Retailmare

Chapter 7 - The Fear Lingers

I ended up on the news. The local news called me the next day and asked about my experience. Then, that evening, I read an online article about it. Then the next day in the morning, it was in the local paper. My family enjoyed that one. As in, they were scared silly that I could've been hurt.

"I'm going back tomorrow," I told my parents and my younger sister Alise at the dinner table two evenings after the incident. "They let me mentally rest a couple of days, but tomorrow, I'm going back to talk to them about quitting my job and putting in my two-week's notice. I don't want to work there anymore. In fact, I don't want to work at any store. I just want to get my online job and work from home where I'm safe."

"That would be the best thing to do," said Alise, who was twenty years old and had long blonde hair like me. "But what about money?"

"I have enough saved up so I can pay off my student loan monthly bill and monthly phone bill for about half-a-year."

"You should've quit the day it happened," my mom, who was the older version of me, only with shorter hair, said. "I'm not going to have my daughter in danger like that anymore. Have they caught the person responsible?"

"No, not yet. At least, that's what Adam told me on the phone earlier today."

"Adam?" Dad questioned, and he was a blonde as well.

"Officer Hanson."

"You mean that hot police officer you talk non-stop about?" Alise asked with a sly look. I wasn't embarrassed by her accusation.

"Yep, him. He told me that they still can't find the robber, and that the money he stole is probably long gone."

"After a couple days, I bet," Mom said. "That horrible man."

"People can be desperate sometimes," Alise commented.

"But enough to rob a Walmart full of people and management?" Dad asked. "The guy clearly wasn't thinking straight."

I nodded as they talked about that a little more. Even the next morning, they were talking about it over breakfast. When I got into work and was up at the CSM station next to 10, Sarah, who was cashiering at 10, gave me a sad look.

"Hey, you alright?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I'll be okay. But I don't think I'll be working here much longer. Too many things have been happening to me. I'm going to talk to someone today about quitting and request that I not be on a register until I can leave."

Sarah nodded but didn't say anything. She had a customer. Heidi came out, and I talked to her about my plans and my request.

"That should be fine," she said. "Jessica's here. I can let her know that you want to talk to her."

"Okay."

"And..." She checked her little handheld. "We have enough cashiers today, so how about you work on just go-backs? We have a lot of cosmetics and HBA. Should take you most of your day just putting those things away."

HBA was other little things you could get out of the cosmetics section, like accessories, jewelry, hair dye and shampoos. "Okay, sounds good. I'll get to that. And... thank you."

"It isn't a problem. We want you to feel comfortable."

I doubted that I would feel comfortable even shopping at Walmart again, but I simply nodded. I went and got started on putting away the HBA. I was working on that clear to my first break, then still worked on it on to my lunch break. After lunch, I finished, and started on cosmetics. I pushed the cart along the makeup aisles, trying to locate where a Revlon eyeliner would go.