Shattered Soul

I hate this town. I hate this place. I hate these people. Ever since I moved to Scout, North Carolina, I’ve hated my life. I moved to Scout 4 months ago in hopes of starting over. Yeah, that worked out great. My new boss, Roger, was the worst kind of creep. He constantly talked down to me, acted like I was invisible half of the time, and the other half of the time, he was trying to look down my shirt. As a 5’9 average built woman in her late 20’s, I’m no model. But, coming to a town where the population is the size of a high school graduating class, I guess I was the new meat. I started working as a bank teller the week after i moved here. While i liked my coworkers enough, Roger made my life hell. if I didn’t find another job soon, I would lose my mind. I was caught up in my brooding as I walked down the sidewalk to the only coffee shop in town. Steep Breaths. It was a cute cafe style coffee shop with lots of couches, books, and just general aesthetics that made passing the time enjoyable. So, it had quickly become my favorite lunch time spot. When I got there, the place was buzzing with the locals all on their lunch breaks. “Hey, Shannon” The cashier behind the counter yelled as soon as I walked in. “Hi, Peter” I replied in as nice a voice i could muster. It wasn’t his fault my patience was running thin today. Peter was a nice kid. Friendly enough, he made sure to talk to everyone who came in the door. He had recently started his Junior year at the local high school and had not hidden his obvious crush on me. I ordered my usual, double shot espresso, and sat down at an empty table to do a little social media scrolling before heading back into work. As I was scrolling, I passed by an advertisement with a house for sale just down the road from here. It was a beautiful one story ranch with 2 acres of property. “Wow,” I whispered out loud when I saw the price. $150,000. That was in my price range. In the four months I had been here, there hadn’t been a single home for sale. All the locals around here never seemed to leave, apparently. Though why they stuck around I can’t comprehend. I screenshot the address and decided to go check it out after I got off work. With my coffee finished and my lunch break almost over, I reluctantly started the dreaded tread back to work. It was only a five minute walk on a normal day, but today I decided to go nice and slow so that I would hopefully miss Roger coming back from his lunch break too. The fates hated me. A block away from the bank, Roger strolled up behind me and before I knew what was happening, he grabbed my arm from behind and turned me to face him. “Aren’t you a little late,” he smirked down at me. His face reminded me of a cats. Feline and conniving. His smile pulled up at the edges in a way that uneased me on a good day. Today, that smile said he had just found the mouse he intended to play with. I summoned every ounce of patience I had left, “I left later than usual today.” Turning to continue on my path, I knew it was too much to ask the fates for him to take a hint. Jogging up to me, he looked over at me as he stepped in pace. “Carol said you clocked in late this morning. I hope this isn’t turning into a habit”. I rolled my eyes, unbothered if he saw it or not. “Since when does Carol keep track of my hours?” I picked up the pace ever so slightly, smiling to myself when I noticed him trip a little trying to re-pace his steps. “I’m just looking out for you,” he smiled at me, “I would hate it if I had to reprimand you so quickly after you just started”. I wanted to gag. His not-so-subtle innuendo had my stomach knotting as if alarm bells were telling me to get away from this man as quickly as I could. Luckily, we were steps away from the building and I’d find some excuse to cut away from him and find Jerry. Jerry was the sweet, 65 year old woman who was more like a grandma to me than my own grandmother. Her full name was Geraldine but she always said in her most honey coated accent, “sweetie, if you ever call me by my full name, ya better run on home before I make ya pick a switch.” I never really understood what that meant, but Jerry was the one good thing about my job, so I would just laugh and say “yes, Ma’am.” As I walked in the door, I spotted Jerry immediately. Thank the fates. “Jerry!” I called smiling as broadly as I could. “Well hey there pumpkin. Enjoy your lunch?” As Jerry cut her eyes to Roger he quickly found himself occupied elsewhere. Roger didn’t mess with Jerry. I had asked her one time why that was, but she just smiled and said that “even a bull knows not to fight a tiger.” She patted me on the back and handed me a cookie. I hoped my smile told her how much her daily cookies meant to me. The hours passed slowly but it was finally time to clock out. I yelled goodnight to anyone who would hear and raced out the door. My little Mazda 6 sat in the parking lot and I contemplated just walking to the house to check it out, then thought better of it. It was winter and the sun was already on the verge of setting. I hopped in the car and started the 5 minute drive to the house.