Okay, so for those who remember I said earlier in this series of blog entries that it would be unique. I also said earlier that my sort of post-mate and I assigned each other monthly writing assignments. Well I've decided that I'm going to post my first writing assignment on this blog. Just a warning, I have not written something like this in a long time so I decided not to be too deep. Actually its not deep at all, I kind of used the opportunity to just practice my writing and get warmed up. So this is the result, please excuse the profanity but it is something I use. Enjoy!
Life Granted
By Carlos Jesus Fernandez-Torres
“Actually, I’m going to go ahead and add some of this Wrigley’s gum too,” said Grant, impulsively. He was shopping for an ankle brace, some cowboy killers, a lighter and now some gum. Grant went for a jog earlier and mildly sprained his ankle.
“That’s how they get your money you know, I’ve been working here for two years and I’m convinced this is where Walgreen’s gets most of their profits,” remarked the twenty-something cashier.
The cashier was cute, was this her trying to start a conversation? Grant wasn’t sure but even if she was, there was no way he was going to try and find out. His self-esteem level was hovering around 50% that day, no different than any other recent day of his life.
This cashier’s name was Lynn. He could tell by her name tag. She had massive green eyes, shiny red hair and sharp cheek bones. Her Tina Fey glasses complemented her freckles, she seemed bored. She was also hiding a book by the register, he couldn’t really make out the title but he knew it must have been interesting and most likely hip. It was definitely not a Twilight book, thank God, Grant thought.
“Yeah, I think I’ve read that somewhere,” finally replied Grant. He was certainly not satisfied with the response. He instantly thought of five cooler things he could have said, but then he thought he would have regretted saying those too. Grant suddenly couldn’t wait to leave the store.
There was an awkward silence as she was handing him back his credit card.
“So, what happened to your ankle?” asked Lynn engagingly.
“Oh, I twisted it a little during my run through River Walk Park today,” Grant replied.
“Sorry to hear that, wait, you’re a smoker and a runner?” she continued her questions as she put everything in a plastic bag.
There was no one else in the store.
I can’t believe she’s talking to me, what the fuck do I say, Grant thought.
“You know how some people live dangerously? Well I live ironically,” Again Grant instantly regretted his response. In fact he couldn’t believe he just said that.
Lynn responded with a short laugh then breathed out, “Aren’t you just living dangerously though?”
“I guess, well thanks and see you later,” replied Grant curtly. Wait, did I really just end the conversation? He began to limp towards the exit. Damn it! Really, see you later? Yeah, like that will happen.
Grant’s thoughts guided him to his usual bar, his favorite, The Broken Trombone.
He limped to the bar, there were several empty stools. Two guys were playing pool with a flickering florescent light lighting their game. A couple was sitting together in the corner, it looked like they were fighting. The bar was not very lively. The bartender was drying a beer glass with a shredded towel.
“How’s it going, Joe?” greeted Grant.
“How the hell do you think its going?” impatiently replied the bartender.
“Jesus, what happened?”
“This bar is always empty, and when I do get people in here they’re all fucking assholes.”
Grant immediately knew Joe was kidding and smiled.
Joe’s smirk proved his dark humored greeting, “What the hell happened to your foot?”
“You call me a ‘fucking asshole’ and now you want to know what happened to my foot?” playfully retorted Grant.
“You tripped over the tampon that fell out of your vagina huh?”
Grant laughed, “Just give me a beer will you!” Joe turned around to start both Grant’s tab and tap.
Grant had his hands laced to each other gripping the back of his neck. Staring at the ceiling he was contemplating the different things he should have said to the Walgreen’s cashier. Joe started walking towards Grant with his beer. Grant noticed very curiously how Joe’s eyes got extremely wide as his eyes stared towards the entrance. He saw fear on Joe’s face but immediately thought it was another one of his pranks. It wasn’t until Joe dropped his beer and instantly threw his hands in the air that Grant thought something was seriously wrong. He instinctively looked at the reflection of the mirror behind the bar to see what Joe was staring so intensely at.
He vaguely saw a man wearing a ski mask holding what he thought was a sawed off shotgun walking towards Joe. As Grant turned around to see if that was really what he was looking at, the man with the sawed off shotgun threateningly shouted, “Everybody this is a stickup! If you try anything stupid I will shoot you in the face and steal whatever you have anyways! The faster you slide your wallets and cellphones to me the faster this will all be over!”
