The workdays took their toll on Alice both physically and mentally, this job was

taking a lot more out of her than she anticipated. She still thoroughly enjoyed it though;

this fresh start was exactly everything she had hoped it would be.

“Today is my first weekend off. My work schedule is 7am to 7pm. 2 days on, 2 off

then 3 days on and 3 days off. I also get alternating 3-day weekends! Work has been

good; Alex just has me working on pallets right now, but he said I should start training

on the forklifts in a week or 2. Everyone I’m working with is super nice and helps me

whenever I ask. The only downside is I’m a lot younger than all my co-workers, so I’m

not exactly making any friends to spend my time off with. I called my Mom to tell her

about work, but all she kept saying was that I should quit and just spend my time relaxing

until it’s time for me to come home”

Alice’s writing was interrupted by the sound of her doorbell. She set her pen

down and got up from her desk, she wasn’t expecting anyone and she hadn’t ordered food

or anything. Alice walked over to her walk-in closet and opened its eggshell white door,

then turned the light on. She reached above where her clothes hung, mostly t-shirts and

jeans. She wasn’t big on dresses and only owned a couple of them.

Alice pulled down a small carbon fiber case and took it with her out of the closet.

The doorbell rang again and she shouted, “I’ll be with you in just a second!” She then sat

the carbon fiber case on her nightstand next to her bed and opened it up. Inside was a

loaded Colt .45 handgun with a case of ammo, the sunlight reflected off of the silver

barrel of the gun that looked freshly cleaned and oiled. She took the Colt, checking the

safety and ensuring it was loaded, then tucked it in the back of her jeans. She then made

her way to the door, slightly nervous. After the ‘incident’ Alice hadn’t been a huge fan of

being in a scenario where it’s just her with someone one-on-one. Especially a stranger

who shows up to her house unprompted first thing in the morning.

Alice looked out her door and saw a man in a black hoodie with a beanie, red

sunglasses and a blue medical mask over his face. Her heart began to race, she knew that

in this past year that wearing a facemask had become pretty ordinary, but this man was

clearly trying to hide his appearance. She took her gun out of her pocket and pointed it at

the door then shouted, startling the man who was looking at the ground, “Can I help you?

Because no offense you look like you’re here to rob me!”

The man held up a letter, let out a slightly awkward laugh and said “Sorry, I swear

I’m not here to rob you. I work at the Wilson warehouse and I’m looking for someone

else who works there too by the name of Alice...”

Alice wasn’t exactly convinced that this weird stranger could be trusted he did

sound kind of young though, she pressed him further “That’s me. What do you want

because I don’t recognize you.”

“I work night shift; they sent me to drop off your pay for the week. Alex said

something about your direct deposit not being setup yet, so they told me to bring you this

check.” The man held up an envelope to the peep hole.

Alice thought to herself ‘Shoot! That’s right, I was supposed to grab it before I left yesterday, but I was so tired after work

that I forgot.’

“Would you mind opening the door because I was given specific directions to

make sure that I saw you take this envelope, so I can’t exactly leave it here.” The man

continued speaking to the door, he was clearly just as uncomfortable as Alice was at this

whole situation. Alice kept her gun out and unlatched the door, then opened it up.

The man held out the envelope for her to grab, he sounded young, but he was a

good size taller than her. He was probably close to 6-foot maybe even a little taller, Alice

stood about 5 feet 7 inches. She took the envelope and opened it, revealing that the check

was indeed what this guy was delivering her. “Um were you going to shoot me?” The

man said this with a mix of sarcasm and concern in his voice.

Alice looked at him and rolled her eyes, then tucked the gun back into her waist.

“Almost, but what do you expect when you show up to a strangers house dressed like

that?” She motioned to the man’s entire ensemble.

He let out that same awkward laugh and said, “I guess you’re right, have a good

day miss...”

“Alice, just call me Alice.” She said and started to close the door. The man

nodded and then took his leave.

Alice returned her handgun to its case but left it on the nightstand instead of

placing it back inside of the closet. If anything, keeping it next to her bed was smarter

because it was much easier to access and it took a lot less time. Which is important in

times of emergency. She sat back at her desk with her paycheck in hand, she looked at it

and deposited it online using her phone. Weekly she was making a little over 900$ after

taxes, all in all her expenses weren’t anything too crazy so she had a good amount of

money that she was going to be able to play with, especially since her mom insisted on

paying for her house with her hedge fund. All she had to worry about was her car

insurance, electricity, internet, food, and gas (which was continuing to climb even

higher).

