Week Eleven Theme

The end of thanksgiving is what marks the beginning of real winter for me. The snow storms and the driving that go with it are on their way or already starting. The time of the year that you start thinking about antifreeze, tire tread, flashlight batteries and mittens. The paychecks start to get smaller and the shopping lists start to get bigger. Despite this though, moods start to elevate beyond the dreary fall depression that people seem to be in. The desire to decorate everything overcomes some people and shopping for people other than ourselves begins to happen. You feel like watching movies where good things happen. Houses start to light up and bells start to ring outside stores. Everything seems to brighten up and feels warmer even with the frigid temperatures.  The daylight by this time of the year seems almost non-existent, while the nights seem to never end. The whole state is on its way to being blanketed in snow, as we quickly change from a sunny days to huge blizzards. The winter world of Maine can’t be found anywhere else, with plow drivers tackling any storm and most people driving to work in a blizzard almost unfazed. The weather combines with the holidays and brings a change in people that you only see here,

Prompt 57

Not so much a summer vacation, but a vacation nonetheless. Me and my girlfriend’s thanksgiving trip down to Pennsylvania begins uneventfully despite the stormy weather but quickly takes a sharp turn. We stop at the Kennebunk for a bathroom break and some coffee. I head into the bathroom, and do my business. As I stand up and start to open the door, the automatic flush starts and the worst coincidence in the world starts to happen. Briana’s keys fall out of my sweatshirt pocket, and into the toilet, disappearing like a bullet. For a few seconds, I don’t even comprehend what happened, then the full impact sets in. The key ring had everything on it, including the electronically chipped key to her Ford, the only key to our apartment that wasn't locked in the apartment, and her new key to animal clinic she works at.

The combination of worry and panic builds as I walk out to bear the bad news. After a few minutes of convincing the group we’re travelling with that I’m not joking, we start tracking down a maintenance man. We find a stocky man in a blue uniform who looks like a character from the Simpsons and ask for help only to be gruffly told that nothing can be done. The search for a way to get back into our car continues, along with constant joking, and eventually a locksmith arrives at the scene. A new key quickly fashioned and the road trip is gratefully resumed, along with a few new jokes being told.

Prompt 56

Clouds of smoke billow around the room, and their effect seems to slow down everything me, the music, the conversations, the video games on the tv in the corner of the room. The dim light from a couple of candles and a single lamp in the room make the smoke look somewhat unreal, and the occasional flick of the lighter followed by the bubbling sound that too many people remember from high school interrupts everything else going on in the room.

A few hours later, the concert taking place in the tiny barn is quite the change of surroundings. The fast punk rock music performed by local bands is as loud as can be, especially when you’re right up front by the speakers. The music goes on for hours as the effects from earlier wear off, only to be brought back after the show on the ride home.

The next morning, it slow lifestyle starts right back up again as soon as I wake up, like it does most days. You can’t get much done this way, and the real effects from living life in a smoky room show themselves as time rolls, mostly in your bank account and grades. Still, it’s never a boring day, between the concerts and compromised mental states. What else could a teenager want, really?

Prompt 43

The tiny blade pokes into my arm painlessly and the doctor hits the start button on the timer. He periodically wipes the blood away from the small cut and hits the timer again when it stops bleeding. He reads the timer and declares that everything is normal.

The drive to Portland seems pretty long to an eleven year old, especially on the second day in a row to see the ear nose and throat specialist. It certainly beats being in school though, and I’m looking forward to the possibility of getting better.

The visit lasts about five minutes and the doctor tells me I’m gonna need surgery tomorrow. Me and my mother head home in a hurry to get some sleep before driving back to Portland again. I’m feeling a sense of panic all night worrying about the prospect of surgery, having never been through one.

The doctors wheel me into the operating room and quickly put the mask over my face, and it puts me to sleep almost instantly.

Prompt 53

The paved road my new place sits on doesn't get too much traffic so there’s always runners and bikers. I take off down the road on my mountain bike for the first time on a cold November morning, hoping that the road will as nice on the winding, hill covered back road that I lived at up until now. The tires grip the pavement way better than the dirt that I’m used too and every rotation of the pedals speeds the bike effortlessly. It’s relaxing at first but after a mile or so of biking the straight, smooth road gets a little tedious. There’s no bumps, no rough patches or any side trails to tackle. All there is around me is flat cement and no challenges, all making for a nice ride but leaving you wishing for something more.

