Bus Stop Outside Maria’s Apartment Complex:
Maria couldn’t believe the bus was running late this morning. Not only was the bus running late, but it was eighteen degrees outside with wind speeds in the high twenties. Even with all the clothes she was wearing to stay warm, the wind seemed to find its way past her clothing.
She shivers as the cold wind hits her face. It went past the surf she was wearing and down inside the ski suit she was wearing. Not even the beanie cap or the hood on her ski suit managed to keep the wind from entering her clothing.
Maria spots the city bus finally coming towards her. She digs her bus pass out of the front pocket of her ski suit and prepares to scan it as she enters the bus. When she looks towards the bus driver, she notices it wasn’t her normal driver, but a substitute. She moves to the nearest seat and sits down.
The ride to her work didn’t take long. She gets out at the corner where the bus stop was and takes her store keys out and unlocks the door. Once she was inside, she locked the door and went to turn the security alarm off. She must take her gloves off, because they were too big to push the buttons.
Once the alarm is deactivated. Maria clips her gloves to her ski suit. She heads towards her workshop and removes all the cold-weather gear she was wearing. She shivers as she feels the cold air in her shop. She turns her heater on in her workshop to warm the area.
Once Maria straightens out her clothes. She exits from her workshop and goes about opening the store. Thanksgiving and Christmas were approaching, and she still didn’t know what she was going to get her grandparents. Her parents were taken care of. She already bought their gifts and wrapped them.
Once the store was opened, she made some coffee and wished she had brought donuts with her. She pulls her cell phone out and orders two dozen donuts on Uber Eats. She wanted donuts from Krispy Kreme and knew there was a donut shop on Hampton Boulevard.
While she waits for the Uber driver to show up. She boots up all the computer systems and runs the reports for Karen to look at. She knew Karen went over the sales report every morning.
While those were going, she checked the Cain Electronics website to see what items were sold and needed to be sent out. She takes the remote out from under the counter and turns the radio on in the store. She starts putting the orders together to be shipped out.
By eight o’clock, the Uber Eats driver shows up with two dozen Krispy Kreme glazed donuts. When she accepts the boxes, she feels that they are still warm. She gives the driver a big tip for delivering them. She sets the donuts up in the employee lounge, with small paper plates and napkins.
Tom shows up first at work. She noticed her was wearing his heavy jacket and gloves. “Cold enough for you?”
“Yeah, do you have the coffee going?” Tom was removing his jacket and hanging it on the chair behind the counter.
“Yep, and there are Krispy Kreme donuts as well.”
“I love their donuts. Did you get them fresh?” Tom knew the store wasn’t too far from them.
“Yep, they are still warm from being glazed.” Maria had already had two donuts.
Maria received a text from Mr. Cain’s wife letting her know they weren’t coming in. That meant Barbara and Tom oversaw the store. She was fourth on the leadership ladder.
When Tom comes walking back up front with his coffee cup and a small plate of donuts. She looks towards him, “You’re in charge today.”
“Mr. Cain isn’t coming in?” Tom had a puzzled look on his face.
“Neither is Mrs. Cain either.” Maria takes a sip from her coffee cup.
“Barbara will love that.” Tom knew Barbara loved being in charge.
The store’s phone rings. Maria reaches over and answers, “Good Morning, Cain Electronics, how can I help you?”
“Maria, I’m not coming in. Let Tom and Mr. Cain know, please.” Brad starts coughing after speaking.
Maria could hear how badly Brad was coughing. “Okay, I hope you feel better, Brad.”
“Thanks, Maria.” Brad ends the call.
Maria turns and looks towards Tom, “You’re flying solo today, Tom. That was Brad on the phone. He’s not coming in, and I can’t say I blame him.”
“I hope he feels better.” Tom knew it took a lot to make Brad stay home from being sick.
“I don’t think we’re going to be busy today, because of the weather.” Maria knew she wouldn’t go out in this weather if she didn’t have to.
“You never know.” Tom has been doing sales for a long time.
“True. Well, I have some things to finish up in my workshop. Call me if you need me.” Maria slides off her stool and heads towards her workshop.
The hard drive that the guy dropped off hasn’t been picked up yet. She called to let him know it was ready, but all she got was the answering service. She calls him one more time and records when she calls. She gets his voicemail again and leaves a message saying this is the second call, letting him know the drive is ready.
After leaving the message. She goes to work on one of the arcade games Mr. Cain bought. She didn’t have anything new to work on. The generators had been repaired and worked like they were brand new. She already sold several of the arcade games that only needed cleaning.
Around lunch time, instead of going out for lunch. She orders from Harry’s up the street from the store. They delivered with a ten-dollar order, and since most of their meals cost around six dollars or more. She just orders two separate meals. She’ll take the second one home and have it for dinner. Because Vincent had to go in early and do the breakfast crowd.
While she sits in the employee lounge, enjoying the chicken soup and BLT sandwich she ordered. She watched the weather channel. The weather report was calling for temps in the low twenties for the next few days. The wind speed wasn’t going to be as bad as it is today.
After lunch, instead of going back to her workshop. She heads up front to relieve Tom so he can go and grab some lunch.
“Alright, Tom, go to lunch.” Maria sits down on her stool and twirls around.
Tom just smirks at Maria's antics and puts his jacket back on. He buttons up and walks out of the store. He noticed Carol as she ran towards
her SUV. He gets into his Dodge Charger and follows her out of the parking lot.
Back inside the store, Barbara comes up front to see if they needed change. She spots Maria twirling around on her stool.