Freaked out, everyone immediately followed his instructions.
Surprisingly, Grant’s first thought was the fact that he heard a sense of fear in the thief’s voice. At first this comforted him, he thought, “well this guy surely won’t kill anyone because this might be the first time he’s tried something like this.” He asked himself, “How crazy could an amateur be?” Then he realized that he would rather be in this same situation with a thief with experience. Experienced thieves wouldn’t accidentally shoot anybody in the head.
The bar was as silent as a church. The thief was pointing the sawed off shot gun to Joe’s face.
“Give me all the fucking money in the register, NOW!” shouted the thief.
Without hesitation Joe opened the register and started gathering up all the bills. The thief turned around to check if any of the other people at the bar were trying anything brave. He immediately caught the man from the couple doing something in his pocket. The woman was crying hysterically with her hands up.
Right away the thief shot his shotgun towards the floor. All three women in the bar screamed. Some of the men looked around to make sure no one was hurt.
“You think I’m fucking around here? Get your hands out of your pocket, RIGHT NOW!” Threatened the thief with the shotgun pointing to the man’s face.
The man immediately followed his instructions. The thief demanded that the woman take the cellphone out of her boyfriend’s pocket and drop it on the floor. Grant decided that exact instant that he would not try anything stupid.
The thief demanded, “Okay everyone, I’m about to get money out of the safe from the back room. All of you line up on this wall right here. I’m going to watch the bartender get my money from the back room while I also make sure none of you try doing what this asshole just tried doing!” He angrily pointed to the man from the couple with his shotgun.
Grant, the three women and the other three guys that were once drinking all stood up to follow the thief’s instructions. Joe then cleared his throat to get the thief’s attention and pointed to a sign that said, “Only the owner of the bar has the keys to the safe.” which was hung up by the office door.
The thief took the handle of the shotgun and smashed Joe’s face with it. Joe hit the floor. The handle had hit his cheekbone and blood began to gush out onto the floor. The thief then scoffed with a rage, “We all know those signs are bullshit. Do you take me for a fool? Get up and get me my fucking money!” Grant slowly started to limp towards the wall the thief pointed to, the others carefully followed.
Grant now realized that this man was an experienced robber. His next thought was, “If I don’t do anything, I won’t get shot. But what if this guy actually accidentally falls down and I get killed because this idiot trips over some spilled beer?”
Grant then realized that this could be the day that he dies. He began to pray, “Please God, if this asshole does kill me, please let it be quick.” Then he realized that he might never see his family ever again. He thought about his mother crying after she heard the news of her son’s death. He began to sob. All of a sudden it wasn’t the cops he wanted to call but his parents. He thought of his older brother, his brother had just recently asked for Grant’s advice on how to propose to his girlfriend. Grant started praying, “Please God, let me go to my brother’s wedding… alive”
The thief was holding the bar’s office door open and pointing his sawed off shotgun to Joe who was kneeling down in front of the safe. The thief continuously turned his head from the office to the bar.
Grant wanted to wipe his tears but he couldn’t because his hands were held up. He didn’t want to move them with the fear that he would either get shot or smacked in the face like Joe. Grant looked at the hole on the floor caused by the gun blast. He stared at it and began to think of his ex-girlfriend, he thought, “Why the hell am I thinking about her, she treated me like shit. I’m not wasting what could be the last moments of my life thinking of that bitch.”
Instead he began to reflect on how much he regretted not saying anything to that cute Walgreen’s cashier, Lynn. He wanted to go back and return his cigarettes.
Joe finally finished handing all the money to the thief from the safe. The thief zipped up his backpack and curiously dialed a number on his phone and hung up right away. Everyone, including the thief, were thinking the same thing, “this is almost over.”
There was a loud screech outside the bar. Grant immediately realized that the thief called his getaway driver. The thief walked cautiously towards the door, turned around to the people leaning scared on the wall. He pointed his shotgun to them and said, “Don’t follow me,” then walked backwards out of the door.
Joe was lying on the floor completely shocked from what had just happened, somehow he managed to squeeze out a joke, “See Grant, I told ya all the guys that come in here are assholes.”
Grant smiled, he wanted to help him but his ankle ached way too much, instead the two guys who were playing pool went to help him out. Grant slid down the wall to sit down; he didn’t have to wipe his tears because they had dried. He closed his eyes and thanked God he was alive.
