The Transaction

She stood at the front of the checkout line. It was a Monday, one of the least busy days in retail, so there were hardly any customers in the store during the early hours of business. The lack of cash flow during this time made it so little coverage was needed so she spent these early hours alone reading the magazines at the end of the aisle or staring at the ceiling as her interest in the latest happenings with generic reality TV stars was very low.

All cashiers were required to stand at the front of the line to greet all customers who came in to make it so they felt welcome. This was hard to do when no one walked by and the monotony of it all made her want to lean on one of the shelves and close her eyes and catch up on the sleep she lacked as she closed the evening before. On the back to back days where she closed one night and then opened the next, she slept in her car in the store's parking lot. Factoring in the 30 minute long drives to and from work and then the time it would take to put her 2 year old daughter to bed, she would only rack up 5 hours of sleep. This way she got a couple hours more, still not enough, as she had accumulated months and months of sleep debt but it was better than nothing. Plus, she still would have to deal with the head ache of getting her ex-boyfriend/ the father of the 2 year old, to actually take care or her for once. When she called to ask she listened to him whine about his poker game and how he shouldn't have to baby sit the kid until finally she threatened to tell the government about the lack of child support payments being sent to her by him before he finally succumbed to his fatherhood.

The money that the scumbag refused to send would have been really helpful but he barely ever worked as it was and the time that he watched her daughter was possibly more valuable, since it allowed her to spend these lovely mornings at the front of the checkout lane reading about people who were similar to her ex but somehow were able to be interesting enough to be thrown in front of a TV camera.

She wished she had more time to meet someone new. Someone who would actually care about the child and her. She was attractive, at least to most, there was a bit of a gap between her front teeth and she had a scar from chicken pox just underneath her right eye that turned away some of the more superficial guys but during the rare times she put on makeup and dressed nicely (something other than the blue jeans and sometimes baby food stained sweat shirt she wore nearly daily) she got plenty of attention when she went out with some of her old girl friends from high school. The attention, though, was mostly from guys just looking to hook up and they would find an out in the conversation when she mentioned the child. While the one night stands could be fun, she certainly wasn't the type who wanted to shy away from sex, she didn't have the time to be away from her daughter and that's kind of how she came about in the first place. No regrets because she loved the girl but there were times when a childless life would be dreamed about, followed by large amounts of guilt.

An old man approached her and she greeted him with a nod and a half smile. It was the most courtesy that she could extend after little sleep and a sore back from bunching up in the back seat of her old Toyota.

The old man had a yellowish beard, that she could tell was from years of smoking when put together with the smell that came from the body. He had on a white button up dress shirt with a front pocket and yellow stains under the armpit, whitish hair that hardly existed as he had more skin showing than hair on the top of his head, and loads of sweat protruded from his forehead. He leaned over the cart as struggled to walk.

His wife had passed away just under a year ago now. He hadn't been able to work for about 10 years with chronic back issues living off of social security and disability. He lived in a tiny apartment in the not so good part of town where only college kids and "hoodlums", as he would call them, lived. Most of his time was spent terrified that someone would break into the house or one of the young kids would run over his dog, his only true friend since his wife died, while they drove by at 15 over the speed limit. Most of his nights were spent watching game shows or sitting in the front lawn on a lawn chair, holding onto his dog's leash as tightly as he could without strangling the 11 year old schnauzer so he wouldn't get away (the dog usually just laid there and paid no attention to anything that surrounded him.)

When she greeted him he did nothing but look forward. Not even acknowledging her. He had a car battery in his cart and when he pushed it up to the register the two sat there staring at each other for 20 seconds.

"How are you doing today?" She asked him. He didn't respond. She scanned the product and told him the price after tax. It was S41.97.

"The sign said it was 30.00." he yelled at her as if though she had been the one who caused the death of his wife."

"I apologize for that." She said as politely as she could but her defensiveness still came through in the response. "I'll call and check that price for you."

"Well, I'm in a hurry." She could hear the anger in the man's voice. She wanted to just discount the price and not go through the hassle of calling the department since they were probably busy or they would just answer the phone angrily as causing them to interrupt whatever work it was they were doing was just a hassle. She had recently done this but then the next day she was called in the "The Office" and told that if she had another unauthorized mark down she would receive a write up. She dialed the phone to the other department, it rang and rang but there was no answer.

"I apologize." He threw his arms in the air. "I'll page them for you." The fact was, the price the cashier gave was correct however a young kid was playing in the automotive department earlier that morning and had pushed the battery that was in question over about 6 inches. So it was above a sign that read the price the old man was giving. The old man, having vision that required thick glasses, however he refused to wear them, couldn't read the small print above the price that indicated the correct battery. Recognizing the good deal, and the realization that he could actually have a decent meal tonight instead of more boxed crap if the price was 10 dollars less than what this lady was giving him, couldn't pass up on the deal. Added to the man's issues was a temper that had been around since he could remember that he refused to get help for, in fact, it almost cost him his marriage years before her death.

"This is bullshit." He said. The customer who had just approached behind him heard this and looked down uncomfortably. The cashier's hands started shaking as they were apt to do when dealing with an irate person. She shook out of both fear and anger, she shook to avoid crying because it would make her appear weak. When a person swore at her it was the last thing she wanted. "I'm going somewhere else." He pushed the cart out of the way and walked out of the building. "Thanks for wasting my time." He never turned to actually say these words. He didn't want to see her face when she reacted to them.

As he left the phone by her drawer rang she answered. It was automotive. "The customer actually left." She said to the guy on the other end, it was a voice she didn't recognize. He sighed and hung up on her. She set the phone down slightly harder than she was used to doing.

"What was that about?" The customer who was formerly behind the old man said.

"I'm not sure." She said as she started scanning their items. He's an asshole. She thought.

"What a bitch." he said to no one as he got in his car though he felt slightly guilty but this was a fact he would never even admit to himself.