, Megan gave Natalie a call, both to find out how she was doing and to ascertain what really happened.
“I’m fine,” Natalie assured her. “Really.”
“You don’t sound it,” Megan commented.
“OK, I’ve been losing a little sleep over it, but it’s nothing serious. I’ll get over it.”
“I hope so.”
“Why? Wait…. let me guess: you’re working nights til Josh gets back.”
“Exactly. Look, Nat, I don’t wanna make you relive every moment of it, because I know how scary that could be. But do you think you could kinda tell me what happened? In case it…well…happens to me, I don’t want to get my head blown off.”
Natalie giggled. “They aren’t going to rob the same store twice.”
Megan rolled her eyes. “I know. But still.”
She heard Natalie take a deep breath. “OK,” she began. “Here goes…”
“I’m going out for a cigarette,” Dario told her. “You need anything?”
“No, I’m cool,” she answered. “Thanks though.”
It had been a boring night. There were very few customers and none of them seemed the least bit sociable. She was so used to Vern yelling and degrading everyone that it didn’t even feel like work without him. Dario seemed OK, but they had little in common to talk about.
She had been scribbling with a feather pen when the electronic chime sounded. Yay, she thought. A customer. She looked up…. and froze.
“I saw the mask before I saw the gun,” she told Megan. “I was sooo scared!”
Indeed she had been. Her eyes went wide and a scream remained trapped in her throat. To make matters worse, the masked bandit leveled his weapon at her and began to yell.
“Give me the money!” he shouted excitedly.
“O…ok,” Natalie answered him in a tiny, frightened squeak. Her hands were trembling badly, but she was able to get all the registers open and place their contents inside the duffel bag he brought with him. His eyes, and his gun, remained on her at all times. Each time she turned to grab more bills, she feared that he would shoot her in the back.
“Don’t shoot me!” she pleaded after she had emptied the last of the registers.
He seemed indifferent to her fright. “The safe?”
“I d…don’t have the k…key…” she whimpered.
His gaze locked upon her one final time. He was contemplating; deciding her fate. Just when she thought he would shoot, he snatched up the duffel bag and fled. Natalie sank to her knees, sobbing and holding herself to stop the shaking and the chills.
“Dario came in and called the cops,” she concluded. “It was……well…I mean, it could have been worse, right?”
“Yeah,” Meg assented. It could have been a thousand times worse.
“It was still scary though.”
“When I heard, I felt really bad for you. I’m glad you’re OK.”
“Thanks. And if by some miracle it does happen, just do whatever he says. Try not to stare too hard at him.”
“Thanks.”
Megan felt bewildered after hanging up. Sure, nobody robbed the same store twice. But with her luck, it would happen. And it would be worse.
After changing into a fresh diaper, Megan cast herself into the Twilight Zone. In actuality, Bledsoe’s didn’t seem all that much different than it did during day time, save for the comparative lack of customers. Nonetheless, it felt different. The chime above the door seemed louder; the seconds seemed to tick away much more slowly. She began her shift at 8 PM. By 8:15, it felt like she had been there an hour.
Though it was not his fault, she could allay much of her boredom and discomfort upon Dario. He had been working at Bledsoe’s for two years, about as long as she had. However, because he worked nights only, they rarely had ocassion to interact. A short, stocky young man in his early to mid twenties, he was capable and kept to himself. Though he seemed nice enough, there was something about him that made Megan increasingly uneasy.
She was re-arranging a shelf when it hit her. Almost as soon as Dario left, the robber had entered. He claimed he didn’t notice anything until he saw the robber making his exit. All he would have had to do was turn around and he’d have witnessed the whole thing. But he didn’t. Or did he? Oh crap…
“Something wrong?” he asked. She had been remaining still in contemplation just long enough to bring attention onto herself.
“No….nothing,” she answered abruptly.
“Don’t worry too much about the shelves,” he told her. “Vern will probably want to set things up his way.”
Megan nodded. She tried to stay calm, but her fears were one step ahead of her. If Dario really had set up the robbery, then it was vital that he not know that she knew. She began to wonder if she had done anything to give herself away already. She sure as hell hoped not.
By 9:15, Megan was on the verge of losing it. She had been looking for subtle clues to confirm her suspicions. While there hadn’t been many, her imagination would not allow the issue to drop. Furthermore, there had been a grand total of two customers to grace her register. A third had entered the store, but walked out empty-handed. Straddling the line between unbearable tension and unbearable boredom, Megan began to panic.
“Are you sure you’re OK?” Dario asked her once more.
“Yeah. Why?”
“You were humming ‘I’m a little teapot.’”
