Page 5 of Shattered

Sara

“Are you almost ready, dear?” Gram yells from the bottom of the stairs.Rushing around and getting ready for my job at the bookstore is a normal occurrence for me.Since I don’t have enough money saved for my own car yet, I have to rely on my grandmother for rides to and from work. I hate putting her out like this, but I don’t have another choice right now.When I can, I’ll catch a ride with the girls I work with, but it isn’t often at all.

“Yeah, I’ll be right down.”

Grabbing my name tag from the dresser, I hurry down the stairs so fast I almost run smack-dab right in to her.She’s waiting for me at the bottom, and my clumsiness almost surely caused a detour to the hospital.

Laughing, she grabs my arms to steady me, looks me deep in the eyes and smiles.

I’m instantly put at ease.

I’m so grateful for every day my grandma Rose is in my life.She really is my second mother.I don’t know what type of person I would have turned out to be if it wasn’t for her stepping in and taking care of me after my mother died.

Thankfully, the bookstore is only a ten-minute ride from our house.When we finally pull up front, I hop out, but only after giving her a big kiss and telling her I love her.

Having five minutes to spare, I race toward the break room and throw my purse in my locker.I prepare for my shift, taking a quick drink before heading out to the floor to deal with the customers.

It’s relatively busy for a Wednesday evening, which is just fine with me.Time always goes by quicker when I’m busy.

“Hey, Sara, there you are.Can you help me stock the new shipment of books?I have to rearrange this display over here and replace them with the ones that just came in.Then we have to move the initial display over there in the far right-hand corner.”I don’t even see Karen come up behind me.But it doesn’t stop her from continuing on, not even giving me a second thought as to why I nearly jumped ten feet in the air.

“Sure. Show me what you need me to do,” I say as I get down to business.“Oh, by the way, do you think you can possibly give me a ride home after work tonight?You’re working until close, right?”

“Yeah, I am, and of course I can.No problem.”

We make quick work of dismantling the display and replace it with the new one.Once we’re done with our project, we fall right into our other duties, such as taking inventory and assisting customers.

On break, I call my gram and tell her I have a ride home so she doesn’t have to come and pick me up.The weather had turned and rain pelted the ground outside, making me more grateful to Karen since I hated dragging my gram out in this type of weather.

I’m busy cleaning up a stack of books someone knocked over when she comes running over.“Hey, Sara! Look who it is,” she whispers, rudely pointing at someone.“I can’t believe they still let him work here.He’s super weird.”She leans in close for her next statement.“I don’t know why you even bother to engage him in conversation.”She’s not-so-subtly referring to Samuel, the maintenance guy who works here.

He’s busy fixing a busted light fixture, glancing over in our direction, smiling when he sees I’m looking at him.Then his eyes fall on Karen and he looks away quickly. “Oh, how can you stand it?Doesn’t he creep you out?”

“Karen, stop being so mean.He never did anything to anyone.”

“Not who lived to tell about it, anyway.Just be careful around him, Sara.”I let out a restrained sigh as she walks away to help a customer.

Samuel started working at the bookstore about eight months ago.Being the nephew of the owner seems to work against the poor guy.I hear what people say, that no one else would ever hire him, that he’s too strange to work anywhere else, that it isn’t fair they have to share the same space with him.

While I do my best not to judge him, I can see where people might think certain things about him, his appearance sometimes adding to the situation.He’s tall and more on the lanky side, wearing clothes ill-fitting for his form.Shaggy hair and sporadic facial hair are a norm for him.Simply because he doesn’t fit into society’s version of what’s normal shouldn’t automatically cause people to shun him, should it?

People are mean.Yes, he’s different.But no, he’s never said a mean word to anyone, nor has he ever done anything questionable, either.Not thatI’veseen, at least.

My boss explained he is emotionally stunted for his age of thirty-five.He’s well enough to live on his own, but he doesn’t adapt too well to normal social interactions.Every time I cross paths with him, he smiles and continues on with whatever project he’s working on.

The more time passed, the less nervous I became.We exchange simple niceties every now and then, talking about the weather or how I was doing in school.

Karen teases me.All the time. She says he has a crush on me and I should watch out before he ends up wearing my skin as a suit someday.I don’t laugh because I don’t want to encourage her.

Someone has to stick up for him, right?

I truly feel bad for him.I’m sure he hears her ramblings, mainly because she isn’t quiet when she’s talking about him.Sometimes I catch his eye and witness the sadness there.But I smile, trying to reassure him not everyone is like her.

Coming out of the ladies room, I run right into him on accident.“Oh, excuse me, Samuel.Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“No…no…it’s my fault.I shouldn’t have been standing so close to the door.I shouldn’t have been so close,” he repeats, flustered and shaking his head back and forth.He continues to mumble as he stands close to me.

Some days, he’s okay and some days, the smallest things seem to upset him, which cause him to apologize profusely, becoming upset with himself.

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