Prompt 52

“I have a square chimney sweep brush. You can borrow it and bring it back when you are done so someone else can use it.  (207)975-7011 or (207)785-3671 Appleton”

Winter hits the little town of Appleton just like it hits the rest of Maine, always making life as rough as possible. Everyone knows how pricey it is to keep your house warm. Everyone tries to rely on wood heat as much as possible to keep that oil bill down. I've always shared this old chimney brush with my neighbors, always helping to get ready for winter. I figured this year I might as well see if anyone else needs to use it and post a little ad in Uncle Henry's, I figure everyone needs to prepare for winter and it might help a few people out.

Prompt 55

The worn out tools that I own scattered throughout my car and stuffed out of sight into random corners of my apartment. They mostly take up space and create disorganized mess, filling up cheap tool boxes and crowding up the already cramped rooms. They come in handy when needed though.

The wrench that lives in the center console of my car gets in the way most of the time, but it’s nice when barely working wiper arm on my car flies off the in middle of a snowstorm like it usually does. The vice grips and bag of zip ties in the back seat were nice too when a bolt snapped on my exhaust fell off in the middle of nowhere at three in the morning. Of course, nothing more handy in my car than the jack and wrench under the spare tire in the trunk.

Another useful one’s the multimeter in the living room of my apartment, especially when your desktop break the day that you’re supposed to be starting your first online class in college. The trusty hammer and screwdriver are pretty helpful in making all that cheap, compressed cardboard furniture from the Christmas tree shop last much, much longer than it was ever intended to. They may be cluttered bits of metal that get left all over the place, but iI don’t know where  anyone would be without them.

Theme Week 9

It’s the beginning of the semester and an email pops up on my phone telling me that my online class is starting. It tells me to visit a blog and then create my own, and to start posting journals on it. The idea of my bad writing being posted online for the world to see is a bit intimidating, but I start to work thinking of what to write about my slightly boring day to day life. The first couple of days take forever to write, but after a while they come a little more easily.

Now we’re on to doing dialogue and scene-setting pieces, which are even more intimidating than the journals. I’ve never really done either in anything I’ve ever written, so I’m unsure of what to do with these and they take a while to work out. I get them done eventually though

Soon we’re doing all sorts of different stuff from narratives to character, but they’re taking less time to work out each week. I don’t always do fantastic writing, but overall the comments seem to say I’m doing alright, and each week seems a little less scary.

Next we’re doing vignettes. These are probably the hardest so far and I don’t do well with them, but I make it through. After this it’s even more vignettes with a slight twist but these aren’t quite as bad as the first set and they seem to come out okay.

Prompt 41

Me and Mark are sitting in a cramped room on our orientation day, joking about how stupid the training videos are. I had met him once before at a church thing years ago, but we went to different high schools so I didn't know him well. He seemed like a good guy though

We’re sitting in the lobby waiting to go into work watching scrubs on a laptop, both of us stuck at the store early because neither of us are old enough to drive yet.

We work drive thru together all the time, always screwing around a little but we're both pretty good at the job. Mark always burst into song at work, and his bad singing voice makes everyone laugh.

We’re old enough to work in the kitchen now and we both work back there all the time, and both of us are training to become managers. We always have a blast at work, often getting a little carried away and getting yelled at by some the crankier managers to quiet down. We never do though

Mark gets his licence before me, and I could be more jealous when he gets a honda civic on a lease.

I’m working on the line right in the middle of the huge rush, when the manager gets a phone call telling us that Mark was in an accident late last night and that he didn't make it. The store became silently almost instantly, and several people burst into tears, even some of the regular customers that were in the lobby. I was devastated and couldn't even think. I hadn't ever lost anyone close to me before, and I had no idea how awful it can be.

Prompt 39

My first day on the job, also the grand opening of the store. I was fifteen years old and as nervous as can be, and the chaos in the restaurant didn't help much. It went by in a blur

Working after school has become something I look forward too. I get along great with the people I work with, good at the job, and I usually have fun with it.

I've turned sixteen, and now I can learn everything that younger kids in the store aren't allowed to work. I learn how to work in the kitchen and love it, the hectic bustle and focus on moving quick.

I work mainly in the kitchen over the last year and I’m just about the fastest person in the store, better at it than all the managers working there.

