Storymania - The Movie Store by Daniel Hurley

The Movie Store
Daniel Hurley

When Clay first started working at the mall he had lots of energy and enthusiasm, for a teenager it was a dream job. After two and a half years of toiling he had lost his youthful stamina to boredom and despair. He had traded his kindness and hard working attitude with sarcasm and laziness. Work stopped being hard and instead became fun, he and his co-workers laughed frequently, often at the customers that would graze in their store. Clay worked at a movie store, the only movie store in that mall. He had been promoted to assistant manager about a year ago. If he didn’t need the money he would have quit shortly thereafter. The only other place to get DVDs was at the Wal Mart around the corner. Clay was always fascinated with the shoppers’ obsession with movies; you’d think that sometime in the past few years DVDs had replaced oxygen along with VHS tapes.

Clay pulled into the parking lot at the mall on a cool spring morning, as usual he was speeding. He liked to park away from the mall so no one would hit his car, he didn’t even mind the walk, on a morning like this one it was almost relaxing. Clay always laughed at those old ladies who stalked around the parking lot in their sedans hoping to get that perfect spot, and in the process wasting more time than it would take to walk to the entrance from where Clay had parked. Its amazing what some people will do to avoid physical activity, I mean these parking space hunters are going to spend five hours looking in every single store and walking 8 laps around that mall, but for some reason refuse to traverse one hundred extra yards to the doorway.

Clay walked slowly through the hallway towards his store. Mall walkers passed him at a brisk clip. One lady brushed Clay’s shoulder as she passed, calling out "passing" as she did just that.

Passing, what the hell does that mean, Clay thought to himself. This lady’s idea of fitness is to walk through a mall and hassle teenagers. A smile crept on to his face; At least I’ll still be alive in 20 years, haha. Clay had some vicious thoughts inside his head, but they kept him entertained so he didn’t mind.

The movie store was equipped with an in-store play system which allowed Clay and his co-workers to show movies. While opening Clay liked to put in 80’s music to piss off the morning mall walkers that walked aimlessly through the corridors. This particular morning it was Duran Duran; there was something about 80’s music that, besides pissing off old people, was very energetic, Duran Duran simply pumped Clay up. He counted the registers, got change from the bank, and checked the store to make sure it looked good. With about fifteen minutes left before opening time Clay went to the center of the mall to get a cinnamon roll. There was a fitness center adjacent to the mall that had set up a kiosk that served coffee and baked goods, Clay never got the connection between exercise facilities and coffee shops, but the food was good enough to shut him up.

Ten ‘o clock rolled around and Clay opened five minutes later, usually there were some anime geeks that camped out waiting to rush in as soon as they could. Clay would always torture them a little bit; it was cynical, but damn hilarious too. Clay had become the guerilla terrorist of the movie industry; he always found some way to mess with the shoppers, it may not have been proper customer service but it kept him sane. After the initial rush of anime geeks and mall walkers taking a breather the store was empty. Clay was leaning on the counter staring blankly at the opposite wall. In the background he could hear the music from the mall hallway as well as dialogue from passers by. The store had been a very hip and stylish design in 1993, but had lost its appeal over the previous decade. The phone rang and Clay answered it accordingly only to hear a blisteringly loud "hello" from the other end.

"How can I help you ma’am?" Clay offered cautiously, holding the phone about two inches from his face for sake of his ear drums.

"I am looking for a movie; it is kind of old though." The lady replied, her voice still blaring through the phone’s tiny speaker.

"Alright, what is the title ma’am?" Clay used his most courteous voice; however it was still drenched with disdain.

"Well, it has Gary Cooper in it and it was made in the 1940’s I think."

"Okay, okay, and what was the movie called?"

"Gary Cooper plays some military guy in it; I don’t know who directed it."

"Okay ma’am, I really only need the title to find it." Clay was started to get frustrated, did the lady even know what it was called, or was she stalling to hide her stupidity. "Do you know what the title is?" Clay challenged.

"Ummmm, Sergeant York." The lady replied, finally.

"Alright, that wasn’t so hard was it?" Clay mumbled, he typed the title into the store computer and found the movie quickly, the sooner he located it the better, this lady was an idiot. "Okay, according to the computer Sergeant York is out of print, so we are unable to get a copy on DVD or VHS."

"Okay, so do you have it on the shelf?"

"No, it is out of print, we can’t get a copy in."

"So, can you guys order it?"

"No, it is out of print, we can’t get a copy in."

There was a long and awkward pause after this exchange; Clay wondered what was so hard about the situation, why couldn’t this lady grasp the idea that Sergeant York was not available. After what seemed like an eternity the lady finally spoke.

"Okay, well I guess I’ll check with another store then, maybe Wal Mart."

"No, ma’am, it isn’t available, anywhere."

"Well, sometimes Wal Mart has hard to find titles…."

