Another silly one.

The genesis of Morning Shift was Val and I talking and I was describing something (I can't remember what) as fantasy, but fantasy with 7-11s. As opposed to that other kind.

Anyway, this is the result of that conversation.

Five more stories after this one! Or maybe just four, depending on how inspired I feel...

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Morning Shift

Sal walks down the street keeping one eye for cars in intersections and the other on the text message he's tapping into his cell phone. Winsome Avenue is decorated with the neon signs of greasy spoons, video stores and most of the less reputable apothecaries in town.

He steps carefully over a sleeping wino that's sprawled across the sidewalk. Sal is a few steps away from the wino when he turns around, walks back and slips a crumbled dollar bill into the guy's coat pocket. That's just about the last remaining dregs of Sal's paycheque but he knows things are always repaid in kind. And you never know who you're stepping over in this town.

He fires off a couple more text messages before snapping his phone shut and stuffing it into his bag. He's nearly at work now and likes to check things out, get the lay of the land. Sal works the morning the shift at a 7-11 and the goings-on of the previous night have a direct impact on how his shift is going to go. Who screwed who the previous night, who got into a fight. But the neighbourhood is pretty quiet today, which isn't unusual for a Tuesday.

Sal picks up some chip bags and a Slurpee cup from the parking lot of his 7-11 and crams them into the overflowing garbage can beside the front entrance.

"Ed," he says as soon as the automatic doors slide out of his way, "Why don't you ever empty the garbage? It stinks. And it attracts wasps."

Ed pulls his headphones out of his ears, sees Sal pointing at the garbage and figures out what he was bitching about, "I hate going back there. It's different on the day shift. There's rats back there at night."

"Sure, rats," Sal responds, "They aren't that big."

He walks through the store, fills a paper cup with coffee. He tries not to think about how long the pot was probably sitting there and attempts to cover the burnt coffee taste with cream and sugar. He'll brew fresh stuff when his shift actually starts.

He goes into the back to drop off his stuff and grab his green smock. He's greeted by a pile of unopened boxes. Sal drops his bag on the floor and walks back into the storefront and over to the counter.

"The truck was late last night?"

"Nope. Midnight, right on time."

"You didn't unpack any of the boxes."

"I was too busy." Ed shrugs. "Lionel said he was going to get some brownies to help with the stock."

"I guess he hasn't got them yet because there are a pile of boxes back there."

"Man, get off my case."

Sal sighs. Lionel, the owner, has told him a few times to lay off on Ed. They had enough trouble keeping night guys. The only people who ever applied for night shifts lately were zombies.

"You're going to be the one working the double shifts if another night guy quits," Lionel has said.

Sal walks behind the counter and begins to count Ed's till.

"Gold pieces?" he asks, "You got gold pieces?"

"Yeah. Don't see many around anyone. Everyone's switching to paper currency. An adventurer-type bought some smokes and lottery tickets with them. You ever think about adventuring?"

Sal shakes his head.

"I failed fencing in school."

"Sucks, man."

After Sal counts out his float and puts the rest of the money in the safe Ed leaves, off to grab breakfast with his 'peeps'. The word makes Sal cringe.

The first hour of his shift, Sal tidies up the shelves, makes fresh coffee, wipes down the counter and serves the odd customer. After that he begins to unpack the boxes in the back room. Most of them are candy and other junk food, and he puts out a box of cheap plastic wands.

"Made in China," he says to the empty store. "Nothing's made in America anymore."

Sal's mopping the floor when he hears the rumbling. It sounds like a low flying plane and grows louder and louder. He doesn't think much of it until something in his peripheral vision makes him look up. He sees a crowd of people running down the street and hurries over to the large plate glass windows at the front of the store to see what's going on.

The mop falls from his limp hand and clatters on the tiled floor when Sal sees the dragon. He's never seen one in real life, just in nature documentaries on the Discovery Channel.

The monster sweeps down and snatches up one of the stragglers in a fore-claw. It also tears up large hunks of asphalt. It crushes a parked car when it beats its wings to rise into the air again.

Sal takes several steps away from the window, sections from the 7-11 Training Manual For Assistant Day Managers running through his mind. Trolls he could deal with. The manual clearly states you can bribe them to leave with recently expired cheese.

There is a section on dragons. It simply refers the employee to the chapter on life insurance and reiterates that insurance benefits for employees who die on the job are tripled.

The dragon returns into Sal's view and settles down on the street. He tilts his head back and belches flames and smoke. The heat makes the windows at the front of the store wobble.

Sal sees a group people running toward the dragon. Most of them are wearing chainmail and carrying weapons. One of them tries to get close enough to slash at the dragon with her sword, but she retreats from the flames.

Two of the group break off and run to Sal's store. One of them is wearing blue robes that are embroidered with stars and moons. He's holding up the skirt of his robe with one hand and keeping his hat on his head with the other.

When the automatic doors slide open, Sal can suddenly hear the sounds of the battle and the hot outside air makes him gasp.

"Wand! I need a wand!" shouts the wizard.

"They — they're over there," he points to the store's small shelf of magical supplies.

"I'll get the Slurpee," says the warrior accompanying the wizard. She runs to the Slurpee machine, her chainmail jangling.

"Do you have anything other than these cheap plastic wands?" asks the man in robes.

"That's all we carry, I'm sorry."

"It'll have to do. Let's go!" says the warrior. She takes a sip of the Slurpee before running back outside into the battle.

The wizard follows her. He tosses a few copper pieces over his shoulder on his way out the door.

The adventurers eventually chase the dragon away. Sal spends the rest of the day washing the parking lot after the torrent of Slurpee dumped on the dragon by the wizard.

Later on, he's kicking himself for not snapping any photos of the dragon. They'd have fetched a fortune on eBay.

5 responses to "Week #38 - Morning Shift "

Erinn, first commenter extraordinaire wrote: Thursday, 02 Oct 2008 23:47 Love it. I need you to stick with fantasy from now on. I really liked that there was a specific training manual for "assistant day managers".

Laur wrote: Friday, 03 Oct 2008 07:07 This is my fav one by far! I've recently become addicted to 7-11 type fantasy :) hahaha although I admit I never thought of it *quite* that way.

Erica aka skinnypiglovin' wrote: Friday, 03 Oct 2008 17:42 Also a fan of the training manual re: bribing trolls with expired cheese (!) :) Love slurpees, and wish normal 7-11s sold magic wands!!

Kim wrote: Wednesday, 08 Oct 2008 18:24 Nothing's made in America anymore??? That sounds odd from you, Canadian! :)

Victoria wrote: Friday, 13 Mar 2009 17:30 Terrific! I liked the fact that only zombies will work the night shift - first sign something might be up, but without the author's note at the top, I might have missed it :)

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