It felt nice to be earning this money herself, it gave her a sense of

accomplishment. She earned this and no one could take that fact away from her. But even

though she had all this money to spend, there weren’t a lot of places that she could go to

spend it. Heart wasn’t exactly big on its nightlife. There were a couple bars but that was

pretty much it. But she wasn’t big on drinking, even at parties in High School. Alice

looked back at her notebook and picked back up her pen.

“Alright so where was I before I was so rudely interrupted? That’s right! The fact

that my mom still doesn’t realize that I won’t EVER be returning to that awful town she

continues to call ‘home’. Even after it took so much from me. My Dad------.”

She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. All that therapy and it still felt

impossible to talk about, like the pain was still so fresh despite it being a little over a year

now.

“I’m going to move onto less gloomy topics and the more pressing issue. What

should I be spending my free time doing? I’m going to have all this disposable income

and I can only watch so much Netflix before I become melted into my couch. I’m in the

outdoors, so let’s start there. Camping is off the table, going alone in the middle of the

woods is a definite no-go. I had fun when my dad would take me shooting, I could get

some more guns and I’m sure there are plenty of places for me to go shooting around

here. OH! What about a dirt bike?! Or a buggy! I always wanted one, but mom always

said they were too dangerous. I think I now know how I’m going to be spending my days

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

off!”

Alice’s frown was turned upside down, she effectively distracted herself.

She spent the rest of her day binge watching the new season of ‘You’ while

looking at dirt bikes and other off-roading vehicles on her phone. Halfway through the

day she decided that a run would be nice, so she ran about a mile total circling her

neighborhood. When night hit, she was still pretty exhausted from her work week. It was

definitely going to take some more adjustment time for her to not get so drained. Alex

hoped that when she started working on the forklifts that it would help ease the physical

strain because she wouldn’t be spending so much time on her feet or lifting boxes.

The weekend ended all too fast and it was time to go to work again, though she

had the money to go buy a dirt bike she found that she liked, Alice would’ve needed to

dip into her family money in order to buy it. But she wanted to buy it with the money that

she earned herself, so it would have to wait. As she drove to work down the same route,

she passed a lone hiker once again. This time she recognized the clothing he was

wearing. It was the guy who dropped off her check, he wore the same black hoodie and

beanie but no sunglasses or mask this time. She zipped by him, not able to get a good

look at his face. “What a coincidence. Does that guy not have a car?” she said to herself

as she watched him disappear around a tree in her rearview mirror.

Alice parked in what had become her usual spot, right next to the same truck

which had turned out to be Alex’s. Alice got out and went into the building and then into

the locker room where Meredith was stashing her bag into her own locker. “Good

morning, sweetie-pie. How was your weekend?” Meredith said this with that same caring

look that was always on her face, Alice had found out that Meredith had 4 children and

all of them were daughters. Which had turned her into quite the mama bear, even though

Alex was the one training Alice, it was Meredith who had been looking out for her this

past week and was even bringing her a sandwich every day for lunch.

“My weekend was nice and uneventful, what about yourself?” Alice courteously

asked.

“My youngest, Julie, got home this weekend from soccer camp. So, we had a

welcome home party on Saturday and then I spent all of Sunday cleaning up the

wreckage from that special welcome home party. Let me tell you that when you have

your own family one day, make sure you find yourself a man who can actually help clean

and doesn’t just sweep stuff under the couch. It’ll save you a lot of headaches!” Meredith

laughed as she jokingly poked fun at her husband, you could tell that she loved her

husband very much despite whatever his flaws were.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Merry.” Alice laughed with Meredith as she placed her

backpack inside her locker. Then the 2 made their way out to the main floor where

everyone was gathered for the morning meeting. Alex was stood in the middle directing

everyone to their positions for the day until it was just him and Alice left. “Once again

Alice, you’re with me. If that’s alright with you?” He said to her and she shyly chuckled

and said to him, “That sounds good to me, sir.”

Alex began to walk to the aisles where the 2 of them would spend the day

stacking pallets, with Alex occasionally leaving to handle more supervisory roles because

he was Day sift manager first and Alice’s trainer second. As the 2 worked on the first

pallet of the day Alex struck up a conversation, Alice had come to understand that her

boss was quite the chatter box. “You know you can just call me Alex, by the way.”