I come into work and Brooke asks me to talk to her in the office. “At the meeting yesterday all we all agreed that we wanted you to become a manager. Would you be interested? There’s a training class starting soon that you would be attending for the next three months”

I’m in the last few weeks of the class and my Brooke asks me if I’d want to start another three months of classes as soon as I complete this one. I agree to do it, knowing that each one comes with a pay raise.

I took over the closing shifts when I started college, and I learn a lot doing it. Being the person in charge of the store eventually goes from being stressful and intimidating to being everyday work.

I come in one day and hear that the store manager of Machias was fired. One of our department heads is being sent there, and I’m taking over his position in the store.

Today I hear that one of the high up managers in Bucksport has left. I get a call from the district manager, Tom. “I was wondering if you’d be open to working in Bucksport?”

“Yeah, I would be. What did you have in mind?”

“Why don’t you just meet with me and Doug (The owner of the company) on Monday, We’ll talk about it then.”

Prompt 42

1. I’m originally from Arizona, but I've spent half my life in Maine.

2. My favorite food is sushi

3. I've watched scrubs so much that I know every line from all nine seasons.

4. I spend my spare time solving the rubik's cube.

5. I’m deathly afraid of public speaking. Like, more than anything else in the world.

6. I drink about four cups of coffee a day.

7. I don’t own a single pair of jeans.

8. I've worked at McDonald’s since I was fifteen year old.

9. I have a Calvin and Hobbes tattoo on my leg, and I have an equation for the golden ratio tattoo'd on my arm.

10. I've never been out of the country

11. I don’t drink or smoke

12. One of my biggest pet peeve is being late, I absolutely can’t stand being late.

13. I recently moved. When I packed all my things, my movie collection took up one more box than everything else I owned combined.

14. Although I’m a music fanatic and spend all my time listening to all sorts of it, how musicians manage to actually make the stuff is a completely mystery to me.

15. I’m a big fan of science fiction and fantasy.

16. I like the color blue

17. I have double jointed fingers (If that’s actually the right term for them)

18. I’m not very good at writing.

19. I’m planning on studying to be an electrician.

20. I spend way too much money online shopping.

Theme Week 8

Floating in the middle of the lake, I hear the motor on my parents boat turn over and a few seconds later feel the pull of the rope in my hands. Straightening up the ski strapped to my feet, I pulled the handle on the rope closer and waited for a break in the small waves before yelling to the driver to go ahead. The engines roars as the boat goes into full throttle, and the rope yanks me forward, pulling me under water for a few seconds before the ski lifts me above the surface. The boat picks up to what feels like blisteringly fast but is probably more like 25 miles an hour as my ski glides over the surface of the water and jumps over the wakes caused by the boat.  

Prompt 35

Just as I laid my head down on the pillow, I hear the commotion of teenage girls outside coming in the house. They go on for a bit making a ruckus, and I try to ignore it for a bit. After about twenty minutes of them being louder than normal I decide to go out and check on them and see what they’re up to. I step outside my room and see my sister and her friends at the bottom of the stair, three of them around one girl who is passed out on the floor. I can smell alcohol in the room and instantly know what’s going on. I sternly ask “What are you doing Megan? Have you been drinking?” All I get in response is silence, none of the girls willing to look up at me, nobody saying a word, all of them with the look of teenagers who know they’ve gotten themselves into trouble.

Prompt 34

Walking down the tiny back road I've grown up on surrounded by miles of woods and the calming sound of birds, squirrels, and a running stream, enclosed on all sides by nature, there's a sense of peace that couldn't be had anywhere else. The road goes on for what feels like forever, and it gets to be such rough terrain that I've never made it to the end of it. If you walk far enough you'll make it a series of small ponds, a couple of huge houses that I've never seen anyone drive to, and eventually all out wilderness.

Prompt 36

Driving up high street I see the familiar bustle of traffic that I’ve gotten to know so well, all following the same routine patterns. Driving past the stores, restaurants, and gas stations the traffic flows in the like usual, getting backed up in the same places as people slow down and change lanes to avoid the same potholes and rough patches, or creating traffic jams as groups of cars turn in popular businesses. The busy street that a lot of people see as chaotic and hectic looks to me like a smooth economical system. The constantly filled street that thousands of people commute through every day contrasts to the rest of the tiny boring city, standing as the only real bit of city life for miles.