The bar was still as silent as a church. Only Joe and the two pool players were talking. Joe asked them to call the cops, one of the others responded, “How? That fucker took all of our cellphones.” Joe pointed his bloody hands to the office phone.
Grant was barely paying attention, he wanted to leave. The guy on the phone hung up and informed everyone, “No one can leave, the cops are coming and they want us to stay for questioning.”
“Perfect,” responded Grant sarcastically. At this point all he wanted to do was return his cigarettes. He now knew exactly what he wanted to tell the cute cashier.
Joe finally got up, he picked up the phone and dialed the bar owner’s number. Grant wanted so badly to smoke one of the cigarettes from the pack he just bought but resisted. He looked at the couple from before, the young woman whispered to her boyfriend, “I’m breaking up with you, where do you get off putting my life in danger like that!” Her voice rapidly got louder. “Seriously? Seriously? What were you thinking? Did you think you were being brave???” She shouted.
The man, now her exboyfriend, responded, “I was trying to protect you!”
She headed towards the door, “I’m not staying, tell the police that you came in alone and you sure as hell will leave alone!” She stormed out.
Joe got off the phone and informed everyone, “I just got off the phone with the owner and he is offering anyone who wants to stay free drinks for the rest of the night.”
Grant asked, “This man just got robbed and is now offering us free drinks?”
“The guy is loaded and he has really good insurance, he’s confident they’ll cover the losses,” answered Joe.
“Are you willing to stay and serve us?” asked the now single guy.
“Psh, I know one thing for sure kid, we could all use a fuck’n drink right now, especially you,” replied Joe half jokingly.
Two cops finally walked into the bar. The uniformed men immediately noticed the hole in the floor. The older one took out his notebook and pen and said, “Okay, we’re going to have to talk to all of you individually.”
The next few minutes felt like hours. After Joe offered everyone free drinks Grant had slightly changed his plans. He wanted to drink but he also wanted to go see the cashier. He was hoping that the cops would finish before midnight. Grant predicted that midnight was probably when Lynn’s shift ended.
Grant assumed that the cops had to talk to everyone individually to make sure that it wasn’t an inside job. When they finally finished, the older cop handed a paper to Joe and said, “You’ll be hearing from us in two to five days. Leave this form for the owner.” They thanked everyone for their patience and casually walked out.
Joe who was now holding an ice pack on his cheek proceeded to ask everyone, “So you guys stay’n or what?”
Everyone looked at each other. It was pretty clear that they all wanted to stay. The taller of the two pool players said, “Let’s get drunk!” Everyone laughed and agreed.
Grant told Joe, “Joe, there’s something I’ve got to do. I’ll be right back.”
“Sure kid, yull have a cold one wait’n for ya,” replied Joe.
Grant limped out of the bar and headed straight towards Walgreen’s. The closer he got the less nervous he got. His ankle barely even hurt anymore. For some reason his confidence was flying. When he got to the pharmacy he saw Lynn walking towards her car. Lynn noticed Grant right away. It was a well lit parking lot.
“Came back for more cigarettes Sparky?” wittingly asked Lynn.
Grant expressed a crooked smile.
“Actually, I came here to return them,” He replied.
“Oh yeah? What happened to living dangerously?”
Grant was hoping she would say that, “Oh I lived dangerously tonight all right.”
She looked at him curious and intrigued, “How so?”
“Well, you know the bar ‘The Broken Trombone’?”
“You mean that joke of a bar a few blocks away from here?” she answered with a question.
He smiled again. “That’s the one.”
“What about it?” she asked.
“Well it was just robbed and I was in there when it happened.” He answered.
“Get out of here, seriously? What are you doing here after an event like that?” Lynn asked concerned.
“Well I had three revelations while I had that gun pointed to my head tonight.”
Lynn was beginning to think that this was an elaborate lie. Grant noticed this by her expression.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” asked Lynn.
“There’s a big hole in the floor from a gun shot, I’ll show it to you.” He offered.
Lynn had one eyebrow higher than the other. She was definitely intrigued and could tell that Grant was an honest guy. Grant could tell she was debating whether or not she would go with him.
“What were your three revelations?” interrogated Lynn.
“Well first let me tell you that I’m Grant, and the first revelation was that I should tell my family I love them more often, the second was that I’m glad my exgirlfriend broke up with me and the last was that I should have asked you out earlier tonight.”
Flattered, Lynn smiled as she looked at Grant.
“Okay then, show me this hole in the floor.”
End
