Minimum Wage Siren

I no more felt like being in the grocery store at 10 o'clock buying my dinner. A california role, a box of strawberries, a water. Those were the 3 things that were allowed to be eaten, i had only 500 calories or so beforehand, it was feast. I was busy reading about baby bumps and broken promises. I was staring at the floor tiles, thinking about how they resembled the gym floor in my grammar school. Eileen was working the register, her looks grabbed held to my literary mind. The creative side for those who have no idea what I mean. I could see her as the main character in some nickle and dimed love story. She had very short and sharp bangs that hung across her forehead. She had long stringy hair with a stint of cheap blonde highlights. The pencil ereaser red, drowned out any natural strands. She took pride in her appearance the best she could, she was working the graveyard shift at a grocery store, give her a break. Her glasses hung a bit off her nose, they could use a readjustment, I remember thinking. The man infront of me, started to make small talk with Eileen, the same way I would when it would be my time to pay. He asked her if she was tired. She told him that he had no idea. "You think you're tired, I just kayaked down the Deleware River." A rude voice in the line broke the monatomy of the checkout routine. I turned back nearly dropping the strawberries, I almost burst out laughing. There he was, the degenerate of the line, cheap 2.00$ rubber slippers, black knee socks, jean cut offs and a oil stained t-shirt with 20 extra pounds of lasiness underneath it. And there she was, the minimum waged siren, honest and kind behind the register. This fool hadnt so much as walked to the end of his driveway to get his mail that day let alone kayaked down the Deleware River. And while I toyed with the idea of his sanity and lack thereof, I walked out of the store feeling pathetic for that man, did he really believe he had a more noble role than Eileen? He was threatened by her presence, the same way all of us in line were. Although she lacked what we would call a real future and a solid past, she was doing more than the lying son of a bitch with his bag of potato chips and case of beer.