Chapter One: Grocery Store Characters

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I am not a morning person. I've never been and I never will be. So waking up to my neighbours banging away on God knows what next door is bound to piss me off. The walls are super thin and I'm pretty sure they know that.

Getting out of bed is definitely the hardest part of the day. Who wants to say goodbye to the fortress of pillows and comfy blankets? Not me. But eventually I came to my senses and got my lazy ass up.

While I was standing in front of my closet (my clothes are the only things I have bothered to unpack so far) something else happened to add to the list of things that made this particular morning very crappy. And I mean besides the auto repair shop next door clinging metal on metal as hard as they can.

To my utter devastation I found that my favourite shirt, a Black Sabbath t-shirt, had a hole in it. I suppose it had to happen eventually seeing as I basically lived in that shirt. But it always breaks my heart to see such a tragedy happen.

Instead I settled for a burgundy tank top, black jeans and combat boots. My straight blonde shoulder length hair I didn't even bother to tame; it always somehow just fixed itself. I splashed on some make up (just the basic eyeliner and mascara), grabbed my bag and out the door I went.

After giving my neighbour's door a nasty look I headed for the stairs. The apartment block which I lived in was a four floor building with very tiny apartments. I lived on the third floor. There was no elevator. It gave me a reason to bitch every night when I made my way back home.

The apartment I couldn't do much about. I didn't earn much being a (poorly) paid intern at the local library. Why do libraries need interns you ask? Well, Miss Wayforth needs someone to shunt around. Yes, Miss Wayforth. That old hag will not let me call her anything but that. I made the mistake of calling her "ma'am" once and she completely lost it. Told me I was being "unprofessional". I wonder if she knows that she's a librarian in a small town in the middle of nowhere and not some freaking CEO of a major company.

I exited the building to be greeted by a wave of heat. Silently I thanked myself for opting for the tank top that morning. Every morning I had to walk past the grocery store to get to work. The most interesting of characters always seemed to gather here. This morning was no different.

A woman was scolding two boys as they entered the shop. "For God sake, Eric. Please leave your brother alone now or I swear I will shove that thing where the sun doesn't shine," I heard her say while she pointed at a toy sword one of the boys was holding. I cringed upon hearing this.

Passing the woman and her children was an odd looking guy. He was very tall and thin. He looked to be no older than thirty, but his hairline was receding drastically. He froze when he saw me, straightened his brown bowtie and walked pass without saying a word.

The rest of the walk to the library was uneventful. Miss Wayforth was glaring at me from the reception desk as I came in through the door. "You're late," she simply said. "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry," I replied. "Is it necessary that I remind you at least once a week, Miss Brooks, that punctuality is just common decency?" I didn't bother to reply to that one. Instead I just plopped my bag down and headed off to the bookshelves.

"Not so fast, young lady," she called me back, "I need to give you something." She opened one of the drawers and handed me a business card. "This is the number for Al's Garage. If you're ever going to get stuck out there in the desert he's the man to call. No other auto repair service will be willing to tow you back. The town is too 'out of the way'." I took the small white card from her, mumbled a thanks and tried yet again making my way to the bookshelves.

While putting previously checked out books back onto their shelves I started thinking. Maybe moving to Georgeville wasn't the best idea I've ever had. It was kind of impulsive. Fresh out of college and what do I decide to do with my life? I take a map and choose a random town to spend the next year of my life in. What can I say? I was bored. And I thought that if I did something like this, force myself to go out into the world, inspiration might strike.

I was a Journalist major. I got into college by receiving a scholarship. There was no way my dad would have ever been able to afford it otherwise. But after I graduated I thought of taking a different career path. I wanted to take the year off and write. The problem is that I thought inspiration would have struck by now. But sadly, I chose the dullest town of them all. So now I'm stuck.

I try to keep my hopes us by saying that soon I'll find something worthy to write about, but after being here for two weeks already, I doubt it. And once my year is up, I should either have a book or I will have to go out and make a living as a journalist. And at this point, I really hope for the former.


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