Theme Week 7

My dad is quite a character if there ever was one. He’s a big, tough, intimidating guy, over six feet tall, and is a northern California sort of redneck. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of him is the stories he tells from when he was a young working as a logger in California. He tells one about being way out in the woods working when he slashed his leg up with a chainsaw. He says he had hike an hour out of the woods before he could take the two hours drive to the nearest hospital, which he says was no problem. After this heroic effort, as the story goes, he gets to the hospital after stopping for a bite to eat, and then faints as soon as the doctors try to stick a needle in, which is one of his biggest fears. To me that story shows how he can be the toughest person I know at the same time as being a gentle giant. He’s probably the only person I know that works more than myself, pushing 80 hours at a night job while still doing tons of work at home, even building our current house while keeping the same amount of hours at work. When he gets home from work he always stays up for at least an extra hour to cook breakfast for my little sister, and always finds time in his already packed schedule to do things like drive out to my grandmothers to mow her lawn, always helping whoever he can no matter how tired he might be.

Prompt 33

Nick is a the type of person that takes an interest in something and gets borderline obsessed with it. He'll throw endless amounts of time and money into whatever his latest thing is. When he was younger he decided he liked programming computers and pretty much made into a full time job just for the fun of it, staying up all night to tinker with codes and computer jargon. After he got a car he went from not being able to tell you what country Toyota was from to happily working on a car all day, spending all his free time watching top gear and reading about combustion engines and rare cars. That obsessive trait has taken him through all sorts of hobbies, from mountain biking to waterskiing to amassing a huge movie collection, almost to the point of making him a bit eccentric.

Prompt 31

Jesse was just about the funniest guy you could imagine. He was always a blast to work with, always making jokes, always in a good mood. He was a skinny dark haired kid, and a redneck through and through. He was big into conspiracy theories and wild stories, although you could never quite tell if he actually believed them or just got a kick out of them with the half sarcastic way he told them. He loved country music, guns, and Chevrolets, and always wore some camo. His quirkiness and upbeat personality made everyone around him a bit happier, even if they were having the worst day ever.

Prompt 32

The last person I’d want to have just a memory of is my girlfriend Briana. She’s a tiny blonde girl and she always has a pretty smile. She’s a fanatic about horses, and is studying to become an equine vet. She’s such a fan of horses that even after she was thrown off one and nearly killed she still loves to ride. She’s has an upbeat happy personality and is a girly girl, spending lots of money on make up and clothes. Sometimes she almost seems like she’s living in the wrong time period with her interests, she loves old classical books, especially Jane Austen type stuff. She likes classical music, and plays the piano. If she could, she’d ride a horse everywhere instead of driving a car. She’s a grade A student, the type of person who’s never missed an assignment in their life, basically the opposite of me in that respect. She speaks french, likes fancy foods, and has been a vegetarian her entire life. All her traits combine into a sort of eclectic personality that you can’t help but like.

Prompt 29

The first winter I ever spent in Maine was when I was ten years old. My family had moved from Arizona to be closer to some of the family members on my moms side, and it was quite the change. I’d been around snow up in Flagstaff, but snow in a half foot of snow in a high elevation area in Arizona is quite a bit different than a full on winter in Maine. The first big snow storm was mind boggling to me. We were living in a small house that my parents were renting while they built their house, and the snow was right up to the bottom of the windows on our house. The drifts were huge, about half the size that I was at the time, and it was magical to me. I couldn't believe that so much snow could fall overnight, and that the entire world outside the house would be coated in house. The difference between the tiny bit of snow in Arizona in the just under freezing weather was night and day compared to the biting cold of Maine and the mountains of snow covering everything as far as the I could see.

Theme Week 6

One of my favorite places to be in the summer down at the lake by my house. I love the walk down to the lake through the narrow, winding path in the woods by our house, along the stone pathway surrounded by low hanging trees and mossy woods. Once you get down to the dock you get a beautiful view of green lake from the ancient wooden docks that look about a thousand years old. The shallow parts of the docks are surrounded by huge boulders sitting in the lake which are always surrounded by fish, and the lake is crystal clear so that even at the deepest part off the dock you can see everything, straight down about fifteen or twenty feet. The air always smells clean, the sound of the waves pushing the docks up and down is relaxing, and on a nice sunny day it’s just about the best place in the world.