"Why would Wal Mart carry it instead of us, we are a movie store, we carry movies, all Wal Mart has is a few bins of cheap DVDs by the checkout lanes, dumb ass." Clay immediately regretted what he just said, but he quickly realized the lady deserved it. Unfortunately what customers deserved was often contradictory to proper customer service.

"Well, I am never going to shop in your store again," The lady countered, "your prices are too high anyways, and the employees are all rude!"

Clay’s sarcasm set in, "Oh, that sucks, what are we going to do, our store is gonna go out of business, please ma’am, reconsider, I need this job to support my three kids and drug addictions." Clay didn’t have any kids or drug habits, but the lady would definitely be shocked to hear that.

The lady hung up and Clay set the phone down on the counter, he leaned back and sat on a pile of boxes. He knew the lady would call back and complain about the encounter, and that he would undoubtedly get chewed out for it, but he didn’t care. The opportunity to treat someone the way you truly want to is worth it, for Clay it was a little bit of justice.

The rest of the morning went smoothly; Clay now sat on the counter reading a magazine and drinking a bottled water he had brought. As it neared one ‘o clock Clay began to get excited; Josh was coming in then. Josh was the only employee at the movie store that Clay could stand. Josh was a lot like Clay, they had similar outlooks on the mall and on life, so they always talked, and rarely did anything else. There favorite thing to do was, while one of them rang up a customer, to start telling ridiculous stories. They would make up random bullshit about people they knew or things going on and weird out the shopper in the process. Josh came in and Clay accordingly told him the stories of what had happened earlier in the day. Things were starting to look up.

After an hour of stories and laughter a customer finally came in to break up Clay and Josh’s fun. Some quiet middle-aged man had crept into the store, he wore an old pair of jeans and a polo with the breast pocket filled beyond capacity with a cell phone, checkbook, and, what Clay thought, was a sandwich.

"How are you doing today sir?" Josh asked politely.

No response from the man followed, he had blatantly ignored Josh. He and Clay exchanged glances and laughed about the occurrence. The man lingered around the store for twenty minutes and then brought up two movies to buy, both being under five dollars. People always thought they were getting a deal on cheap movies, but as Clay often said there is a reason that they’re cheap.

"Did you find everything ok sir?" Josh offered. Once again the man was speechless. Josh just scanned the movies and announced the man’s total.

Clay chimed in, "Hey Josh, did you hear that pirates are coming to town?"

"Pirates, really? How are they gonna get here, we’re not near any oceans." Josh replied sarcastically.

"Well, they’re going to use giant wheels and three dozen horses to pull their ships."

"Oh, in that case we’d better flee before they plunder everything."

The man had no idea what to think, he gather his change and movies and moved quickly towards the exit.

"Have a good day sir." Clay called out, but the man wasn’t interested in responding.

Clay and Josh had a good laugh over the situation.

"I just realized," Josh commented, "that that guy did not say a single word to us."

Clay responded "He was probably to busy thinking about his collection of rusty daggers."

Clay and Josh both erupted in laughter, although they didn’t know why, being random was hilarious to them. If anyone else heard some of the stuff they made up they’d probably try and report the two boys to a local mental hospital. After five minutes of gigging Clay went on his lunch break. He got some Chinese food and sat in the food court to eat it, that’s when he saw her. Kirsten worked at the clothing store across from the movie place; it was one of those trendy places that was more concerned with selling an attitude than shirts. She was beautiful though, skinny, brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin, simply amazing. Clay had talked to her a few times; she had a good personality, and a loser boyfriend. She flashed a smile and waved at Clay, she was so cute; Clay smiled back and then returned to his food. He played it cool and didn’t act desperate; he always over-analyzed situations, so if he kept it simple the he wouldn’t spend the rest of his day thinking about what he should have done.

Back at work Clay had settled in to a comfy seat on a pile of boxes behind the counter. He could see Kirsten off in the distance folding clothes; he could watch her forever, as weird as that would be. Josh noticed Clay staring and took it upon himself to encourage Clay, he knew how much Clay liked her, and he knew how much she wanted someone like Clay.

"So, did you ask her out yet?" Josh inquired

"No." Clay responded.

"Are you going to?" Josh countered.

"No." Clay’s voice was monotone.

"Why the hell not?"

"Dude, look at her, she is perfect, I mean I consider myself an attractive guy but come on bro, she is out of my league."

Josh laughed for a second, and then replied "You never know man, seriously."

Clay sighed and looked back across the hallway. Kirsten noticed him staring and laughed, she waved. Clay immediately looked away, Dammit, he thought, She saw me, now she thinks I’m a freak. Clay looked back and waved; the two exchanged a momentary stare and then went back to whatever they were doing.

"Did you see that Josh?"

"See what?"

"She smiled at me."

"Of course she did bro, she likes you."

"Shut up man, you’re no help."

