Lucky

Raina looked over her shoulder as she turned her back in the snowy parking lot to lock up. From the backseat of her Saturn she got out her scraper and began to work the ice. Inside the car’s engine growled, shaking its steel frame as she sat there hunched in a shaggy black overcoat. The pumps were deserted. The car wash was closed up tight for Willie who they let sleep inside with his dog. Just as she was about to pull away she saw a figure coming towards the gas station. It was Gean. Raina cursed under her breath as she watched him approach the mini mart doors, peering inside. She pulled her coat tight around her and got out.

“Hey Gean.”

His head turned to her. He shuffled over. 

“What you got the doors locked up fo’ Raina?”

“We’re closed Gean.”

“Well can I get inside for a cup o noodle? I just need me a meat stick and a cup o noodle.”

She fished for the keys.

“Ok, but make it quick. I’m tired.”

Raina watched him shuffle around the shop with a slack expression on her face broken only by yawns. When he got up to the register with the styrofoam clutched in his dark, bandaged fingers she saw the bright yellow stain of the soup ring and the shriveled little shrimps and pease floating on the top. He put one of those jumbo meat sticks next to it and poured crumpled bills and change on the lotto mat. She counted it. He was three dollars short. He took the cup and let the salty steam warm his face.

“You’re all set.”

He thanked her and walked to the door. 

“Gene, wait. You can stay in here for a minute. Soup’s gonna get all cold if you go out like that.”

Waiting for him to eat she started to nod off. He tore his meat stick into chucks and put it inside the soup. That’s when Raina went outside to smoke. When he was done and came out she handed him a couple cigarettes.

“Get somewhere warm, ok?”

Then she rattled off in her Saturn, acid stains on the roof, Jaundice eyes squinting in the falling snow. 

The next morning she was woken up by a knock on the door. Candy’s blonde head and blue eyes looking like a lizard in the fish bowl peephole made her groan. She cracked the door.

“What do you want Candy?”

“I’m going around handing out flyers for the party this weekend. There’s gonna be games, prizes, and a writing contest!”

Raina snatched the flyer.

“Are you going to come?”

“Maybe.”

The door slammed closed. Candy was Jeff, the building manager’s assistant. Earlier that week Jeff had sent her to hassle all the tenants who hadn’t paid their rent for the month yet, Raina included. Raina would’ve made the rent like she normally did, but they had raised it again, squeezing the last breath from her paychecks. Raina sat in her living room, staring at the cash prize amount for the writing contest.

The next day she was pulling into the apartment parking lot when she saw Taneer. He was training Lucky at the park right on the other side of the fence. 

“How’s it goin’?”

“Hey Raina. Goin’ good, goin’ good.”

Lucky was a border collie mix, reserved and shy. For the past few months Raina would do the same thing; bring some treats and sit with them a while and Taneer never protested.

“Lucky, sit. Lucky, come. Good girl!”

Raina watched Lucky’s dark, intelligent eyes follow Taneer as he stopped to drink from a water bottle. 

“She’s beautiful. I always love the shy dogs.”

“Yeah? Maybe you should be a trainer.”

“I’ve got my job at the Gas Me Up. That’s enough dog training to last a lifetime.”

Taneer squeezed his eyes shut and sent a bark of laughter up into the sky. Raina looked at him, smiling.

“Hey you hear about that party Jeff is throwing?”

“Yup. Candy bangin’ on my door nonstop nowadays.”

“You gonna go?”

“Shit for that cash prize I just might. My mama hasn’t been able to find another job. And if Lucky don’t listen to her owner when the time comes. I’on know.”

“Times are tough.”

“Listen to you. Times are tough,” he said, doing his best valley girl accent.

Raina laughed, it was pretty good. 

One day Lucky got comfortable with Raina. She started trotting over to eat the treats she’d leave on the grass. After a while she was eating from Raina’s hand. Today she fell asleep in her lap. Raina stroked her sweet cow licks as the sun sunk low. 

“This is a sign. She gonna be good for her owner tomorrow when she come,” Tareer said, his face solemn with pride. 

Raina just smiled, holding Lucky. 

The next night Raina was closing up the Gas Me Up when Gean came. The back door was locked. She looked up from her mopping to see him and even through the glass door could tell something was wrong. He saw her and lunged for the door which clanged loudly in its bolt. Something dark had settled over his face, something that made Raina run and lock the front door before curling up behind the register. When he tried that door and couldn’t get in he started screaming. Raina sat there until he finally left, hugging her knees right. 

When the party came she saw Taneer and his family as well as some other residents. Raina waited the whole time for Jeff to announce the story winner, her stomach in knots. She had submitted the story that morning. 

“So I’ve read all your stories.”

The room got quiet.

“And I’ve got to say. Wow. That was some depressing stuff!”

People shifted uneasily.

“I want you guys to go back and revise your stories. I left detailed critiques for all of you.”

Everyone groaned.

“What about the money?” Raina cried.

“Sweetie that money needs to go towards repairing the building.”

“Revise,” another tenant said, “I don’t got the time to be doing no revisin.’”

“There’s an old adage in the writing world,” Jeff sniffed. His chin was real high now. “And that’s revise, revise, revise. You can’t turn in a first draft and expect that to fly. Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know.”

Jeff was smiling but the dead silence after he said that made his expression falter. The tenants glared at him. They all got up, gathered their things, and began to leave, letting the awful silence hang over Jeff and Candy.

“Corny ass mofo,” one grumbled under his breath before leaving.