Blip, blip, blip, bag of tomatoes, box of cereal, carton of sour cream. He stares blankly at the customer, smiles,

“Hello,welcometoMeijer’s.Howareyoudoingtoday?”

His eyes light up as the old haggard man pulls a 24 case of Corona up form the cart.

“”Corona! Good stuff! Only stuff I drink!”

Turning to his bagger:

“Gadget, get this guy a bottle opener will ya? He looks like he could use a beer.”

Laughing, his slight beer belly jiggles as his thick hands keep scanning the customers remaining items, never stopping, always moving, that’s the Meijer philosophy! His flirtatious nature seems to radiate throughout his entire body: through his hair, his pores, his very eyes. he is so sure that no one can tell, but they all know how badly he needs a drink. They whisper of how his hands shake after a few hours, how is breath has the sweet smell of lime on it, how his eyes become dilated at the very thought of alcohol. The best he can do at the moment is rest his tired feet and back up against the cool, gray, concrete pillars in the back of the store and share a smoke with Gadget, that girl who seems to understand his pain even though she is only 16, even though she is underage, even though people think she has lived a sheltered life. Gadget, that girl who knows how it is to be lost, how it feels to be found, how it is to be loved, and in love and share that love with someone else. As they pass the cigarette between their lips, smoke encircling them in a ring of lust, back and forth he speaks of his hopes and dream, of nuclear physics, chemistry, the history of the world as he knows it, all the while his mind floats on the sea of endless dreams back to the haggard old man with his case of Corona, wishing to have a taste of it’s sweet, succulent, poison. She knows this and tries to win him back over to the side of light, to the side where there is love, back to the side of life, but nothing is working. She leans in, listening to his heartbeat through his words, his breath, his soul; she kisses him, and he her. They stand alone for a moment in time, alone and together are all the same, and suddenly he couldn’t remember the alcohol at all.