Megan blushed. “I guess I’m just bored.” Bored….or going crazy?
Things were getting out of hand. She couldn’t take any more of the intrigue. She decided, once and for all, to confront him about the robbery. But first, however, she was sure to arm herself. When his back was turned, she delved into a drawer and produced a boxcutter. It promptly disappeared inside her pocket and she made her play.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Did you plan the robbery?”
Dario did a double take. He stared at Megan in disbelief. “Did I what?”
“I mean….um…were you a part of it?” she stammered.
“No,” he told her flatly and turned away.
Megan suddenly found herself feeling like the world’s biggest ass. Dario’s denial seemed genuine, as did his look of surprise when she popped the question. Of course he didn’t plan the robbery! That was ridiculous. In fact, the only reason she had for believing it in the first place was a stupid coincidence. Yet that stupid coincidence, coupled with her own boredom and anxiousness, was all that she needed to make such a heinous accusation. She thanked the Powers that Be that she wasn’t studying to be a prosecutor.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I kinda…”
He was ignoring her. She felt insulted at first, but then began to understand why. For two years, he had been working nights at Bledsoe’s without any problems. Then…. a robbery on his cigarette break. He, being nominatively in charge, probably felt responsible for said robbery and the great fright it caused his coworker. As if that was not bad enough, another coworker then goes one step further, saying not only that the robbery was his fault, but his doing.
“I’m an ass,” Megan reiterated, this time saying it out loud.
“No,” Dario answered without looking up. “I’m just stupid.”
“Huh?”
“The robbery…. all I had to do is turn around and I’d have seen the whole thing through the windows. That’s probably what you were thinking, right?”
“Yeah. But I still shouldn’t have accused you…”
He shrugged. “If I were you and didn’t know me, I’d probably think the same thing.”
“I really feel bad,” she confessed.
“It’s not worth worrying about,” he told her.
“Still…”
He shrugged. It looked like that bad feeling would just have to remain. Unless….
“Hey Dario.”
This time, he looked up. She promptly lowered her pants and exposed her diaper. The surprised look returned to his face and she flushed with embarrassment. Punishing herself was the only way she knew to make the guilt go away.
“Go ahead and laugh,” she encouraged.
But he did not laugh.
“You look cute,” he told her. “But you’d better pull your pants back up in case a customer comes in.”
That was it?!
“No one else knows,” she said, embarrassing herself further. “That I wear them.”
He shrugged. “OK. Fine. No one will.”
“I started wearing them because I was wetting the bed,” she explained. “And then I was having accidents during the day….”
“Megan, why are you telling me this? I’m not your friend, we barely know each other….”
“I guess,” she said. “Because I can’t tell some of my friends. And to make me feel better. So go ahead…tell me what you think.”
“Honestly…” he began. “It’s a little weird.”
She nodded. It certainly was.
“Are you going to have a problem working with me?” she asked.
“Because of this?”
“Yeah.”
“They don’t smell, do they?”
Megan shook her head.
“Then no.”
“It’s not too weird?”
“Not compared to some of the stuff I’ve seen around here at night.”
“Really?” she asked. “Like what….”
She listened intently as he went through the sordid history of Bledsoe’s night shifts. There were lurid tales of obese individuals making late-night ice cream runs. There were customers in dire search of a watch battery; frantic because Bledsoe’s was the third place they tried and for some reason, it simply could not wait until morning. There was an instance of a customer who walked in to use the bathroom…and was not seen again (he did, however, leave an overcoat behind). By the time Megan checked her watch again, her shift had drawn to a close.
“That wasn’t so bad,” she declared.
“There are good nights and there are bad,” he told her. “When the kids come in to stock up for a party, it gets bad.”
Megan nodded. “This is going to sound silly,” she began. “But my parents are kinda paranoid…. and I guess so am I. Could you walk me to my car?”
“Sure.”
He did and Megan waved goodbye. Nights weren’t so bad after all.
“So?” Nancy asked her during a diaper change the next day. “Did you find someone else to cover for you?”
Megan gave her a blank stare.
“You had said that you could probably find someone else to take a few of the nights you so foolishly volunteered for.”
“Oh. Nope. Not yet.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?”
A.)“Actually, I think I’ll keep them,” she told her mother. She knew this decision wouldn’t sit well with her, but now that she knew she could handle night shifts, she saw no reason not to. Besides, she wanted to be around to witness some of the things Dario talked about.
B.)She rolled her eyes. “Fine…I’ll ask someone.” Though she felt like she would be missing out, she knew that making her parents happy now could get her a little leverage later on.