by Josiah922
Craig Rodrick sat at his desk finishing up the day’s receipts. Craig thought to himself, “A manager’s work is never done.”
In truth, Craig wasn’t the manager. He was the Assistant Manager. He had
worked at the job for only 8 months, but was continuing to like the
work. Finally he had a job that wasn’t too much politics, hustle or
thinking and was a halfway decent pay check. The Movie Stand was a
franchise store for a small group of movie rental stores throughout the
southeast. Business was slacking off, but was still making a small
profit.
All he really had to do was run the store at night by himself. However,
tonight he was training the “new girl” Sandy. She wasn’t really a “girl”
of course being an early thirty something, but she was new to the movie
rental service. She was pleasant and halfway good looking, but she
didn’t finish college earlier in life and wasn’t prepared for the
divorce that flipped her world upside down. No job, didn’t finish
college and more importantly no plan other than betting on her marriage.
That didn’t work out to well. This was the only work that she could
find that would let her work at night and finish attending college
during the day. This was her 4th day on the job and she was running the
front with ease.
Craig straightened the receipts up and filed them in their proper
expense files for the boss to see and sign off on in the morning. The
boss would then be returned from her sick day. It seemed that Mrs. Moore
had been using more and more sick days lately, but it was none of his
business. Sick days were there to be used when needed and SHE was the
boss even if she was spending the days down at the beach as Craig had
expected.
He placed his briefcase on the desk and opened the unremarkable black
briefcase to fish out his dinner. Reaching around a small bag of
supplies in his briefcase he placed his thermos on the table along with
his insulated lunch bag. The thermos was actually a “briefcase thermos”,
made by the company Thermos and was called a THERMOCafe’, but you could
not tell this with normal examination for the logo had been scratched
off. It was a stainless steel double walled thermos that would keep a
liquid cool or warm for hours.
The dinner was lowly but filling. Tonight it was sweet tea, a banana
sandwich, chips, an apple and a half of a cup of gorp all in Lock &
Lock plastic containers. Craig despised plastic Ziplock-style bags
because they were hard to reuse. He much preferred plastic containers
for their reusability and ease of cleanup. Function always over form.
He ate quickly. Then washed out his thermos at the sink in the small
break area and refilled his thermos with water just in case. He then
cleaned up the containers using a small one ounce bottle of dishwashing
liquid he carried in his case and put the dishes back into the
briefcase.
He walked to the door of the small office area where a small mirror hung
on the back and straightened his tie for a moment. Craig was really
nondescript. I mean REALLY nondescript. Not in the way of being ugly or
unpleasant looking, but that of just plain being unnoticed. If he was to
be described like someone would describe a thief to a policeman, it
would basically be a man with a black tie, white shirt and black pants.
That is it. No more, no less.
The tie that he straightened was a black tie, but that was really all
that you could tell about it. No patterns, not really silk looking and
even the manufacturer’s tag was removed. The white long sleeved dress
shirt that he wore was just a white long sleeved dress shirt. There was
nothing remarkable about it. The black slacks looked like just that even
though they were really 5.11 tactical pants with hidden pockets for
added storage. Even his shoes looked like plain black lace up dress
shoes, but even they had money hidden under the soles of the shoes.
No brand names were seen and no remarkable quality was seen about them.
The only thing that stood out at all about the man’s attire was the
corporatized name tag on the front that said “Movie Stand - Craig -
Assistant Manager.”
Craig’s mind drifted back when he wore other clothes. He was straight
out of the military and college when the prettiest girl in town started
to talk to him. He loved being a bachelor, but she started to change
him. The Armani suit he had worn was her idea, hers are her Dad’s. Craig
hated the “family business” as she put it, but this is what you
sometimes put up with when marrying a wealthy family. Five car
dealerships in the county bore their family name and everyone knew it.
What were you wearing? What brand did you buy? How much was it? Where
did you get it? It was all about how much and who knew. Impress the
neighbors. Keep up with the Joneses.
Of course, all of the bought attention backfired on them when Craig
walked away from the adulterous woman he called his wife of 7 years not
caring who knew about the dirty laundry. They all laughed thinking he
would never leave the money or the lifestyle. They laughed right up to
the point that he walked away from the commercialistic lifestyle.
Craig then turned back to a more bachelor life. An ear ring in his ear
and biker’s jacket was the top of his wardrobe. His ex-wife was
attracted to his more rebellious side early on, but she had changed him.
The bad taste she left on his life caused him to rebel again against
everything and soon ran out of money. Getting and holding a job was all
but impossible. Most interviewers would take one look at him and
politely bow out of the interview. It was then that he had the real
change in his life.
Craig walked out to the main store floor where a half of a dozen
customers milled from isle to isle looking at the different DVD and
Blueray boxes lining every wall in the place. Sandy waved to him to come
to the check out holding receipt paper in her hands. No doubt the
credit card machine ran out of paper again. She hadn’t got the knack of
that yet and the machine on check out 2 was always a little
temperamental.