Prompt 27

My bedroom is about the safest place in the world to me. Its a small and narrow room with wooden floors and an angled ceiling. There's a bed at one end of the room with a TV stand a few feet from the end of the bed. On the stand sits a black TV, an Xbox, a record that I love and a stack of Calvin and Hobbes books. Adjacent to the bed is a cheap Walmart desk where the laptop I barely use sits, along with a row of CD's. On the opposite wall stands a big wooden bookshelf filled the an embarrassingly big movie collection. There's a small set of weights next to this, and an unused coffee table with a cribbage board drilled into it next to that.

Prompt 26

The other day, I stopped in to my old high school to drop something off for my little sister. I haven't been there in almost three years, and it certainly felt different then I remembered. The wide sloped walkway up to the school was the same as I remembered, as were the double two sets of glass double doors at the entrance of the school. I went to open the doors and found the were locked, which seemed a little strange. I noticed a little black speaker box next to the doors with a button on it. I pressed the button and a voice crackled over the speaker telling me to come on in, and the doors clicked as they came unlocked. I stepped inside the school to see that the old statue in the in the center of the big entrance hall was gone, leaving the place looking much more open and roomy. The shiny linoleum floors looked just the same as they used to, and the rows of flags from all the countries of foreign exchange students still hung from the high ceilings just like they did years ago. The wide stairwell leading up to the second floor didn't look quite as big as it used to, and neither did the big hallway leading towards the auditorium where I used to eat lunch. I went from the entrance of the school to the main office, where I spent a little too much of my high school career. The office has a long wooden desk at your left when you walk in, accompanied by a long row of wooden chairs to your right, all looking just as uncomfortable as I remembered, featuring the minimal amount of padding. Behind the front desk sat two cluttered work areas where the two school secretaries worked, with their desks covered in mountains of paper and an iMac sitting on each. Beyond this cluster laid the formerly intimidating offices of various school faculty members. The atmosphere the room was significantly different from whenever I spent time there in high school, which was usually when I had to check in after arriving late and had to face the glares of the staff. Now it was much friendlier, with everyone in the room smiling, giving the room a friendly feeling.

Week 5 Theme

Before my family moved to Maine when I was ten years old, we lived out in Arizona on the other side of the country. Although my memory isn't quite perfect since I was about 8 years old when this happened, I watched a hilarious yet sad spectacle of people trying to be the hero in their truck.

My family loves spending their spare time relaxing at a lake, cruising around in our ancient boat, swimming, tubing, stuff like that. Every chance we had we would make the trip out to one of the few lakes in the state for a weekend in our RV. On this particular weekend we were parked right next to the boat landing, which is a huge cement ramp into the water about 30 feet wide so plenty of people can use it at the same time. As me and my family were hanging out around our little campground we watched a couple that were having trouble getting their boat out of the water. The ramp was covered in algae and was extremely slippery. The guy had made the mistake of letting the front wheels on his truck get below the waterline, and probably didn't have four wheel drive, so as soon as he let off the brake he slid about five feet back into the lake. When he started to accelerate, the truck slid even further, pushing the boat back into the lake and off its trailer. The water was almost up to the windows, so the guy them down a bit and asked someone else on the ramp for some help to avoid opening his door. Another truck kindly lined up to pull him out, but as soon as he started to pull the first truck slid even further back and pulled the second truck into the water after him. The first truck was essentially sunk at this point, so the driver opened the door and hopped out, flooding the inside of his truck.

We watched this all unfold in the scorching sun as a people continued to think that their truck had enough power to pull the previous attempts our of the lake, and within the next two hours there was 5 trucks in the lake with a small crowd watching the scene. My family had stadium seats to the show, but eventually people realized that the problem wasn't going to be solved continuing to sink trucks. Eventually someone called a towing company who came and used a longer tow rope to avoid the slippery ramp to finally fetch all the trucks out of the lake one at a time, after a several hour ordeal. Presumably all of the trucks were toast, as they all had to be hauled away on a trailer afterward.

Prompt 20

A few years ago, a friend of mine named Caleb needed to change the struts on his subaru forester. My dad had tons of tools so I offered to help him change them. We were both pretty young and neither of us had ever really worked on cars before, but I knew the basic idea behind what we needed to do. Changing a set of struts is fairly simply. You jack the car up, remove the tire, remove the coil assembly that contains the strut, take the strut out of the coil, put the new one in and put the whole thing back together. We had all the right tools to do the job so we figured not too much could really go wrong, which turned out to be a bad assumption.

