Meg’s Transformation Scene 9

Nancy made the gesture of sealing her lips and Megan nodded in approval. With renewed confidence, she climbed out of bed, showered and dressed for work. She was sure to bury the used diaper at the bottom of the garbage and spray the whole thing with an ample amount of Lysol. Having slept so well the night before, she didn’t even need coffee.
Bledsoe’s Pharmacy was sparsely populated when Megan showed up for her shift. A young man in a suit eyed a watch in a display case with more than passing interest. An old lady was carefully combing through cartons of milk in the dairy case in search of the latest expiration date. An untidy queue formed behind the prescription counter and a frenzied Raul rushed to and fro to fill bottles and take orders. At 10 in the morning, business was hardly at its peak.
Josh was assisting a clerk named Natalie at the register when Megan entered. His face registered a mixture of concern and surprise.
“Wow,” he exclaimed. “You look a hell of a lot better.”
Megan shrugged it off. “Must have been a 24 hour thing.”
“Vern wants to see you in the stockroom.”
She swallowed hard. Had he found the package of diapers and gotten suspicious? No way. It was impossible. And yet again… “What for?” she asked.
“Go see for yourself.”
The burly manager was standing over several large cardboard boxes with an inventory sheet in his hand. Megan breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t found out after all.
“These just came in today,” he informed her. “Price em, count em, if there’s any room, put them out. You know the drill.”
“Sure,” she said. “No problem.”
“You can take the register after lunch…. IF all this is finished. I sure as hell hope its something we can sell otherwise those bastards at corporate are getting an earful!”
Megan nodded. It was a familiar rant.
“By the way,” he said on his way out. “Don’t think I forgot about yesterday.”
“I’m better now.”
“Good.”
Megan opened, emptied and sorted the contents of all the boxes. It wasn’t the most exciting work in the world, but it kept her occupied. Occasionally, one of her coworkers would drop by the stockroom and they’d chat for a while. They asked her how she was doing, how she liked college, etc. They never asked about Ted, for which Megan was profoundly grateful. Forgetting him wasn’t easy, but it would happen in time just as long as nothing came up to remind her.
Unfortunately, her lunch break was punctuated with reminder after reminder. She went to a nearby fast food place to grab a salad and witnessed a young couple making out. Not only did they have their hands all over each other, but they talked and laugh as well. It made Megan feel both disgusted and jealous. She wanted to approach the girl and tell her to enjoy it while it lasted. To make matters worse, the guy behind the counter was one of Ted’s friends. He couldn’t even look her in the eye.
There were customers waiting when Megan returned to work and she was in a rather foul mood. A woman chastised her for not double bagging. A man corrected her when she attempted to hand him the wrong brand of cigarettes. With each mistake she made, she felt closer to losing her mind.
“Meg,” Josh whispered, discretely tapping her on the shoulder after most of the customers had dispersed. She knew she was about to be yelled at, possible even fired. Josh was patient and congenial, but the fact remained that she had been screwing up.
“What,” she snapped.
“Take it easy, OK,” he suggested. “You need to slow down, keep your eyes on what you’re doing.”
“Yeah. I know. Sorry.”
“You have definitely been acting strange lately,” he commented.
She sucked in her breath. “My boyfriend dumped me, OK? And I know I shouldn’t be this upset about it, but I am.”
“Would this be the ubiquitous Ted?” Josh asked with a hint of disdain.
Megan nodded. “Can we not talk about this now?”
She buckled down and managed to make it through the rest of the day free of disaster. It was tough keeping her mind focused at all times, especially with Ted and her bedwetting looming like harbingers of a most unsavory future. Raul, whose cousin was dating Des, knew about the breakup and hadn’t said two words about it. It seemed like everyone was able to get over it…except for her. Megan knew that at least part of her didn’t want to.
It was this latter intuition that led her to accept Josh’s invitation to a cup of coffee after they got off work. They talked, mostly about her problems with Ted, but also about work and Josh’s crazy uncle and anything else that came to mind. Megan came close to telling him about the bedwetting, but balked at the last minute. Overall, talking helped and she was able to go home without that sinking feeling.