Clay was off in two hours, and then he had a long, boring night in store. His friends were all on vacation this week, and Josh was busy with his girlfriend. For a brief moment Clay found himself day dreaming about Kirsten; he wondered what it would be like to go over to her store and ask her out, he wondered what it would be like if she said yes, and he wondered what it would be like to take her on a date.

A few kids had wondered into the store, their parents had given them five bucks and turned them loose on the general public. They roamed around giggling and knocking items off shelves, Clay and Josh hated this more than anything. One of the kids, the leader of the group, the alpha male, carried a copy of South Park around the store for at least twenty minutes. After the kids had finished exchanging quotes from the movie they left. Later that night Josh found the movie sitting on a shelf next to Spider-Man action figures, apparently the parents had neglected to mention to their children that they should put things back in their proper places.

The last half hour of any shift was always the slowest, Clay believed that you relived every minute of your shift within that half hour, it felt like you did. Sometime in the last few minutes Josh had went to the back room to eat the dinner his girlfriend had made for him. Clay was always jealous of Josh’s relationship, it seemed so perfect, so happy, it was a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. Josh emerged from the back with the store phone pressed tightly to his ear; no doubt he was talking to his girlfriend, Lindsay.

"Alright, I’ll tell him." Josh said after a brief laugh.

There was some muffled chatter from the other end, Clay couldn’t make it out, whatever Josh was being told it was obviously good news.

"I love you sweetie, Bye-Bye." Josh’s voice was mushy and low pitched, he hung the phone up.

"Dude, you are such a girl." Clay said.

"Be careful man, if you piss me off I might not tell you what I just heard." Josh countered.

"Oh yeah, what is that?"

"Well, you remember that Lindsay and Kirsten are friends right?"

"Yeah."

"Good, well it turns out that Kirsten and her boyfriend are no longer Kirsten and her boyfriend."

"Are you serious bro?" Clay was starting to get excited.

"Sure am, so now you have no excuse for not asking her out."

Clay was silent; he was excited and scared at the same time. Maybe this is fate he thought. After a few moments of silence Josh spoke up.

"So……?"

"So, what?"

"So, what are you going to do?"

Clay took a deep breath, he reached deep inside of himself for some courage, and he looked at Josh firmly.

"I’ll be back in a minute." Clay said.

"Alright man!" Josh seemed more eager than Clay.

The walk across the hall seemed longer than usual, Clay’s heart was beating rapidly, he suddenly got very hot and sweaty, what a cliché. Clay couldn’t believe he was this worried over a girl, then he saw her, folding shirts, and he realized how amazing she was. He walked into the store and around a few displays, he was right next to her, she noticed him and smiled.

"So, what can I help you find today, maybe a nice thong or something along those lines?" Kirsten asked. Clay just laughed, he was so nervous.

"No, I’ve got enough thongs, thanks though." They both laughed. "So, how are you?"

"I’m alright; me and my boyfriend broke up yesterday so I’m a little bummed about that." Her voice was flat, she was sad.

"Don’t worry about it, he doesn’t know what he’s missing." Clay smiled; he wanted her to smile again.

"Thanks." Her face lit up, it was so beautiful.

There was an awkward pause, Clay didn’t know what to say, Kirsten kept smiling and Clay realized she knew why he was there, it was now or never.

"So, what are you up to tonight?"

"Oh, I am working really late, we have to put out a bunch of stuff after we close."

"Oh, that sucks." Clay tried to sound like he wasn’t crushed. "Alright, well I will let you get back to work, have a good night." Clay started to retreat back to his store.

"You too." She sounded disappointed, but Clay just kept walking, he didn’t want to seem more desperate than he already had.

The walk back across the hall was even slower than the first time, Clay walked with his head down. He had gotten so excited about Kirsten and it had fallen through. As he walked someone called out "Clay!" from behind him. He turned to find Kirsten standing there, she looked better than ever.

"Hey, what’s up?" Clay asked.

"Ummm, I have tomorrow off." She seemed nervous.

"Me too." Halfway through his response Clay realized what was happening, he exploded with happiness and excitement, but somehow managed to stay calm on the outside.

"We should go out." Clay asserted.

"Sure, here’s my number, call me tomorrow." She had already wrote her number down on a piece of paper, it was so cute.

"Ok, great." Clay said, still somehow remaining calm.

She started to walk away, then she turned, "If you want give me call later tonight, we can talk or something."

"Alright." Clay smiled.

They both returned to their stores, Kirsten returned to her folding and Clay prepared to leave. Josh had some goofy smile on his face when Clay was about to leave.

"Told you." Josh blurted out.

"Shut up." Clay blushed a little.

"Well, have fun bro."

"I will Josh, I’ll see ya sometime."

"Peace."

Clay left the mall and got into his car; before he started it or even got situated he put Kirsten’s phone number in his phone. What a day, what a girl, Clay thought to himself. He drove home and laid around for a while. Around 11 o’clock he called Kirsten; they talked for three hours that night.