We started the job early in the morning on a nice summer day. We were working out of his garage, and quickly raised up his car and removed the front driver side tire, which was the last part of this job that went smoothly. We started to remove the bolts that held the strut assembly in place, and found that they were fused from rust. We sprayed all the bolts with WD40 hoping to loosen them, and set to work with a pair of breaker bars trying to remove them. Trying to get this strut assembly turned out to be just about impossible. I've done this same job several times and never had a problem with it on another car, but this forester put up a huge fight. For every bolt we had to use two breaker bars pulling in opposite direction to loosen them. For most of them one of us had to pull up on one bar while the other had to jump up and down on the other one trying to create enough torque to get the bolts loose. Each of the bolts took us at least half an hour to remove. By the time we got to the last bolt we were totally exhausted. We had put so much effort into each bolt that both of our hands were covered in bruises. It was starting to get dark out but we were determined to at least finish the front pair of struts. Unfortunately, the car was determined to win this battle. We tried everything to remove that last bolt, from butane torches to torque wrenches, but simply could not do it. When it was getting close to midnight we finally gave up and decided to try it again a different day. We fought with his car for over sixteen hours and the car won.

Prompt 22

About two years ago when I had first become a manager at my work, we hired a young guy named Jeff. We hired him to do work closes and he started right off working on nights. He was extremely quiet, barely saying a word throughout any of his shifts, but was a good worker and seemed like a nice guy. One night after he’d worked there for about a week we had one of the first big snowfalls of the year. He was out at midnight and I was closing, so I told him if he was willing to wait around an hour I could give him a ride home so he wouldn't have to walk through the snow. He quietly declined and said he didn't live far and liked walking home.

After I got out of work that night I was hanging out at the gas station in town for a bit, chatting with the people that work there like I usually did after work most nights. Around one thirty Jeff walked by the station while we were standing around outside, looking pretty darn cold wearing a thin hoody.

“Hey Jeff, what’s going on?” I asked as he walked past.

“Not much man, heading down to Denny’s for the night”

“For the night?”

“Yeah, the homeless shelter doesn't let anyone in this late at night so I have to wait around till morning to get in.”

“Oh that sucks dude. Well you look cold, you want a jacket?”

“Uh I wouldn't mind I guess, do you have an extra one I could borrow?”

“I just have this one with me, I don’t need it though, you can keep it man.”

“You sure?”

“Of course. Here you go”

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

I offered him a ride down to Denny’s but he declined again, saying he liked walking. After he walked away I headed home for the night. Over the next couple of week I brought Jeff a couple of blankets and extra jackets so he could keep warm. It turns out he had come to Maine with absolutely nothing, but the clothes he was wearing and knew nobody here. We helped him get on his feet and in return he was a hard worker. About two weeks after I found out about how hard on his luck he was while I was working another night shift, one of the really young kids that works with me asks to talk to me off the floor. We walk out to the back area of the store to talk.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“I found a bottle of alcohol in one of the lockers while I was putting my stuff away.. I figured you should know about it.”

“Oh which locker is it in?’

“This locker right here”

I opened the locker to find a bottle of alcohol. I was still pretty new to this and had no idea what to do in this situation. Clearly it’s unacceptable to bring something like this into our restaurant where we have kids as young as fourteen working. I was the person in charge of the store for the night so there was no one more experienced to turn to, so I brought the bottle into our office and called my boss. She didn't pick up so I called our district manager Tom, the guy in charge of the five stores in our franchise. I asked him what to do in this situation and he said to dump the bottle out and throw it away, and to pull a video clip watching the lockers for the whole day and to go through them to find out who it belonged to. After I found out who it was, I would have to sit them down, fire them, and ask them to leave. I’d never fired a person before, so this was a scary prospect. I had no idea how someone would react to that, especially getting fired by an eighteen year old kid. After about twenty minutes of watching video clips, Jeff stepped into the office to talk to me.

“Hey Nick.. has anyone found a bottle in the lockers?

“Uh yes. Do you know anything about it?”

“It’s mine. Do you have it?”

“I had to throw it out. You know you absolutely can’t bring things like that into the restaurant right?”

“Yeah I know I just don’t have anywhere to keep it man, I don’t have a house or anything”

“I realize that but it’s unacceptable. I hate to do this to you but I have to ask you to leave.”

“Like for the night? or like for good?”

“For good. I wish I could do this differently but I don’t have a choice. I’m sorry man”

The guy looked about as heartbroken as anyone I've ever seen. He teared up a little so I let him leave out the back door so he wouldn't have to walk by all his coworkers on his way out, but I don’t think I've ever had a harder time doing something than that. I will always remember the broken look in his eyes when I told him he was out of a job.

