Did life control fate, or was it the other way around?
It’s a question I never asked myself until my life changed that fateful, moonlit night. Did all my decisions add up to my fate, or did some unseen hand guide me to that alley and the stranger who would change my life forever?
“Grace! Snap out of it!”
I started back and blinked against the harsh, bland lighting that hung overhead. A middle-aged woman stood in front of my cash register, her hands on her ample hips and a scowl on her face. The name plate pinned over her left breast read Margaret. Such an innocent name for such a foul creature.
She shoved a hand in front of my face and snapped her fingers. “Snap out of it! Customers are waiting!”
I blinked, and the magic fell from my eyes. The dingy small market reemerged from the fogginess of my wandering mind. There was the deli with its grease of unknown age, the dairy with the broken lights inside the upright coolers, and the floors, unmopped for several days and long since showing their age, that I could place somewhere in the middle of the last century.
And then there was Margaret, my manager. Her sharp eyes sat behind a sharp, narrow nose. She wore her hair short against her head and was attired in the uniform of our store: a white shirt with blue jeans. The woman would have made a good linebacker if she hadn’t been tempted by power.
She now wielded that power over me as she stabbed a finger at the two customers waiting beside the belt. “Stop daydreaming and start ringing these customers up!”
I shot to attention and gave her a salute, much to the amusement of the customers. “Yes, ma’am!”
Margaret’s eyes threatened retribution, but it would have to wait. There were customers to be served, after all. She stormed off, and the first customer slipped up to me. She was an older woman with twinkling eyes.
“Caught with your mind elsewhere again, Grace?” she wondered as she pulled out a checkbook.
I sighed as I scanned her noodles and pasta. “I guess I haven’t been sleeping all that well.”
“You should take some of Grandpa’s cough medicine,” the man behind her chimed in.
The other customer shot him a look of warning. “That’s not done anymore, Todd, and you know it!”
A broad grin stretched his face. “Why not? It was good enough for my grandpa.”
“Your grandfather was the town drunk!”
“And lived to be ninety-seven.”
“That’ll be thirty-seven sixteen, Susan,” I told her.
Susan viciously assailed the check with sharp sweeps and ripped it out. “Don’t you go listening to him. What you need is a good man who’ll treat you right.”
I laughed as I tucked the check into the cash register drawer. “I don’t think I’ll be able to find one of those around here. They’re already taken.”
Todd tucked his thumbs underneath his suspenders and puffed out his chest. “I’m always available.”
Susan glared at him. “You’re sixty-eight, for goodness’ sake!”
He failed miserably at hiding his smile as he shrugged. “What’s a few decades?”
“Try four of them!” she snapped as she grabbed his hand and tugged him to the cash register. “Now pay for your things and stop your nonsense.”
“I was only trying to help,” he teased as he handed over some cash for his few items. He winked at me. “But if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Susan wagged her finger at him. “In the retirement home, harassing the women there.”
“I only have eyes for you and Grace,” he countered as he plucked his goods from the counter. “Goodnight, my darling Grace. I hope you don’t have too much longer left on your shift. We could make a late date, but I do have a bedtime to obey.”
I laughed. “I get off in a couple of hours.”
He sighed. “What a pity. We’ll have to schedule it for another time.”
“No, ‘we’ won’t,” Susan growled as she looped an arm through one of his and tugged on it. “Now come along before you embarrass yourself even more. Besides, you need to walk me home. There’s been a bunch of ruffians loitering outside the gate.”
“I will gladly be your knight,” Todd accepted as he bowed his head to her.
“I’ll take a shield if I have to,” she quipped as they walked through the doors.
“Take care of yourself, Grace!” Todd shouted over his shoulder.
I waved to him. “Bye, my dearest!”
“Don’t encourage him!”
Anything else was muffled by the closing of the sliding doors as they disappeared into the parking lot. I sighed and inspected the rest of the store. It was empty, and only the hum of the freezers disturbed the silence.
I rallied my spirits and lifted my chin. “Come on, Grace, you can do this. Just focus, and you can get through these last few hours.”
I felt like a child waiting on Christmas Eve for the clock to strike twelve. The clocks in the store finally struck eight, which was my hour of freedom. I counted my till and slipped into the break room. My purse lay tucked between the dirty microwave and a pile of upside-down plastic cups.
“Did you count your till, Grace?”
The voice made me gasp and spin around. Margaret stood there with her coat draped over one arm and a scowl on her face.
I clutched my hand over my beating heart and managed to catch my breath. “Of course I counted the till, and everything was fine just like the last thousand nights I’d done it.”
She lifted her sharp nose and looked down the bridge at me. “You don’t have to use that tongue with me, or I’ll tell Mr. Thompson about it. He doesn’t like the workers at his store to be impertinent.”
I snatched my purse and plastered a smile on my face as I looped the strap over my shoulder. “He doesn’t like his workers to earn overtime, either, so if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go home.”
I slipped past the fuming woman and down the aisle that met the front door. A woman about my age, but with a hundred pounds more weight, waddled through the sliding door.
“Hey, Grace!” the woman greeted me as she nodded in the direction I had come. “Is Aunt Margaret back there?”
“Yes, but she’s not happy,” I commented as I twisted around so I walked out the door backwards.
The woman’s face drooped. “Why’s that?”
“I’m still employed,” I quipped as I slipped outside.
The woman huffed and marched to the back room, where Margaret was getting her coat on. “Why haven’t you fired her yet, Aunt Margaret? You promised me that job months ago!”
“It’s not easy to fire someone when they don’t give you any reason,” Margaret retorted as she glared at where I’d gone. “But I’ll figure out some way to get her out.”
It turned out she didn’t need to lift a finger. I was the one with the fate-touched fingers, though I didn’t know it at the time as I hurried down the dark street. The small market was located on a street corner in a less fashionable part of town. Heavy, dull apartment buildings loomed on either side of the street, separated by litter-filled alleys and cracked roads. Every other streetlight worked, so that I felt like I was hopping from one star to another. Those twinkling majesties high overhead were blotted by the lights from the countless cloudy windows of those apartment buildings.
I lived in one of them, but a few blocks away. I had hardly gone half a block when my phone rang. A quick look at the screen made me smile, and I hugged the contraption to my ear. “Hi, Mom. What’s up?”
“I was just wondering if you were going to come visit this weekend. Your father’s about to explode waiting to show off his latest carving.”
I snorted. “It’s another bear, isn’t it?”
A sigh came from the other line. “I’m afraid so, but I must admit this one is very cute.”
“Well, I’ll be sure to come see you guys for a little while,” I promised as I continued on my way.
“Come for dinner. I still make enough for three people.”
My stomach growled at the idea of Mom’s homemade apple pie. “I’ll definitely be there.”
“Then we’ll see you Saturday. Behave until then.”
I grinned as I approached a crossroads. “I won’t make any promises. Bye, Mom.”
“Bye, Gracie.” Click.
I tucked my phone away and shook my head. “She’s too good at bribery.”
That’s when voices caught my attention. I reached the intersection and paused on the threshold of indecision. The voices came from my left. My home lay to my right. My tired feet told me to turn right. Besides, what business did I have
I heard the voices again. They were louder now. There was something threatening in the garbled words and tones.
I pressed my purse tight against my side and pursed my lips. “Damn it all.”
