Lucid Waking

Another Work Day

        Three o’clock: the end of the shift. Marianne finished wiping down the counter and then wiped her brow. The heat had gotten to her a while ago. She undid her apron and placed it on the hook near the back door. She stepped out to the main dining area where some of her co-workers were ringing up orders and grilling food. The radio crackled with static, a few random beats piercing the white noise. Then there would be moments of clarity and rock and roll music before the radio would lose the signal again. The room was sparsely populated, but a crying toddler made up for the lack of noise from the other patrons.
        “See ya, Marie,” her fellow co-worker yelled from the grill behind the counter.
        “See y’all tomorrow,” she answered, waving.
        The parking lot was full of cars. Heat swam up from the pavement and the sun sparkled from windshields and iridescent paint. Without sunglasses, finding her car was slightly difficult, but she found it in no time and swiftly inserted the key into the lock. Heat rolled out of her car once she opened the door and she stood for a few moments with the door open in hopes that the car would cool. Not wanting to wait longer, she sat down and perched herself on the seat so that her bare skin did not touch the leather seats. After rolling down the windows and putting on the radio, she was out of the parking lot and on the street. Her car cooled down, she stopped sweating profusely, and her fatigue was almost gone as she sang out to the songs on the radio while she drove.
        She pulled into the driveway of the house that she co-rented with a large sigh. Her body ached and her eyelids sunk, but she managed to get herself into the house before collapsing onto the floor. Working with very little sleep was taking its toll and it was when she was alone that she felt the hopelessness of her situation. She heard one of her house mates exit the bathroom and she found enough strength to get up and go to her room to start working on her homework.

Author’s comments on post 382: Practice with description. This was based on a scene in great fast food place where I ate today. Nothing else to it.

Just to recap: Busy week; I’ll try to post. I’ve only got 23 more days left, but what a busy 23 days they will be! If you want to read "To Look for America" click here; the story will resume when I have new ideas.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Fiction Prose, Realistic Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.