“You know you’re going to make yourself dizzy, doing that.” Barbara checks the register to see how much they had.
“I know, but it's so boring right now.” Maria hated that she didn’t have anything to work on.
“You could dust the shelves and front them.” Barbara figures that since they were slow, Maria could do some fronting out on the floor.
“Already done. I do that every morning before anyone arrives for work.” Maria shows her feather duster.
“Have you done inventory yet?” Barbara figures that since they were slow, it might be a good time to do it.
“Don’t we normally run the daily inventory report at the end of the week?” Maria knew Barbara liked for everyone up manning the store to be busy.
Technically, she was classified as a technician, not as a salesperson. She only did sales when she didn’t have anything else to do or to relieve Tom and Brad so they could get their lunch breaks. She knew more about the electronic parts in the store than even the salespeople.
“Well, since you're not working on anything, why don’t you go ahead and start doing the floor inventory?”
“No problem.” Maria slides off the stool and grabs the inventory scanner and logs onto it.
She heads out onto the floor and starts scanning the inventory out there. By the time Tom came back from lunch, she had the floor done and was working on the items they kept behind the counter.
Tom walks into the store and notices Maria with the scanner. He knew it had to be Barbara’s doing. She didn’t like it when they just sat around doing nothing. He also knew it wasn’t Maria’s job to do inventory either. She was a technician and was only responsible for the inventory she worked on.
“Barbara came out?” Tom puts his jacket on the back of his chair.
“Yep, I don’t think she likes it when I’m just sitting around and goofing off.” Maria moans when she finishes the parts cabinet under the counter.
“You goofing off? Mr. Cain doesn’t care what you do because he knows when there is work to be done. You are already doing it.”
“Well, Barbara is in charge. So, I must do what she says.”
“So, am I. How much have you already done?” Tom was in charge of the store part.
“All the front and part of the back.” Maria was good at doing inventory.
“Here, give me the scanner, and I’ll finish up.” Tom holds his hand out for it.
“I don’t mind. Go ahead and rest.” Maria goes back to work.
“All right.” Tom sits down and goes over the sales they had online.
Maria finished the inventory by the time it was ready to get out. She plugs the scanner into the cradle and uploads all the inventory to their computer system. It would generate a report if she missed anything.
“I’m clocking out, Tom.” Maria walks over to the computer system and clocks out.
“Don’t forget to shut down your workshop.” Tom knew Maria sometimes forgot.
“I won’t.” Maria heads towards her workshop and shuts everything down, including her heater.
Maria puts her cold-weather gear on, grabs her second lunch order, and takes it with her. She shivers when she steps outside and crosses the street to catch the city bus. She was the only one at the bus stop.
As she is waiting for the bus to show up, she is taken by surprise as a car comes speeding by her. It barely misses hitting a truck but jumps the curb where she was standing. The car crashes into the bus stand, sending it and Maria against the building wall behind them.
Maria screams out as the car crashes into the bus stop and pins her behind broken plastic, glass, and steel beams. The front of the car had been stopped by the beams, but she was pinned behind the plexiglass clear walls and steel beams. The front of the car was holding the debris in place. There was no way to get her out without either moving the car or cutting the back wall panel.
The fire department and paramedics show up, along with the police department. She didn’t suffer any injuries, but she was boxed in. It was a good thing she was small, because she jumped up on the bench at the bus stop, so she wouldn’t be hurt.
It takes the fire department a few minutes to figure out the best way to get her out. They cut the plexiglass clear wall panel behind her to get her out. The paramedics check her out, while the police get her version of events that led to the accident.
Maria ends up calling her grandfather to come and pick her up. She waits at the nearest store for him to arrive. She is shaken up, because if the plexiglass walls and the steel beams hadn’t been supporting the bus stop. She would have been hit by the car.
Ralph was surprised when Maria called. He was about to help his wife with dinner when he received her call. When he heard why she was calling him, he grabbed his heavy jacket and truck keys. He was concerned about his granddaughter when she told him she had been in a car accident.
When Ralph arrived at the company, Maria was waiting for him. He pulls into the parking lot and up to her. He watches as the passenger truck door opens.
Maria spots her grandfather’s truck as he pulls into the parking lot and over to her. As soon as the truck stops near her, she walks over and opens the passenger side door.
“How are you feeling, sweetie?” Ralph watches as Maria gets into the truck.
“Shocked, grandpa. I can’t believe how close I came to being hit.” Maria puts the seat belt on.
“Tell me everything that happened, sweetie.” Ralph puts the truck into gear and slowly leaves the parking lot.
Maria looks at her grandfather. “I was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive, when a car came speeding down Princess Anne Road. It barely missed a truck turning onto Princess Anne Road. Unfortunately, the car jumped the curb and rammed straight into the bus stop before I could get out of the way. I had to jump up onto the metal bench to avoid being hit by the support beams and plexiglass wall, with the car pressing against them. The firefighters had to cut the plexiglass wall behind me, so I could get out.”
“Boy, you were lucky, sweet pea.” Ralph was glad his granddaughter didn’t get hurt.
After a few minutes of driving, he pulls into the parking lot where Maria lives. He looks at her, “Are you going to be all right, sweetie?”
“I’ll be fine, Grandpa. Thank you for picking me up.” Maria hugged Ralph and felt safe in his arms.
Ralph returns the hug. He holds onto Maria for a little while, not wanting to let her go. He knew she had had a rough life so far. He forces
himself to let go.
“Bye, grandpa, and thanks.” Maria exits from her grandfather’s truck and heads towards the entrance to her apartment building.
Ralph watches until Maria is inside the building before heading back home.