Endless Time

“We ran out of the small hoodie in white, but you can order it online if you would like,” Michelle aggressively tells the customer for the fifth time today. Dealing with customers during the holiday can be ten times more stressing than a normal day. Everyone is hyped up on the energy of Christmas running from store to store, swiping credit card after credit card, buying tons of presents for everyone you like. 

Michelle is ready to go home but she is only halfway into her ten-hour shift. Her hand is cramping from all the scanning of objects and typing in numbers. Also tired of all the dumb and rude customers she has to deal with. She just keeps repeating in her head, “Do it for the paycheck, do it for the paycheck!” 

Michelle has only been working for a week she needed to make some extra cash to buy some gifts. 

Staring at the clock waiting for the hands to tell her it is 10:00 p.m. and time to go home. But alas that time seems so far away. As Michelle is starting to drift off to sleep while sitting in the break room she hears a big commotion. 

She runs out to see what is going on and to her surprise, she sees two customers yelling at one another arguing about who grabbed the last package of airpods first. Both are women, one is in her mid 30’s, the other in her mid 40’s. Both were trying to get the airpods for their kids - wow are those kids spoiled, they have moms fighting over the last package. 

People around start chanting fight, giving the feeling of being back in the halls of high school. Michelle joins in the chanting trying to make her shift a little more exciting but before anything else happens two security guards walk in and lead the women out of the store. Everyone walks away except one woman who runs up grabs the airpods and runs to the front of the cashiers exclaiming in joy.

Michelle’s break is now over and she returns to cashier station number seven. She opens the station to have ten people get in line within seconds. She beings to scan all the items of her customers as some try to do small talk with her but she ends the conversations fast. 

About a half an hour goes by before another customer goes crazy. A customer comes up to Michelle’s station trying to return and item without waiting in line. Michelle politely tells the man he has to wait in line. But the man then starts getting mad saying he needs to exchange it now and Michelle continues to tell him to get in line. Then customers in line start to yell at the man to get in line. The man then really gets mad and yells at everyone around them, criticizing their looks or something they are buying then walks out the door, but before he can he runs into the clear doors thinking they were automatic doors. He stands to yell at everyone once more this time for laughing at him and leaves.

Michelle still has three and a half hours to go for her shift and it just seems endless. She stands as she scans item after item. Falling asleep more and more after every beep by the machine letting her know the item has been scanned. 

She is now in her last hour, and these last four hours have felt like four days. She is staring at the clock counting down the minutes, not caring is staring at a clock makes time go by slower. She can not imagine time going by any slower than now. Ten minutes… so close. Eight minutes…. starts to close down cashier station. Five minutes….on second to the last customer. Two minutes… going to the lockers to grab belongings. Thirty seconds past ten o’clock, already out the door.

Finally, it is 10:00 p.m. meaning it is time for Michelle to go home and get into bed. Trying to forget everything crazy that happened today. Hoping she will never have to see those people again and wake up tomorrow to do the same thing again.