Lost & Found.

When Kendra came by to pick up the pizza I stole two pieces before she left and then sat back to watch as she walked back home, praying that it wouldn’t rain before she there. The wind whipped through her dark hair and as if sensing me watching her she sent her piercing gaze in my direction. I smiled and waved, she rolled her eyes and sped up, feeling the rain coming. It was now six fifty-four.

I still had two hours and six minutes left in this shit hole.

Someone was supposed to have a shift when Cody left, but nobody ever came in. I was alone in this place again.

I hit the radio making it turn up the slightest bit, trying to drown out my own thoughts.

Thank God this place was the earliest closing store in town. At least I didn’t have to be here past nine.

My back ached so I sat on the dirty floor, leaning up against the hard, but solid, counter. I closed my eyes, willing myself to not fall asleep. I had a paycheck in my purse and that filled me with this unbelievable feeling of satisfaction. I’d never actually had a paying job before, as weird as that sounded coming from a seventeen year old.

My father had been an author, he wrote thriller and mystery novels and sometimes he’d throw in some Steven King worthy horror. Sometimes it was horribly odd. He always let me read the stories before the editors. I read them chapter by chapter and I loved it.

Everyone else still thinks I’d hated my father’s writing.

He was rich and famous and he gave ‘his girls’ the world. I’d never had to work for money. I’d do favors and all, but I’d never gotten paid outside of my allowance, which I’ve been saving up since I turned sixteen.

I was somewhere in the five hundreds now.

The door jingled and I hurriedly jumped to my feet. An elderly man smiled to me and sat in the booth next to the window, pulling out a pack of cards. Deciding he was innocent enough I sat back down on the ground.

The door jingled again and again I jumped up. It was another old man, I watched as he also smiled to me and sat across from the first man. They then proceeded to start playing poker or something with the cards. I wouldn’t know, the most I’d ever done with cards was ‘Go Fish’.

I sighed going to sit back down but stopped as the door jingled again. Three small kids came running through the doorway, making the bell go wild and a headache flare to life inside my skull. Close behind the children, what I assumed was their mother, followed. She took one look at me and I could see the sympathy shimmering in her eyes. “Only one thing!” she yelled as quiet as she could, but it didn’t matter.

I wanted to sleep, but I knew that I couldn’t.

I pulled out a drawer and searched, hellbent on finding some sort of pain killer. When there wasn’t one in any of the three drawers I dumped my purse out onto the floor. There. Next to the sunglasses and my cell phone. A small bottle of Tylenol.

I sighed and took two of the rather large pills with a huge gulp of my, now room temperature, bottle of water.

I straightened myself before pulling the stool as close to the counter itself as possible. I rested my elbows on the hard, cold surface and folded my hands together so that I could rest my chin on them. The smallest of the children, and unbelievably the quietest, came up to the counter and, barely reaching, placed a small candy bar before me. I smiled down at her but then gazed around the store, trying to find her mother.

When I did she was trying to get the other two in order.

I could spare an extra dollar. I handed the little girl with mousy brown hair and bright, happy green eyes the candy back. Her smile widened but then she handed it back to me quietly. “Open?” She asked so quietly I almost didn’t hear her. “Please?”

I quickly pulled apart the plastic, praying that she wasn’t allergic to something in the candy. “Here you go.” I handed it back, blocking the pounding in my head out.

“Thank you.” She smiled brightly, showing her tiny teeth. She could only be three or four.

Her mother then came up to the counter, set a package of gum and a Little Debbie down. Realizing there weren’t three things there she looked to the youngest, who was happily munching on the chocolate.

I stopped her before she could chew the little girl out. “It’s okay, I got it.” I smiled.

“Thank you.” I hadn’t noticed how stressed she looked before, but now I did. Her caramel colored eyes looked tired and there were slight wrinkles forming on her face. Her hair was frizzing and falling out of her hair tie. She quickly pulled out money for the two boys’ things and fled the place.

“It was no problem.” I muttered as the door shut behind her, making the bell jingle one last time. I could feel the pain killers starting to work and I sighed as I rested my head against the cool counter.

“What’s your name?” One of the old men queried.

I looked up at him, realizing he was talking to me. “Ashlynn.” I felt like pointing to the small nameplate, but I figured it would be to no use. He was probably blind as a bat.

“Would you please go and grab us a coffee, Ashlynn?” I smiled and nodded.

I hopped off of my stool and filled two small Styrofoam cups with plain coffee, picking a few packets of creamer and sugar to bring back. “Here you go.” My face was starting to hurt after smiling so much.

“Thank you, dear.” The other one nodded, only giving me a slight smile. I nodded back before going to die of boredom behind my counter.

~~~

I stared at my watch as the minutes passed slower than they did on the last day of Freshman year. It was eight forty-one. I had minutes to go. The floors were clean unless someone came in, fresh mud on their feet, before I closed the place up.

Eight forty-two.

The bell jingled and I cursed my bad luck. “You’re still here?” A voice laughed and I glared up at him. It was spike boy again.

What was his name?

Kyle?

“Yes,” I uttered bitterly.

“You closing up?” He asked as he came back carrying three 20-ounce bottles of pop. He looked past my shoulders to what I assumed was his friends in some car.

“Yep.” I flinched at how bitter I sounded. “Sorry, I’m just in a bad mood.” I muttered not really wanted to offend him.

“It’s okay. You’re that Johnston girl, right?” I nodded. “I loved your dad’s books.” He smiled at me and I almost smiled back.

“Thanks.” I nodded and he payed quickly before scurrying back off to his friends.

Silence fell over the small store and I turned up the volume on the small radio.

‘Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace whose sounds caress my ear, but not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear.’

The song had this epic, end of action movie feel to it. It was so weird and I was so entranced by it that I almost didn’t notice that it was time to close. I moved slowly, swaying to the strings at the end of the song as I flipped the sign and shut off the lights, ignoring spike boy’s dirty tracks.

I waited for the song to fade all the way out before I hit the off switch, hardly catching the name of the song. I committed it to memory, though, and promised myself to find it and put it on a CD.

I then walked home, playing the addicting rhythm to the song over and over again in my head. When I walked through the front door it was silent as the dead.

Slowly, I took steps around one corner into the living room, peeking behind me into the kitchen. She, I didn’t even know what to call her anymore, was passed out on the couch. I assumed she was drunk.

Kendra was probably in her room.

I didn’t want to bother her then.

I quietly snuck into my room, praying the door wouldn’t creak when I shut it, but it did. I knew it would.

I laid in my bed, spread eagle, just staring at the ceiling with a small smile set on my face.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I slid into unconsciousness, dreading the next day. Suddenly working Sunday didn’t sound so horrid.