EPISODE TWO

                      

              [ THREE DAYS BACK ]

It was afternoon. The sun shone brightly outside the Hamilton's Grocery store, which is like at the heart of this city. It is the biggest and most elevated block in the street, the street next to the one we live in.

On that day I was sitting on the exact spot behind the same counter, and on the same seat and in the same uniform as it goes down every Monday to Friday of every week. The spot was no other than my seat behind the sales counter of the Hamilton's Grocery store.

A red Polo shirt which had the name of the grocery store printed in white ink on the right side of my chest, and the name tag which holds my name was clipped below it.

The black jeans seemed to be a perfect match for the color of Polo shirt chosen by the store manager. The shirt and the jeans teaming up with the red sneakers I slipped on that very day made my day even brighter.

The store was full of customers that day, and I had been battling with digits and slapping my fingers on the calculator all day.

“Look who is behind the counter!” Andy said, surprised. He didn't expect to see me at work that day, as I was down with a headache the previous day.

He walked over and he fist bumped me.

“Dude, are you some kind of Superman or something? I mean, no one expected you to be here by this time today after what you suffered yesterday,” he said and I shrugged.

“Maybe I'm Superman,” I whispered jokingly, and he laughed.

He was also putting on his red Polo shirt on a blue jean and a pair of white sneakers. 

Even though I get bored with calculations behind the counter, Andy's job was a lot more stressful than mine. His job description makes him show customers around and help aldolase take their purchased goods to their car or cab, if that should be the case. 

Andy took a seat by me and he checked his tweets. I was sitting, doing nothing. No, I was doing something, I was scribbling my name at the top of the counter, waiting patiently for who ever would walk into the store next.

Suddenly, I felt a warm air graze the back of my left ear, and I responded to it by rubbing my ear. I thought it was weird as the entire store was air conditioned. It stopped and the air behind my ear was at the temperature it was before that sudden change.

I scribbled my name on another part of the counter and I was distracted again by the warm air which slapped itself against my right ear.

“Andy, Andy, d-did you feel that?” I stuttered, and he found it difficult to look away from his phone to get a glimpse of my face.

“Dude! Here me out,” I said to him, “dude!” I yelled into his ear and he was startled. His phone slipped from his hands and he spent a few seconds joggling it before getting a grip on it.

“What the fuck, Gar? My baby almost crashed,” he whined, and I sighed.

“Tell me what you've got,” he said, as he turned to me.

It really meant nothing to me after he gave me his attention. What I wanted to ask him seemed unimportant to me as I thought it through. What was so weird about feeling a warm air pass the back of your ears, anyway?  

“Tell me, man!” He demanded to hear what I wanted to say to him, which made me almost made him dropped his phone.

“Never mind, bro! All good?” I said to him, and I patted his shoulder twice.

My eyes met the refrigerator, which bore canned foods. It had been there even before I started working in the store. The refrigerator was about 6 feet and a couple of inches tall, white, and has two black handles for each compartment.

I stopped scribbling the moment my eyes met the refrigerator. It was in a position where it was almost the first thing a customer would see when entering the store, and I'm always used to it staring at me throughout my work time at the store.

But that day, something was different about it. It was in the same position as it had always been, and nothing had changed about it physically, but I just felt the urge to keep staring at it.

“Gar, don't tell me you're in love with the big ass refrigerator,” Andy joked, and he called me back into my normal mindset.

“What’s wrong with you, dude? You've been staring at that refrigerator for over 10 minutes. You sure you Ok?” He asked, worried.

“Mmm-Yeah, yeah, I'm great. Did you notice anything off about this refrigerator?” I asked, and he furrowed his brows.

“Define off,” he said.

“I don't know, why do I feel that it's—” I couldn't complete my statement before a young lady walked into the store, causing a distraction as Andy got up to show her around the store.  

I was going to tell him I felt like the refrigerator was going to fall, even though it was standing as firm as it always used to. 

The girl was about my age if I wasn't mistaken. She waved at me and I smiled sheepishly as my eyes trailed her all the way behind the front shelves where I could no longer see her. 

