Aisle Seven

The short story I wrote for Creative Writing this week:

"Aisle Seven"

            “Clean up on aisle seven!” a voice boomed over the loudspeakers. I sighed, why was it always aisle seven? Why couldn’t it be aisle nine? Aisle seven meant cleaning up soup or tomato sauce or some other such substance. There were cookies and chips on aisle nine.

            “Dani, you got that clean up?” my manager called in my direction as she hurried past me.

            “Sure thing, Mae.” Inwardly, I groaned. I trudged towards the backroom to get a mop and bucket. As I passed aisle seven, I glanced down it to see what the mess was. This time, I groaned out loud. Some idiot had knocked over about ten glass jars of tomato sauce creating a pool of red across the entire width of the aisle.

            As I waited for the bucket to fill up with water, another employee rushed into the backroom. “Dani, are you cleaning up aisle seven?”

            “Yes, I’m waiting for the water to—”

            “You had better hurry. People are trying to shop on that aisle and someone slipped and almost fell.” He ran out of the room again, probably to go spread the news of the disaster to other employees.

            I hauled the full bucket to aisle seven, dragging the mop behind me. “Excuse me,” I murmured to one of the shoppers.

She moved out of my way. “Sorry, dear.”

“It’s quite alright,” I smiled at her, forcing the happiness to bubble out of my reluctant lips. “I just don’t want to get you wet.”

Trying to look pleased about cleaning up tomato slop, I swished the mop back and forth across the linoleum. A strand of brown hair fell out of my pony tail and stuck to my sweaty face. I tried to blow it out of my face, but it failed to move. I decided to forget about it and just finish the job as quickly as possible.

Footsteps came towards me. I saw a pair of brown knee-high boots standing in front of me. I looked up and barely hid the surprise on my face. “Can I help you, sir?”

The man looked like a pirate. He was wearing a baggy white shirt and tight cropped black pants with a red sash tied around his hips. He was deeply tanned and his brown hair was done in dreads. He tipped his tricorn hat to me. “I was actually looking for some beef stew.”

I pointed behind me. “At the end of the aisle.”

“Thank you, madam.” He swaggered by me and dramatically picked up three cans of stew. I shook my head. The things I saw on aisle seven…

I had almost finished mopping up the sauce, when a young girl walked down the aisle. She scanned the shelves, looking for goodness knows what, when she saw the red water in my bucket. “Is that blood?”

“No, it’s—”

She screeched. “I hate blood.”

“Well, that’s alright because this is not blood, it’s just tomato—”

She doubled over and vomited on the floor. Twice. I threw my head back and sighed, then looked at her with a plastered smile.

“Can I help you get to the bathroom?”

She shook her head; the green color rising in her cheeks. She turned and ran the other way down the aisle calling for her mother.

I quickly finished mopping the tomato sauce up and hauled the bucket back to the storeroom to empty it. I dumped it out and re-filled it. One of my co-workers was sitting down on break in the corner, reading a book.

“Hey, Tony, could you do me a favor and bring a caution sign to aisle seven?” I hoped I looked desperate enough that he would consider taking five minutes of his break to help me.

He looked up and grinned. “You look stressed, Dani.”

I just looked at him.

He laughed. “Sure, I can bring you a sign.” He got up and picked up a couple wet floor signs. He followed me back to aisle seven. Instead of just dropping them on the floor, he set them up, one on each end of the aisle—carefully side-stepping the vomit.

“Thanks, Tony.”

“No problem, kid.” He lightly punched my shoulder before going back to the storeroom.

I stoically started cleaning up the girl’s vomit, trying not to inhale too deeply. Just as I was mopping up the last of it, the ground started to shake. People screamed and started running around yelling, “Earthquake!”

Glass jars, cans, packets of seasoning, and other foods tumbled down from the shelves. I darted around, avoiding the falling cans. Several of them fell into the water bucket, splashing the dirty water over the floor. I glared at the bucket, knowing that I would have to clean all this up after the quake stopped. Before I could dwell on this unpleasantness much longer, something hit my head and I fell to the shaking ground.

I woke up to someone gently shaking my shoulder. “Dani? You alright?”

I sat up, groggily. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I shook my head slowly, clearing the fog. “Just hit my head is all I think.” I looked around me at the damage on aisle seven. “I had better start cleaning up.” 

