In this blog post, I read and linked What is Creative Nonfiction? (Lee Gutkind) | Making Scenes in Memoir (Lee Martin . My professor asked us to take a present scene form our lives and write about it. Most of my time is spent at my job... As I park my car outside our storefront, I think to myself, what will it be today? What customer is going to make me want to climb over the counter and shake them to death after I answered the same questions five times? This is not an exaggeration because in fact I probably feel this way at least once a day. As I am clocking in, I can already tell by looks of the store that this will be one hell of a saturday. The sales floor looks like a clothing crime scene. There are hangers on the floor, all sorts of clothes thrown over racks, and a half finished milkshake thawing into the shoe shelf. How wonderful! But as my duty as the manager, I put on my painful 24/7 smile, and go about with my day. “Maia, this customer wants to know if she can get a refund for these clothes. I told her we don’t do refunds, but she’s insisting on speaking to the manager.” My co worker Gabby whispers to me, as a middle aged women glares at us from across the counter. I walk over to the stubborn women. “Hello Ma'am. As Gabby said, we don't do refunds, but I can happily help you pick something else out, or give you a gift card instead.” “What kind of store is this? Is this a joke? I want my money back now.” She reaches into her purse and slams her credit card on the counter. “Put it back on my card” She barks at me. This is that kind of moment when I wish I could jump over the counter and scream back in their faces. “I am so sorry for the inconvenience but these are our policies, and always have been. Now I would be happy to refund you a giftcard if you don’t have the time to shop today. What is your first name for the return?” My fingers are on the keyboard, waiting for her to respond back with her name. “F*** this store! F*** you! All I want is my damn money! I am going to have you fired, you b*****.” She gathers her clothing, stuffs them back into her bag, and storms out the door. “Enjoy the rest of your day Ma’am!” I reply back, with a giant smile of my face. 8:30 pm comes right around the corner, which means it’s time to clean up for closing. I look to Gabby, she looks at me, and we clean and conquer the store like we were competing for one million dollars. Gabby vacuums, I count the registers, and at 8:55 we are locking those doors, not phased by the fact that we have to do this all over again in 12 hours.
3 Comments
Sabatino
9/19/2018 06:31:23 am
This provides description and action to create a narrative scene. I appreciate the use of dialogue in this piece. I also see how this scene has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
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Amir
9/22/2018 09:12:43 am
This was a really funny and interesting story! I think i recognize that storefront. That's part of what i found interesting about it.
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Seth Greiner
9/24/2018 02:10:23 pm
I really enjoyed this post, I feel like in this one short seen you really painted a picture of the struggles that come with working a retail job.
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MaiaI will use this blog to write about personal experiences and rewritten stories. Archives
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