  My brows furrowed as the smile faded off my face. I tried to shake off all the weird but funny feelings that approached me by trying so hard to concentrate on scribbling rather than sticking my eyes to the refrigerator. 

I was startled as I became oblivious to literarily everything. I could no longer see the pencil which I was holding in my hands. The name I scribbled vanished, and so did every other thing in the store. The only thing in the store with me was the chair I was sitting on, the counter and the refrigerator.

My brows furrowed and my heartbeat quickened. It seemed as if something wanted me to keep watching the refrigerator, and that was why I couldn't see any other thing apart from it.

I stood up from my chair and walked out from behind the counter cautiously, and I started walking towards the refrigerator. I was cautious, staring at the refrigerator.

“Dude! Gar, Gareth! Gareth!” I heard Andy's voice call to me and suddenly, I was called back to actuality. I thought I was walking towards the refrigerator in an empty store, but I was in fact still sitting in the same position I was when the customer waved at me.

It seemed like the store being empty, and me moving towards the refrigerator was only an Illusion.

What was real was the bag stuffed with canned meat laying on the counter before me. The young lady's brows furrowed as she kinda thought I was a weirdo. She had been standing there with Andy as they both have been trying to get my attention so I could take the payment for what she got.

“Gar, what happened to you man? You seem a little off, plus you've been drowning way too much in your thoughts. You sure you ok?” He asked again, for the second time and I nodded.

I wasn't even convinced that I was ok, I just needed to believe what I said from my mouth.

“Ok, J-Just attend to the customer,” he said, coming back to sit beside me and I sigh.

I picked up the calculator, and I was about punching the button which would give me the total cost of what she purchased before she distracted me.

“Hey! Wait, something tells me to add one more can of those,” she said, pointing to what she had in the bag.

“That’s your choice to make,” I replied to her, still waiting for her to decide before punching the button.

“That’s going to be a problem. I have to go up the street if I want an extra can,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“There in that bag are the last cans in the refrigerator,” she said, disappointingly.

“Which refrigerator did you check?” I asked.

“The one near the manager’s office, and the other one behind the tallest shelf,” she replied.

“Well, you haven't checked this refrigerator yet. I think there's about a dozen inside of it,” I say to her and she smiles — pointing to the refrigerator my eyes had been on ever since I felt that warm air behind my ears.

“Come, I'll show you,” Andy said to her as he walked towards the refrigerator, and the girl followed him.

Andy pulled the refrigerator by its handle, revealing everything in it.

“Yes! This is the one I'm looking for,” the girl said, excited. She moved away from the refrigerator and approached me at the counter.

Andy was still there. He closed the refrigerator, and he turned towards me. He would have moved back to sit by me behind the counter, but he was too busy to move his feet. He was texting and smiling, I could only assume he was texting his girlfriend.

“Did you hear that?” I asked the girl standing before me and she chuckled, “what?”

“I thought I heard something, nevermind!” I said to her, and she smiled.

“You think I'm weird right?” I asked her and she had a tough time letting her answer out.

I turned towards Andy, and I saw the refrigerator falling over him. “What the—” I mutter underneath my breath and it made the girl look towards Andy as well.

“Hey! Watch out!” She shouted to Andy as I was too frozen to talk. My finger was still pointing at Andy, but I couldn't say a word. I was shocked.

Andy heard the girl shout, and he looked behind him. He looked too late. He looked when the refrigerator was only an inch away from crushing him against the ground, and both Andy and the girl screamed as a response.

Andy was fast enough to save his upper body from the falling refrigerator, but he couldn't do the same for his lower body. The refrigerator fell on his thighs and he yelled in agony.

The girl rushed to Andy with one hand, holding her phone to her ear as she was calling an ambulance.

I was still in shock, I couldn't move, and I couldn't even react to anything that happened. Everything happened so quickly that I initially didn't realize that what I had been cautious of was what actually happened.

I came out from behind the counter, and before I could get to Andy, I fainted.

That was how I fainted at the grocery, which lead me to where I'm in the present day, home.

              [ END OF FLASHBACK ]