The Apprehensive Greeter

 

   Clarence looked across the parking lot and already felt tired at the prospect of the distance he needed to cover just to get to the main entrance. “Hey, are you alright, Clarence?” the bus driver shouted from the driver’s seat. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he said. “Just got a long walk ahead of me, far too far for an old man like me. I’ll get there eventually though.” Typically not one to break the rules, he didn't want to walk any further than necessary, so he shuffled through the flower bed and into the massive and mostly empty parking lot. He felt sick at even the idea of having to walk that far. He always felt like he had the energy of a twenty-year-old but after he turned eighty the energy of his youth seemed to slip away, almost overnight. A Mustang fired up a couple of spaces away from him and drove away, revealing a shopping cart left behind in the adjoining parking space. “Phew, that’s a relief,” he thought. Thankful for someone's laziness, he took the cart and used it as a walker. He continued his shuffle across the expanse of blacktop and finally reached the entrance. Swallowed by the main doors of MegaMart, he pushed the cart toward the now full cart aisle and greeted the young woman at the first checkout. He exchanged his coat for his greeter's vest with the ridiculously large happy face button on the upper right-hand corner and started his shift at the main entrance. He greeted each customer with a smile and a friendly hello taking careful note of their appearance. “Wow, when are you going to retire, old man,” came a young voice behind him. He turned around to look into the face of the heavily tattooed and pierced young man before him. “I’m not old, Jerome,” he said. “I’ve got lots of life left in me. Besides, if I retired what would I do with all my time? I don’t want to get bored.” “Yeah, whatever, old man,” he said, walking away. He escaped to the break room the moment the clock turned to twelve and retrieved his bologna sandwich from the back of the fridge. “That’s disgusting, old man,” Jerome said, looking over his shoulder. “You know that bologna isn’t really meat. It’s like guts and chemicals and stuff. You should be vegan like me. It’s not nice to enslave and kill animals.” “Yeah, whatever, young man,” Clarence said with a smile, happy with his clever retort. He continued with his sandwich, ate his daily Twinkie and took a drink from the water fountain. A nudge from a broom handle woke him from his nap on the break room couch and he suddenly sat up, momentarily confused at the scowling face of his boss. Looking at the clock he realized that his break ended five minutes earlier, so he slipped on his vest and hurried to the front door. Clarence stood at the entrance of the employee break room and looked across the store. “I’ve worked this job for the last forty years and honestly, I don’t even like it,” he thought. “Ugh, now more walking.” He crossed the store, he crossed the parking lot, and he reached the bus stop just as the bus arrived. Every stop sign, every bump in the road, and every storefront offered him no excitement, no thrill, and no hope. The bus stopped and he didn’t even need to look at his watch because every workday it was the same, his foot touched the sidewalk at 5:17 and he walked the two blocks back to his apartment. The arduous task of climbing the back stairs to the second floor faced him again and he trod the eleven steps to face a disagreeable deadbolt that needed more massaging than he did. As he got the door open, he received a single glance from his morbidly obese dog, Norman, lying in the middle of the dining room floor. He called it his dining room but technically it was part of the living room. The humming of the microwave behind only amplified just how quiet his life had become. The empty HungryMan box that he had just dropped in the wastebasket reminded him of how lonely he was. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Well, that’s weird, no one ever visits me. Probably the wrong address.” He slid his small step stool in front of the door and looked through the viewer, seeing a large man dressed in blue. “Ugh,” he thought. “Now what?” Hello, Mr. Clarence Dellan?” he said. “I’m Officer Delaney from the Casper Police Department. We’ve been receiving some complaints about noise in the building. Is everything alright here?” “Noise?” he repeated. “Aside from being somewhat hard of hearing, I’m okay, I guess. Was someone complaining about me? I’m gone all day, every day at work and I watch a little TV at night, but that’s about it.” “Ok, sorry to bother you, sir. Thank you for your time,” he said. “Have a good evening.” He turned on the TV to hear the news while he waited for his dinner. “The state of California is experiencing an unusually warm spring this year,” the announcer said. “We’ve put together a montage of photos from around the state.” “Oh wow, that is beautiful,” Clarence said. “It sure would be nice to get some warm weather around here. I guess I shouldn’t expect too much out of Wyoming. I was born here, and I’ll probably die here.” Nearly slipping into sleep in his recliner, he pinched himself to motivate a move to the bedroom. Like clockwork, his alarm went off at six a.m. and he lay there motionless, staring at the ceiling. Saying goodbye to the dog, he worked his way down the stairs and sidewalk to the bus stop. Hearing the easily identifiable squealing of brakes, he looked up to see a large advertisement on its side, ‘Come Visit California,’ it said. “Hmm, California again,” he thought. Following the same