Stacked Against

Twelve boxes. 24 cans in each. I look at the cat food still waiting to be stacked. The annoying tiny ones. Like tuna cans. 288 little cans to shove into these narrow shelves. The top of the shelf hits my knuckles every time.

“Too slow!” Brian yells down the aisle, his red tie and white shirt flap after him as he storms off.

Jenya smiles at me as she comes in late and starts unpacking boxes down the other end. She fixes her hair first. Tying it up so it won’t get in the way. I like her with her hair up.

“Do some work!” Brian comes back and catches me staring. He looks down at me with his raging brown eyes. I notice his name tag is askew. He keeps glaring, daring me to react.

I pick up the tiny cans of cat food shoving them into a space barely big enough to fit two. Speeding up, I bang the knuckle of my left index finger taking off skin. I bite down on my lip hard, holding in all the disturbing expletives I want to scream.

“Hurry up!” I hear Brian scream down the next aisle.

After the cat food, I get to pack the birdseed. Yay! Because they don’t break easily or anything. Jenya has just finished the dog food and is working her way towards me.

We’ve been working this aisle together for two months. When Brian first showed her around the store I couldn’t believe someone so pretty would be stacking shelves. She now goes for drinks with me, Jeff, Linda and Tong after work. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been staying later and later chatting with her. Chatting so much I’ve even missed a couple of morning lectures.

We meet in the middle of the aisle. I’m stacking the fertilizer in the tight plastic packaging. The mix of plastic and pooh smells like a factory farm.

“I’m glad you reached that before me,” she laughs.

I’m so going to ask her out tonight. Just me and her, so I can tell her how I feel. I’ll take her to that café by the creek where the swans are raising their babies.

“Hey, you have Wednesday off?” I ask knowing that she does because I checked her roster before.

She nods.

“Fancy grabbing a coffee?” I ask.

“Can’t Wednesday I’m going to the theatre,” she says.

“Theatre?” I’m surprised.

“Yeah,” she smiles “Brian has an extra ticket and invited me.”

“Oh, I see,” my voice breaks a little. I hold the bag of fertilizer against the hole opening in my chest.

“Faster!” Brian shouts two aisles away.

“Get a move on!” Brian roars one aisle away.

He emerges at the end of our aisle.

“How’re you?” He asks Jenya in a voice that almost sounds kind.  “If your stuff’s not finished in the next fifteen minutes, you’re fired!” He blasts at me.

Author's Note

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