The Post Office
By Garett Ng
The
cold, brisk winter air pierced Rob’s face as he ran desperately to his
destination. The melting dirty show grabbed at his boots as he used every last
once of energy to make it on time. Rob checked his watch.
He could see the doors of the building. I’m going to make it, I’m going to make it, he thought. A man in a blue jumpsuit emerged from the building. He saw Rob and noticed that he was approaching. Rob and the man made eye contact, and the man began to quicken his speed. He was closing the doors. Anger fueled Rob’s blood as the man’s insincerity made him livid. He ran up the steps and brushed past the security guard just as he locked the doors.
I made it, Rob thought. I’m in the post office. He walked up to the counter. An older woman who looked like she’d seen it all stared back at him.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I’m expecting my paycheck and some other important pieces of documents here,” Rob replied. He handed her a packing slip and she disappeared into the back room.
The man in the blue suit walked by Rob. “Kid, you should be on the track team,” he told him. Still infuriated at the man’s attempt to close the door, Rob stared him down. The clerk reappeared.
“Sorry, we don’t have it.”
Rob stared straight back at her as though she had told him his dog died. “What do you want mean you don’t have it?”
“We don’t have it. Period. It’s not in the back.”
“What? It should be there. It has to be there.”
“Well, sir, it’s not there.”
Rob looked around searching for some way, some solution to the problem. “Did you really look? Did you check everything?”
“Are you accusing me of not doing my job?”
“It’s just that it’s my paycheck. If I don’t have it, I can’t pay my rent. If I can’t pay my rent, then I get kicked out of my place. If I get evicted, my girl-“
“Suck it up man.” It was a teenage punk waiting in line. “Step aside for the rest of us.”
I turned to him and said, “Shut up!!!”
“Sir, I don’t like the tone of your voice. You’re going to need to calm down.” It was the clerk.
I turned back to her and said, “I want my paycheck and I’m not going to leave without it.”