In just a few moments Craig had showed her the “trick” of getting the
paper in the “right way” and the customers in line were taken care of.
“You can take your supper break now Sandy. I got it.”
“Are you sure Mr. Rodrick?” Sandy asked looking at the other customers in the store.
“Yes, ma’am. I got it,” he turned to the next customer. “Hi. Welcome to
the Movie Stand. Did you find everything that you needed?”
Hours later Craig was locking up and walking Sandy out to her car to
make sure she got away alright. Now, Craig was wearing a nondescript
black bombers jacket to provide warmth on the unusually cold February
evening. The medium sized city at 11:30 at night is no place for a lady
to be alone in a parking lot. “Sandy you really need to park you car
over by mine. There are security cameras out in the parking lot and one
of them is pointed right where my truck is and it is under a light.”
Sandy smiled, “Oh, I didn’t even think. Thanks Mr. Rodrick. Good night.”
Sandy got in and closed the door. Craig returned the good night. He
waited for her to start up her car and leave before walking to the other
side of the parking lot to his 1984 Toyota SR5 with 4 wheel drive. The
truck was old, but built tough.
Craig had bought the truck at auction. It appeared that the police had
recovered it from the local lake on the outside of town after being
stolen and put underwater for about 36 hours. To say the truck was
waterlogged was an understatement. The truck went for a whopping $380.
Surprisingly enough the truck was running that afternoon after Craig and
a friend worked on it in the friend’s garage. He slowly replaced the
interior over the next 3 months until it looked halfway decent.
Craig carried his briefcase in one hand and fished for his keys with the
other. The key went into place with little noise. Then the oddest sound
reached Craig’s ears. “Crunch” it sounded. It was the type of sound
that made your ears feel like they grew twice their normal size and the
hair on the back of your neck scream out. It was about 3 feet behind
Craig as he tried to spin around.
The object made pain explode in his head. Then Craig fell as he cried
out. The figure moved to the truck and turned the key in the door.
Another second passed and it was in the driver seat. The ignition turned
and the engine turned over but did not crank. Again and again the
engine turned over, but it would not crank.
Slowly the world came into focus. A small wooden board lay at his head
and he heard the truck trying to crank. Craig knew the truck would not
start because of the engaged ignition kill switch under the dash. The
holster for the Surefire 6PD-BK Defender was always carried on the
non-dominate (left) side. The 4 ounce can of Fox Labs OC Pepper Spray
was on the right which was right beside his small Maxpedition M-2
Waistpack everyday carry bag. Craig readied himself.
The door flung open as bright light blinded the assailant and stinging
biting burning liquid filled the cab of the truck. Craig dropped the
pepper spray and reached for the small frame .45 caliber Glock Model 30
in the small of Craig’s back. Keeping the light in the eyes of the
assailant Craig brought the gun to bear. The man moaned in pain and
rubbed at his eyes. Craig ordered the man out of the truck, “I am armed!
You are under arrest. Get out of the truck and lie on the ground on
your stomach with your hands stretched out to your side.”
The man was screaming and continued to wipe his eyes, but did as he was
told. Craig holstered the flashlight and reached into the outer pocket
of his EDC for his cell phone. Keeping several feet of distance between
the attacker and him, Craig called the police. He made sure to tell the
dispatcher that he had the attacker at gun point and was armed. Craig
also asked for an ambulance to be dispatched because he had sprayed the
attacked with pepper spray.
When the police arrived they found Craig still holding the gun on the
attacker and pulled their guns on Craig. He explained clearly that he
was the assistant manager of the store and that this man had attacked
him. Craig also said that he would also follow any instructions the
officers had. Craig knew that because the police did not witness
anything they were going to treat them both with scrutiny until what
exactly happened could be determined. Craig was ordered to disarm
himself and they actually put Craig in handcuffs for a few minutes.
After things had calmed down and Craig gave his statement, Craig was
seen by the Emergency Medical Technicians briefly because of the blow to
the head. He filled out a release that said that he refused treatment
for the wound, but would go to the hospital himself if he needed. After a
call to his manager, Craig then volunteered to show the officers the
video tape of the security camera from the store.
Hours later he sat at his home in his bed with an ice pack on his head
thinking he had the best of both worlds now. He looked like all of the
rest without being like all of the rest. Function was always preferred
over form. Tags and labels were removed because even unconsciously
people used it to size you up. If you could afford this brand, then you
were this type of person and so on. Craig didn’t want that. He didn’t
want them know anymore about him than he could let on. If he bought a
brand name then it was because the function of the item was best.
And no matter what, be prepared for the bad things in life. There is
also something to be said about being a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Craig
smiled as turned of the lamp beside the bed.
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