Steaming Steven

The shrill ring of a beige-white telephone broke the silence of the early morning. It was 6:30 in the morning, and the indigo light of dawn radiated from the kitchen window.

The sound of heavy footsteps can be heard coming down the hallway and into the kitchen.

In came a young man, still half asleep from the night before. He had been working overtime at Anthony's Grocer, since most of the staff had gone on vacation for the holidays.

He didn't have any family to speak of and never kept up with his friends after school, so he ended up staying behind, being left with most of the work. Since then, he had been working seven hours longer than he was normally used.

For the past six days, he had been exhausted from the holiday rush at the grocer's, so much so that he couldn't keep up most of the time.

But today, he didn't have to go to work. Sunday's were the only days he had to let his body rest from the draining work hours.

Which was why when he came down the hall to answer the phone, he had a very sour expression.

Because he had no friends and no family, that only meant one person could be calling him at that time. He picked up the phone and put it up to his ear and said, "Good morning, Mr. Anthony."

"Good morning, Steven," said his Manager, Mr. Anthony. "I need you here at 6:45 to help with opening up."

Steven breathed in deeply to keep himself from getting annoyed. "Isn't there anyone you could ask?"

"No there isn't, so don't be late."

Steven looked outside. The grass on his lawn was covered in frost, and the sun wasn't

even out yet.

"Are you sure you can't handle by yourself?" he asked.

"No, I can't. Steven, you have been making mistakes for the past five days. You keep putting vegetables in the wrong department. You keep forgetting to move the dairy out of the cooler almost every time. You are always moving way too slow when restocking items. It's the holiday season, Steven, and you need to step it up or I won't have you work here anymore. Do you understand?"

Steve clenched his fist tight and breathed through his nose very slowly.

"Okay," he said. "I'll be right there."

"Thank you," said Mr. Anthony. "Happy New Year."

"Yeah, Yeah, Happy you have me," Steven said, after he made sure Mr. Anthony hung

up.

He put the phone back on the receiver and went back to his room to get changed.

A few minutes later, he came out in his black-and-red striped uniform wearing his red cap with the logo for the store in front.

He felt like a prisoner whenever he wore it.

He went to the fridge and got out some leftover chinese food from last night. He didn't have time to heat it up, so he ate it straight from the box, cold.

After that he went down the hall, put his shoes and coat on, and went out the front door.

Sure enough, it was freezing outside. The early-January air stung all over his face and hands, turning them red from the swelling.

He rubbed his hands and face together and just kept walking.

"'I move too slow,'" he mumbled to himself. "Yeah, probably because YOU keep pushing me to exhaustion so much!"