Finding Rhythm

EPISODE1:THE HIDDEN VOICE

THE SPILLED MILK on aisle seven should have been a sign to tell just how my day would play out. If I were anything like my mom, my intuition would have told me to call it a day and run home without finishing my shift. But let’s be honest, who was I kidding? I couldn’t afford to miss a day of work, I needed the funds.

I splashed the wet mop on the floor to clean it up, maintaining a smile in front of the guilty customer.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. My palms are sweaty, it slipped right through my butter fingers.” The woman probably in her mid-fifties apologized again.

“It’s fine. This is what I’m here for.” I told her.

‘Oh Aria, you fake vixen.' I thought to myself, knowing fully well, all I wanted to do was yell like a maniac with black paint stripes on my cheeks. A fistful of the older woman’s hair was in my hands, yanking and threatening to pull the hair out of her scalp.

I didn’t realize how hard I was smiling as I was dancing in my dubious thoughts. My manager broke me out of my thoughts.

“Smith! C’mon, don’t sleep on that. Back to the counter, chop, chop!!!”

I almost jumped out of my skin at the sound of his strident voice. Knowing better than to respond to him, I hurried out of there to man my post.

It’s been a month since I’ve been working in this dump, and I was still doing my best to be impressed to get some bonus. I’m watching a bunch of suspicious teenagers marauding the snack aisle. My berry-flavored gum ground hard between my teeth as I watched their every move.

It was kind of like my favorite thing to do to pass the time. Imagine I’m a predator, and the customers are my prey waiting to be devoured once I swipe their cards, collect their cash, or, in some cases, catch a petty thief.

A girl smiled at me sweetly. I fake smiled back at her, not taking my eyes off her and her friends.

They were whispering amongst themselves like the mischievous lot they were. I watched silently as one of the boys stuffed some Lays in his backpack.

With a loud, sudden bang, thousands of glass shattered to the ground. Men with blue bandanas covering their noses and mouths, touches of blue here and there symbolizing their gang. They kicked open the damaged door and came to the counter. Loud piercing screams from the customers rang in the store, everyone either huddled to the back or got on the floor.

I drew in a sharp breath, my hands raised in the air and my eyes shut tight. Were they going to kill me or take the money they needed and be off?

I felt one of them ransacking the cash register, humming a tune.

“Put all your money on the ground in front of you.” I heard one of the thugs say he seemed to be addressing the customers.

Shit! s**t! s**t! s**t! This can’t be happening, we’re going to lose our customers.

I heard fingers snapping in front of my face. I opened my eyes slowly and stared into the eyes of the thug in front of me. I know those eyes, that scar sitting on his right eyebrow, bright as day underneath his big black hoodie.

“This is $400. It’s not even close to what you owe us, you damn vixen! You’re lucky we keep you alive. Have our money by Friday, yeah?” The guy warned. That voice…

He slammed the counter, I let out a squeal and leaped.

“Yes, yes, please! I’ll get it, give me some time.”

“Friday!” he bellowed, then motioned to the gang to leave.

I was frozen in fear. It felt like I was getting a sweet taste of 's**t just got real’. I never thought they would get as far as vandalizing and robbing my workplace. It was a big leap from calling my phone and sending me text messages.

It’s not like I wasn’t going to pay them back. I was working two jobs just to get them off my back and start a clean slate. The refrigerator in my apartment was running out of gas. I had to catch up on my bills and do some grocery shopping so I was nourished enough to keep hustling.

I was pulled out of my thoughts rather vigorously by the ridiculous voice of my boss. There was no reason for a person to have so much bass in their voice. It’s like any minute now, if he yells some more, the building would come crashing down. I wanted to roll my eyes so bad, but I didn’t. Instead, I put my hands behind my back and stared at the tiled floor. My pitiful reflection stared back at me.

A horrific view, the harder I stared at the ground, the more I saw a woman with no backbones.

I inhaled a sharp breath.

“Smith, what the hell was that?!” Sean, my manager asked me. His face was tomato red with rage, veins almost popping out of his skin, screaming bloody murder at me. I could almost see the smoke coming out of the top of his big bald head. His fingers shifted frantically from me to the damaged door.

The noise from the customers hurrying out or speaking simultaneously over one another as a self-appointed savior complex customer spoke to 911 on the phone reporting the robbery. She combed some of her hair back with her fingers before relaxing the hand on her head as she listened intently to what the operator was saying on the other side of the receiver.

“Hello? Anybody home?!”

Sean, yet again snapped me out of my hollow brain, snapping his fingers in my face disrespectfully.

“Uh, yeah, sorry. W- What was the question?” I asked him, feeling a bit disoriented.

“Who were those guys?” he asked me.

“I don’t know.” I lied through my teeth.

