THE MOMENT
"I can hang out if you want me to," Justin said. Dari wanted him to; but, she felt bad taking the offer. The two became good friends in the two years Dari worked there. It was her first night closing the small town grocery store and she did not want to give the impression that she couldn't do it, or that she was scared. The fact that she noticed him watching the clock for the last two hours of his shift helped Dari decline his offer. She was a manager now, too, and needed to act like it.
"Nope," Dari shook her head with a smile. "You don't need to be working while off the clock. And, if you stay, I'm putting you to work." Justin chuckled.
"Alright, boss," he said with a mock-salute. "I'll go check for stragglers, then jet. Good luck tonight, and remember, there's nothing to be scared of."
"I know," Dari nodded. She did know. She'd never been in the store after sunset. Small towns shut down early; and, as a regular employee her shifts always ended by early afternoon. The store itself closed at 8:30 p.m., two minutes ago, but the night shift was managers only. It seemed kind of early, but it had been like that for as far back as her childhood. Now she was 28. But, the knowledge that there was nothing to fear and the feeling of fear were two very different things.
"See you tomorrow," Justin said. He patted Dari on the shoulder and walked out of the office. In less time than she expected, Dari got a notification on her screen that the main door was locked. She caught a glimpse of Justin waving at the camera as he headed to his car, and sighed.
"He just checked the cameras," she mumbled to herself with a shake of her head. She knew it was unlikely anyone was still in the store. Its hours were well known, and she was glad to say she always felt safe in her town. But, unlikely didn't mean impossible. "Better double-check," she grumbled to herself and stood from her desk.
She still had a few hours of work ahead of her and did not want to run the risk of a stranger locked in with her. Especially on top of everything else she had to deal with that night. She paused to check the time on her way out of the office: 8:38 p.m. She did a quick calculation of the store's size, then nodded to herself.
"I can do it in seven minutes," she decided. At the exact moment she made that decision, the time changed to 8:39 p.m. Dari left the office without noticing.
She walked up and down the aisles at a brisk pace with her head continually swiveling back and forth. She did not have to actually travel the aisles, but Dari liked to be thorough. In her mind, a stray stranger could have been walking on one end at the same pace as her and they'd end up missing each other. Six minutes later she reached the frozen aisle, the last section, without seeing anyone. Then an alarm sounded from the office.
"Ah.. hell," Dari mumbled to herself and stopped walking. A sudden chill ran down her spine, but she chose to attribute it to the freezer case. She looked around in a slight panic, and then she saw him. The ghost shopper.
The reason the store closed at 8:30 was that every night at 8:45 a man appeared with a basket of groceries. Dari didn't believe her coworkers at first, but no one talked about it until she was offered a manager position. She considered it might be some sort of hazing at first, but Justin and the other managers treated it as a boring fact of their job.
The main reason no one cared was that the ghost was harmless. He always made his way to the check-out line and waited for a few minutes as if he was being rung up. The cameras could never record him, but the interaction was explained to Dari. The ghost man seemed torn by not being able to afford everything in his basket, something Dari easily recognized from her time on the job. They said he puts something back, shakes his head, then disappears for the night.
"Nothing to worry about. And if you stay in the office, you won't even notice," Justin had suggested when she noticed she was up to close. Dari almost turned to head back to the office to avoid the situation altogether, but something struck her as odd. She watched him materialize out of nowhere, but he looked more solid than his ghostly items. She fell in step behind him as he walked to the check-out lanes out of curiosity. But, the more she watched him, the more she realized he looked familiar.
He was wearing jeans, a backwards ball cap, and a heavy jacket. Dari followed him to the check out line and got closer. The ballcap seemed familiar; but, she didn't place why until she spotted the small pink flower pin on the brim facing her. It had a large '14' in the center of the flower. 14 was Dari's favorite number; that's why she picked out the pin.
"Dad?" The word jumped out before Dari could catch it.
"I'm sorry, Dari," her dad said. Her heart stopped for a second until she realized he wasn't talking to her right then and there. "I'll get you the chocolate next time, I promise," he mumbled to himself as she watched him put a chocolate bar back.
"Oh no.....," the full weight of his words punched her in the gut; her knees went weak. Her father thanked the invisible cashier, stepped out of the lane, then disappeared. Dari fell to her knees sobbing and trying to physically hold herself together. The last interaction she had with her father played in her mind crystal clear.
"Be back with milk!" he said from the door.
"AND CANDY!" six-year-old Dari yelled. Her father sighed, but smiled.
"If I remember," he said. It took Dari years to realize his 'bad memory' was only an excuse.
"You BETTER!" Dari yelled. "YOU CAN'T COME BACK WITHOUT IT!"