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Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Lacking the last word

I can describe the setting - I was there - didn't want to be there, but there nonetheless.  As it turned out, I was actually thankful I was there
.

It was a normal day.  I had gone to school and come to work for the evening.  My first job that evening at the little mom and pop grocery store was to stack the 1 lb. blocks of butter in the corner of the freezer.  The freezer wasn't that big, probably 20 feet by 15 feet.  Sides of beef hung from the meat hooks that lined the length of it.  At the time four or five sides were hanging on the 8 hooks available.  Sundry other items were in the freezer also like frozen dinners and ice cream.

So, I was stacking...  Unexpectedly, the freezer door opened.  I heard someone say something outside the door.  Then, I saw the cashier from the front of the store being pushed into the freezer.  Also at her back was the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun.  As soon as the door shut, she put her forefinger to her lips to tell me not to make any noise.  The door opened again, then the butcher was shoved inside.  I knew there was one more person in the store, the head cashier.


About a minute later, he came stumbling in because they pushed him very hard with the barrel of the gun after pistol-whipping him.  We all heard something like an ice pick being put through the handle of the door so that we couldn't open it from the inside.  The cashier told us all that we were supposed to wait 10 minutes before trying to get out.  I guess, the thieves didn't trust us since they secured the door from the outside.

That was the second time I had feared for my life.  I don't think the thieves knew I was there since I had been working in the freezer, but I really thought that after they had pushed the head cashier into the vault, they would step in and mow us all down.  I experienced mortal fear at that moment.

A few times in my life I have been minding my own business, doing what I was supposed to be doing.  All of a sudden, I didn't want to be there, but I was nonetheless.  For the times that I now know what the ending of the situation was, I can say, as it has turned out, that I am glad I was there.


But, there are those times... the ones where I don't have the last word of how things will turn out... that make me uneasy...  I fear the outcome will not be what I want it to be...



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