Aria places another can of organic tomatoes on the shelf, humming to herself as she works on restocking the canned goods isle. She glances at the clock hanging on the wall, urging it to speed up, so she can finish her shift for the day and rush home before the snow storm hits. Today was dragging by slowly, and she sighs at her boring work day. But hey, at least she's getting paid, one step closer to paying off the student loans she was quickly piling up.
"Hey there!" she greets as the door bell chimes, and her third customer of the day enters.
The older man gives her a smile and makes his way towards the fridges housing the milk. Aria sets down the other cans and walks to the front register, watching the man grab a carton. She is the only employee working on the floor today in the small market. Although the owner is in the back office, she is the only employee available to juggle the restocking, the food preparation, and the customers. Thanks to the impending snow, she hasn't had to deal with many customers. The man brings his milk to the register, offering Aria another smile.
"The kids want hot cocoa, but it seems we're out of milk," he tells Aria with a thick Italian accent, making Aria notice his Italian features more. The man has a full head of thick, black hair despite his old age and a nose just slightly crooked. He wears a gray suit, absent of any wrinkles, and Aria thinks he must have stopped by on his way home from work.
"Hot cocoa is crucial to a snow day," she comments. She rings the item up, typing the price into the out-dated register.
The man tosses a candy bar onto the counter with a sheepish grin. "For the sweet tooth." This time, his words come out with a slight slur, causing Aria to raise an eyebrow while the man grimaces. He reaches into his jacket pocket for his wallet, but he clumsily moves his arm, and the wallet falls onto the ground along with his cellphone.
"Sir, are you feeling okay?" Aria questions as the man's face contorts with pain. "Maybe you should sit down" She starts to walk around the counter, but she is too slow as the man loses his balance and hits the floor with a thud. "Oh my gosh!" Aria exclaims and rushes to his side.
Luckily, she is in her final year of school, studying to be a nurse, so she immediately recognizes his symptoms as a stroke and leaps into action. The man is struggling to breathe as he clutches at his throat. Aria tries to comfort the stranger with meaningless words as she begins CPR. She pushes on his chest and curses herself for not going to the gym more often. Her arms would not be this sore already if she had only lifted weights maybe once in her life.
"Marcus!" She yelled for the store's owner and hoped he'd hear her over the roar of the oven's fan. "Marcus!" The short man finally peeped his head out the office door, and his eyes widened behind his glasses when he saw Aria's petite frame frantically pushing on a man's chest. He ran to her, his hand covering his mouth with disbelief. "Call 911! He's having a stroke. Call 911!" she urged, trying to snap him out of his shock while she continued to perform CPR.
"Okay okay," her boss muttered as he grabbed the store's phone. He rattled off the situation and address into the receiver.
"Please don't die. Breath for me. Come on. Come on," she mumbled to herself before breathing into the man's mouth. "It's gonna be okay." It was not, in fact, going to be okay. This was not okay at all. She had just told her professor how eager she was to be in the field, but this is not what she meant!
Aria continued to pound on his chest, effectively creasing his suit, for what felt like hours until she was gently pulled off him and pushed away by a medic. Her arms ached, and she now struggled to catch her breath. She watched speechless as the unresponsive man was loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. His wallet and cellphone lay on the floor in his wake, and Aria is knocked out of her trance when his phone begins to ring. The screen reads "Luca" with a picture of the man and a younger version of himself smiling with beers in their hands. She presses the green button, hoping to find words.