Tony—still standing over me—laughed. “Dani, Dani, only you would want to start cleaning just a few seconds after you wake up from being unconscious.” He helped me to my feet. “I’ll help you.”

I gave him a lopsided grin. Together, we picked up the many squashed cans and broken glass and stuffed them into a large garbage bag. He re-filled the water bucket and I mopped up the tomato sauce. We had just finished cleaning up, when two girls strolled down the aisle.

“That was like, the scariest thing I’ve ever, like, lived through. I can’t like believe that we like didn’t like die.” One dramatically waved her hands as she spoke.         

The other looked around at the wet floor and half empty shelves. “This aisle is like the messiest one.”

I looked at Tony. “What is it with aisle seven? I think it has a curse on it.”

He laughed. The two girls looked at him and immediately began whispering to each other. I rolled my eyes. I mean, yes, Tony was attractive, but really?

The first girl walked up to Tony. “You’re like the cutest grocery worker I’ve ever like seen. Do you want to like go get dinner sometime?”

He stared at her. Before he could respond the other girl came up. “You’re stupid if you think he would want to go out with you. I mean really, look at you.”

They started arguing about who was prettier and more suited to dating a complete stranger like Tony. The fight quickly progressed from heated words to shouting until the second girl punched her friend in the nose. Blood started pouring out of her nose. More shouting ensued and the fight came to more blows.

“Girls, girls,” Tony stepped in and separated them while I stared in amazement at the brawling teenagers. “Really, I’m not worth it. Besides, I’m taken.” He reached over and pulled me to him. I smiled at them.

They burst into tears and limped down the aisle towards the front doors. Tony and I exchanged an incredulous look. We started to carry the mop and bucket back to the storeroom. A woman wearing an elaborate wedding dress appeared at the end of the aisle.

“Oh, wait!”

We turned around and I couldn’t help it—my eyes widened a bit when I saw her garb.

“I need your help, please.” She held out her hands to us in supplication.

“How can we help you, ma’am?” Tony asked courteously.

She clasped her hands together in front of her chest. “My wedding is tomorrow and I am afraid that I will slip and fall while walking down the aisle. I was hoping that you could help me practice walking down the aisle.”

I opened my mouth to emit some excuse why I did not have the time, but Tony beat me to it. “We would be happy to help, ma’am.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you! Will you be my father?” she turned to me. “And will you be the minister at the end of the aisle?”

“Sure,” I stretched my mouth into a smile and then once her back was turned, I glared at Tony for getting us into this predicament.

He leaned over and whispered, “Hey, this beats cleaning.” I had to agree with him there.

I stood at the far end of aisle seven with the mop in my hand. Tony offered his arm to her at the other end. She draped her veil over her face and took his arm; her hand trembling. Tony patted her hand reassuringly. I coughed, trying not to laugh.

She started to glide down the aisle, clinging to Tony’s arm for support. The solemn look on his face almost made me burst into laughter. I coughed again, nearly choking. Tony glared at me, trying to silence me, but it only made me want to laugh more.

They made it to me without any mishaps. She smiled brilliantly and threw back her veil. “I did it!” she turned to Tony and grasped his hands. “Thank you for your help. You are the most compassionate and kindest person I have ever met in my life. I shall have to tell my fiancée that we will only shop here for our groceries.”

Tony smiled back at her. “I am happy to be of service, ma’am.”

She turned and glided back down the aisle, humming as she went. The minute she was out of sight, I started laughing. Tony joined me. He wiped the tears from his face. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“I saw a pirate here earlier.” I said, giggling. This brought on a fresh bout of laughter from Tony.

“We can’t forget the brawling girls,” Tony added. I almost choked on my gum as I doubled over with laughter.

Eventually, I sighed as the laughter died down. “Well, aisle seven has managed to avoid disaster for five minutes; do you think it’s safe for us to leave?”

He nodded. “I would assume it’s safe. When do you get off?”

“Five thirty.”

He offered me his arm. “I get off at six, would you like to go out for dinner?”

I smiled at him, but a crash from behind me interrupted me. I turned around to see a little kid pulling cans and jars off the shelves. I made a face, and then snorted.

“I’d love to—but I think I’ll still be cleaning up aisle seven.”

“So, then, I’ll pick you up at eight.” He winked at me as he handed me the bucket before walking back to the storeroom.

I shook my head in mock anger and turned to the job at hand: cleaning up on aisle seven.