“What?” Alice asked as she finished placing a sizable box at the base of the pallet

and looked up at her boss.

“Earlier you called me sir, there’s no need to be so formal around here. Everyone

calls me Alex.” Alex said as the 2 continued stacking the pallet.

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind si-... I mean Alex. Sorry, this is my first real job and

I’m still kinda figuring out like professional etiquette and I figured it’s better to be too

formal rather than not enough.” Alice said to him.

“That’s smart, I’d probably keep that mentality. But the only people here that you

need to call sir are the floor boss and the owner. Although you probably won’t have much

contact with either of them unless you move up to a manager position or mess up pretty

bad.”

“Good to know, how bad is pretty bad and have you ever had anyone mess up that

bad since you’ve been here?” Alice’s interest was piqued.

“Yeah, but only a few times in my decade plus of working here. I mean I really

shouldn’t spread any rumors though.” Alex said, clearly indicating from his tone that he

wanted Alice to keep asking for details.

“Wow, so you’re just going to leave me hanging like that, did it happen that

recently?”

“Actually yeah, not long before you started working here in fact. Probably a

month ago now.” Alex said, looking up as if trying to picture the events that unfolded.

Which made Alice even more curious. The 2 finished stacking and wrapping the pallet,

one of the drivers came and picked it up as the pair moved onto the next one. They

resumed their conversation as they started to work again.

“Well, are you gonna tell me more?” Alice asked Alex again.

Alex continued picturing the story as he told it to Alice, “We had one employee

that showed up reeking of liquor a couple of times. But it wasn’t affecting his

productivity at work and he always showed up on time, so everyone just let him be.”

Alice interrupted him “So it was a guy, have I met him yet?”

“I don’t think so, he works on night shift.”

“Was it the one eye guy that Meredith said was trouble?” Alice was beginning to

put the pieces together and all in all she hoped that she wouldn’t meet this guy if

Meredith said he was trouble.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that.... yes, but you didn’t hear that from me. Now

the drinking wasn’t the problem, it’s well known that all that guy does outside of work is

live at the bar in town, there and the liquor store are the only times people see him out

and about. He keeps to himself; I feel kind of bad for him because ever since he got here,

he’s been a bit of an outcast.” Alice could tell that on some level Alex did feel bad for the

guy, even though Alex was a bit odd himself he was a very caring individual.

“Why do you say that?” Alice asked about the mysterious one-eye who was

starting to sound like a local myth at this point.

“Well the first month he moved here about a year ago, he was having a drink at

the other bar in town, the one where all the local law, lumberjacks, and miners hang their

hats. Then from what I hear, someone started to poke fun at his appearance and taunted

him. Then he went berserk and it turned into an all-out brawl. Him against the townsfolk

and he dealt quite a bit of damage before he was brought down.” Alex spun this tale that

sounded all too familiar to her, a town turning on one of its own. “The only reason he

wasn’t locked up was because he was beat near death in one of the polices stations cells

that night. That’s beside the point, there was a rumor that he was sleeping with the wife

of one of the workers here and when confronted by the husband, good ol’ one-eye beat

him up pretty bad.”

“That’s why the big bosses called a meeting with him?” Alex had all but stopped

making the pallet and was fully enveloped in this local tale.

“Yeah, they wanted to be sure that there would be no more problems and since

then there hasn’t.” With that being the end of the story, Alex and Alice resumed making

the pallet. The day started to blur together as they found their rhythm in their work. As

they worked, Alex would start the occasional conversation and little by little getting to

know more about Alice. There were some things she wouldn’t talk about though and

would immediately change the conversation. Mainly anything family related, Alice

refused to open up and say anything about them.

It was noon and time for everyone to start rotating taking their lunch breaks, Alice

was first to go since she was the newest and that was their little tradition. Alice went to

the break room and got her lunchbox from her locker. Inside was a prepackaged chicken

salad, a banana, a bottle of water, and the sandwich Meredith had given her. She never

needed long to eat and was back out in less than 15 minutes, while she ate, she watched

various YouTube videos on her phone.

The day came to a close, nothing crazy. Just a normal and uneventful day, which

was exactly the kind of life she wanted to be living. A steady job in a small town,

surrounded by friendly faces where she could just be another one of those friendly faces

in the crowd. No more spotlight, Alice just wanted to be normal.