Prompt 17

I went into the office at my work to start doing the final cash out for the night, and I open the safe to see five deposits bags sitting in front of me that had clearly been forgotten by the day manager. Our insurance policy only covers a single deposit and a limited amount, so I knew they’d have to go to the bank at the end of the night. There’s a rule against bringing deposits to the bank after dark at my work, and unfortunately we’re only allowed to do it if we can arrange a police escort to accompany us to the bank. I gave dispatch a call, who happily agreed to have an officer come by when I got done work and follow me to the bank.

I stepped outside as officer Owens pulled up to the store carrying my plastic bag stuffed with twenty thousand dollars worth of deposits. I walked to the police cruiser and Owens rolled down his window (We know each other fairly well since we both work nights in the most boring town ever.) 

“How’s it going Owens,” I said.

“Pretty good. Which bank are we heading to”

“The one up by the gas station. You’re just gonna follow right?”

“Yup, let’s get headed”

I reached into my pocket for my keys and found the worst thing imaginable, empty pockets. I checked my other pocket and found nothing there, and started to realize how bad of a time it was to lose my keys. The key ring I use had my car keys, the keys to the deposit box at the bank, and the keys to get back into the store after it was locked for the night, which it was. I turned back to face Owens cruiser. “Shit, you’re not gonna believe what I just did.”

“Uh oh.”

“Yeah my keys are locked in there. And the key to the depository is on the same ring”

“Oh shit. Well that’s a problem”

“Uh huh, I’m gonna have to wake one of the other managers up and get a store key, there’s no other way to get into the store and I can’t really wait around with this much cash until the openers show up”

“Well start calling I guess”

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and started calling everybody that had a key to get into the store. I called both of the morning managers and left them both texts and then started calling the higher ups in the store (I was a pretty new to management at this point in time,) fearing the response I would get when I woke one of them up at two in the morning to tell them I’m locked out of the store trying to bring money to the bank. After fifteen or twenty frantic minutes and about fifty phone calls, I finally got a call back from Dan, one of the morning managers. “Hey Dan, sorry to call in the middle of the night, but I need some help.”

“That’s alright, what’s up”

“Well this is gonna sound really dumb but I was trying to bring some deposits after I closed and I lost my keys in the store. I need someone to unlock the door for me, I have like five deposits here.”

“Oh wow. I’ll be down there in a few minutes for you, I live pretty close.”

I told Owens that someone was on there way to open the doors, and we waited patiently for Dan to arrive and save the day. In the two years since this I don’t think I've lost my keys even once, or even let them out of my sight.

Theme Week 4

Version 1

Last winter I was working late nights at my work, usually getting done around one thirty or two. As anyone who's worked shifts like this can tell, they usually lead you to some kind of trouble. The town I work in is just about empty at night, with the only cars passing through the main road and all the side streets completely quiet. So every night after me and my coworkers got out of work, we spend hours upon hours stupidly driving around in the snow, doing donuts in parking lots and handbrake sliding around corners. One of the best spots is the empty lot behind the strip mall nearby. It consisted of a wide open S shaped stretch about 75 feet long that opened up to a huge empty lot occupied only by two light poles spaced around twenty feet apart. It’s a blast to drive around in, with all level surfaces and tons of empty space so even if you make a mistake just about nothing can go wrong.

One snowy night I was scheduled out a little earlier than usual, and left the store around ten. I cruised around the town a little then headed to the strip mall around eleven. Once I hit the curved stretch heading out to the open lot, I put my toyota corolla in a low gear and pushed the throttle on the little 1.8 liter, 125 horsepower engine. I handbraked into the corners to throw the back end out, using as much throttle as I could without completely spinning the studded tires to straighten out on the exit. I got out to the opening and saw a small truck parked by the building, but didn't think much of it since the last time I came out there and saw another person, they started drifting around with me. I did a few lazy circles around the light poles, keeping a pretty safe distance before truck started up and headed towards me. I figured worst case scenario I would be asked to leave, which I’d happily do of course, as I was stupidly breaking the law on someone else’s property. Once the truck reached me, I read the “maine coast property management” sticker on the side and knew I was gonna be kicked out. The truck parked and out hopped the most furious old man I've ever seen. My window was already rolled down so I started to apologize, as I was clearly in the wrong here. Before I could get a word out the man started screaming, “Get off this property, right now dammit. Get the hell out of here!” The guy started smashing the hood of my car with a cheap plastic flashlight, so I figured it was best to just get out of there. I drove away as he hit the roof of my car a few times, left the lot and headed home, about as freaked out as could be by his reactions.