patterns and sequence of events as he had for the last forty years, he sat down with his bologna sandwich and picked up a newspaper from the table in front of him. ‘California Welcomes You’, the headline read. “Come enjoy the sunshine, the beauty and the shining lights of Hollywood Boulevard”, it continued. “Sheesh, California again,” he said. “Again, old man, really?” he heard Jerome say from behind him. “That bologna is going to be the death of you. At least try peanut butter or something.” Clarence looked up at the large gold ring that hung from the center of Jerome’s nose, wondering what kind of mind would even want such a thing on his face. On the bus ride home that evening, he couldn’t help but overhear the conversation of the two teenage girls in the seat in front of him. “I’m telling you Ellie,” the one girl said. “As soon as I turn eighteen, I am going to LA. Nothing about Wyoming is even the least bit interesting. I’m getting outta here as soon as I can.” Sleep stood at bay that evening and Clarence watched a single fly buzz around his room, just overhead and just out of reach. “California, California, I don’t know what to think of it. I’ve lived here my entire life, and I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve heard reference to California before today.” Unsure if he had even slept that evening, he walked out of his bedroom the next morning and looked at his obese dog, his empty apartment, and his half empty HungryMan dinner tray on the coffee table. The clock on the microwave told him that his bus was scheduled to arrive out front in ten minutes. “Well, that’s not good,” he thought. While he could meticulously keep a checkbook, he could not, for the life of him, keep track of it. Finally finding it in the silverware drawer, he saw that he had exactly $1237.89, over half of which would go toward rent for next month. Five minutes later, he was standing in the shower and felt the incredible urge to do the unexpected, something foolish even. After getting dressed, he walked to the bank on the corner and emptied his account, filling his wallet and throwing away what most would consider common sense. “Well, Clarence, you’ve come this far,” he thought, “might as well finish this out.” He crossed the street and bought a bus ticket for LA for later that afternoon, to return home to a motionless Norman lying in the middle of the dining room. Giving the dog a gentle nudge with his shoe, he saw him take a deep breath. He attached the leash to him and took him to the apartment across the hall. He knocked on the door and listened as the deadbolt slid unlocked and the door cracked open. “Oh, hey Clarence, how come you’re not at work?” the young mother asked. “Hi Debbie,” he said. “I’ve decided to take a little vacation for a few days. Would you be able to watch Norman for me until I get back? He is really no trouble at all. Feed him once a day and take him out to poop in the evening. That’s about it. And here’s his bag of dog food.” “Uh, yeah, sure,” she said. “Just a couple days, you say?” “Yeah, just a couple days,” he answered. “I’m thinking I need to get out and do something different. Thank you, I really appreciate it.” He struggled to carry his now packed suitcase down the back steps of his apartment and across the street to the bus station. He pulled his ticket from his pocket and squinted until he could read the fine print. “Wow, this drive will take two days,” he realized. He sat back and waited for his bus to arrive. It was then that he realized that he had not called into work. “I guess I should at least tell them what I’m doing,” he thought. Finding a payphone, he called his boss. “Clarence, what are you doing?” the man nearly yelled. “You were supposed to be here over six hours ago. Are you sick or something?” “No, Brad, I’m not sick,” he answered. “In fact, I’ve never felt better. I just wanted to call and tell you that I’m quitting. I’m moving to California… where it’s warm.” “California?” he nearly yelled again. “That’s nuts, old man. You can’t do that. You can’t give up your job here. You know how hard it is finding work. What are you going to do there?” “I don’t know,” he answered. “I’ll figure it out once I get there, I guess.” Not feeling obliged to explain himself, he hung up the phone. As he did, he saw his bus stop in front of the building. As the other passengers began to move, he followed the small group and approached the bus, waiting with them for the door to open. Handing the man his ticket, he took his seat and waited for the bus to finish loading.     The rain shifting sideways across his window made him only more thankful for the sunshine that waited for him in California. As he stared into the featureless landscape his mind returned to his boss’ words. Over and over, “What are you going to do there?” was all that he could hear.     “Maybe I did the wrong thing?” he thought. “Am I going to be homeless now or worse?” Staring beyond the window, he could see nothing in the darkness but a half-moon and the silhouette of a mountain range. “At this point, I guess I don’t have much choice. I’m on my way to California.”     Clarence’s mouth tasted like something died in it and he peeled his head off of the window, trying to work out a kink in his neck. The sun had been in the sky for a while, as it had moved above the top edge of the windshield of the bus. He looked out the front into the skyline of the biggest city he had ever seen.     As the last passenger moved past him, he pulled his suitcase from the overhead compartment and slowly walked to the exit, into a new world of which he knew nothing.