Spider, the second in command, had ransacked the cash register, his musky beef-smelling scent that had imprinted on him from shacking up in an old room in a butchery shop. Who am I kidding? That place is an abattoir. The scar on his eyebrow, the look of disdain as he intimidated me with his glare. He always hated me for some reason.

Mason had initiated the robbing of the customers, I recognized his husky voice anywhere, not the sexy type that could make a woman swoon. His was just like that because he had gone through packs of cigarettes and defiled his throat with so many more ungodly things. I always wondered how he was still alive and pretty fit.

No doubt the two that went running to him to play assists were Tom and Ivan, his best friends. While Scott watched the door, something he hated doing and couldn’t hide. He probably sucked with the ‘getting hands dirty’ business.

I stared at Sean with a feeling of emptiness as he ranted and flitted his saliva on my face.

“He knew who you were.” Sean went on.

Sirens echoed in the distance, no doubt Calvary was on the way. Open a case file, dump the case file in a carton next to the minor issues that won't be touched, case goes cold, case dumped. Robbers were still on the prowl, nothing was going to happen. I mentally laughed at the mediocrity.

“The $400 is coming out of your next pay.” I heard Sean going on. Wait…what?!

“What?!” I asked in a huff.

“You heard me. You’re paying off every penny. You better tell them not to be back here or I’ll blow their heads off,” he said.

“Yeah, understood,” I responded in defeat, licking my bottom lip.

I sighed in resolve and sat down. What the hell just happened? How would I meet up if things keep going this way? I work eight hours a day, three days a week, for $10 per hour. Getting paid $240 at the end of every week. The four hundred meant a bigger dent in my livelihood.

A policeman walked up to me, ready to take my statement, no doubt.

“Yes, hello!” I welcomed him cheekily, clasping my hands together.

I crashed on my bed, ready to have some shut-eye before my evening job started. I had seven hours to myself before it started. Then my bestie for life, Kylie, would come and pick me up with her pickup truck. The car gave me the shivers, but I was broke—not the bougie kind of broke, so I needed the daily lift, and my good sis wasn’t complaining.

It’s just that one day we went to a small town called Green Pearl, the town was always quiet, deserted, and had off-road trails. It was a shady area, to say the least. All sorts of odd and illegal things are sold there. We went to see a plug that DJ, Kelly’s boyfriend at the time before she discovered her real sexuality, had connected her to a car dealer.

The car looked like it had been through life and lived life. It looked like an accident waiting to happen. The smell that emitted from it was worse than the smell of the toilet after my mom had just used it after having cups of milk and baked beans, knowing she’s lactose intolerant and she gets diarrhea whenever she eats beans. But she just loved the combination of the two for whatever reason, making the toilet a toxic area.

The stains on the nylon fabric seats, maybe food crumbs that had been dropped, and stains from spillages. A big dark red stain that looked a bit old and a crust on the headrest of the passenger seat looked a lot like blood, but the dealer swore it wasn't, and I was being dramatic because the stain was just a wine spill that refused to come off.

This was such a white lie considering the windshield had bullet holes, some directly facing the passenger seat, meaning whoever had been in that seat was the main target and had gotten their brains blown out by the look of it.

Every time I got in her car, I gagged and muttered a prayer of protection, hoping the spirit of the past occupant was at rest and not in any way soul attached to that car unable to move on. Kylie would always tell me I had nothing to worry about because the car dealer said so.

She has had the car cleaned a lot of times since she got it, and the damn stain just wouldn’t come off.

“This would look hot on you, try this on. Today’s Friday, all the big shots would be in tonight.” Kylie says, pulling out a red sequin dress with red faux fur around the low sweetheart neckline.

“Hmm,” I hummed in response, a mischievous smile on my face as I slipped the dress on while standing in front of the mirror.

It clung to my skin tight as a glove, a thigh-high split that allowed the bottom of the dress to flow freely, the dress accentuated my curves, my boobs sat beautifully in it, and the red complimented my fair skin, contrasting with my bone-straightened raven black hair and smokey makeup look I had spent two hours on after my nap.

I c****d my head to the side as I tried on neckpieces to go with my outfit. I picked a bold gold chain choker and slipped on gold stilettos.

“You’re right. Friday, the big men come out to play and leave huge tips.” I sang, spinning in my room with delight.

“Sing your heart out, baby girl!” she hyped.

“One of these days, I just might take one of them up on their offers to date me,” I said casually while putting on a pair of earrings.

“One? You had better wrap up like four.”

“Oh yeah? Then how many are you racking up while you’re waiting tables?”

“There are a lot of closeted lesbians among the wives and girlfriends of these rich dudes. Sometimes, they offer me money for a threesome with their husband. So damn hot.”

Shivers crawled down my spine as I settled in the passenger seat of Kelly’s truck. She started her vehicle, ignoring the antics that she was used to. We drove down the freeway to our night jobs while listening to some Imagine Dragons songs.