Version 2

Last winter I was working late nights at my work, usually getting done around one thirty or two. As anyone who's worked shifts like this can tell, they usually lead you to some kind of trouble. The town I work in is just about empty at night, with the only cars passing through the main road and all the side streets completely quiet. So every night after me and my coworkers got out of work, we spend hours upon hours driving around in the snow, doing donuts in parking lots and handbrake sliding around every corner. One of the best spots is the empty lot behind the strip mall nearby. It consisted of a narrow S shaped stretch about 75 feet long that opened up to a huge empty lot occupied only by a few light poles spaced a decent distance apart. It’s a blast to drive around in, with all level surfaces and a good amount of empty space making fairly safe.

One snowy night I was scheduled out a little earlier than usual, and left the store around ten. I cruised around the town a little then headed to the strip mall around eleven. Once I hit the curved stretch heading out to the open lot, I put my toyota corolla in a low gear and pushed the throttle on the punchy 4 cylinder engine. I handbraked into the corners at around 50 miles an hour to throw the back end out, holding the throttle on the floor and scraping the studded tires through the ice with the engine bouncing off the rev limiter to pull out of the corners quick. I got out to the opening and saw a small truck parked by the building, but didn't think much of it since the last time I came out there and saw another person, they started drifting around with me. I did a few dozen circles around the light poles with the nose of the car about two feet away from the cement base of the lights before truck started up and headed towards me. I figured worst case scenario I would be asked to leave, which I’d happily do of course, as I was stupidly breaking the law on someone else’s property. Once the truck reached me, I read the “maine coast property management” sticker on the side and knew I was gonna be kicked out. The truck parked and out hopped the most furious man I've ever seen. My window was already rolled down so I started to apologize, as I was clearly in the wrong here. Before I could get a word out the intimidating looking guy started screaming, “Get off this property, right now dammit. Get the hell out of here!” The guy started smashing the hood of my car with a hefty metal maglite, so I figured it was best to just get out of there. I drove away as he hit the roof of my car a few times, left the lot and headed home, about as freaked out as could be by his reactions.

Version 3

Last winter I was working late nights at my work, usually getting done around one thirty or two. As anyone who's worked shifts like this can tell, they usually lead you to some kind of trouble. The town I work in is just about empty at night, with the only cars passing through the main road and all the side streets completely quiet. So every night after me and my coworkers got out of work, we spend hours upon hours driving around in the snow, doing donuts in parking lots and handbrake sliding around every corner. One of the best spots is the empty lot behind the strip mall nearby. It consisted of a tricky S shaped stretch about 75 feet long that opened up to a huge empty lot occupied only by a few dozen light poles grouped fairly close together, making a little tricky but very fun to drive in.

One snowy night I was scheduled out a little earlier than usual, and left the store around ten. I cruised around the town a little then headed to the strip mall around eleven. Once I hit the curved stretch heading out to the open lot, I put my toyota supra in second gear and pushed the throttle on the twin turbo, 280 horsepower engine. I slid into the corners at around 70 miles an hour with the back end sliding around, holding the throttle on the floor and spinning the slick tires through the ice with the turbos forcing tons of power into the engine and exiting the corners sideways. I got out to the opening and saw a small truck parked by the building, but didn't think much of it since the last time I came out there and saw another person, they started drifting around with me. I did a few dozen circles through the narrow gaps between the light poles with the nose of the car sliding inches away from the cement base of the lights before truck started up and charged towards me. I figured worst case scenario I would be asked to leave, which I’d happily do of course, as I was stupidly breaking the law on someone else’s property. Once the truck reached me, I read the “maine coast security services” sticker on the side and knew I was gonna be kicked out. The truck parked and out hopped the most furious man I've ever seen, wielding a baseball bat. My window was already rolled down so I started to apologize, as I was clearly in the wrong here. Before I could get a word out the huge security guard started screaming, “Get off this property, right now dammit. Get the hell out of here!” The guy started smashing the hood of my car with the bat, so I figured it was best to just get out of there. I drove away as he hit the roof of my car a few times, left the lot and headed home, scared for my life.