The Video Store

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by S J Sargent




  The Video Store

  S.J. Sargent

  © Copyright 2020 by Stephen Sargent

  Published by H&H House in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – for example, electronic, photocopy, recording – without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Created with Vellum

  Part I

  Breaking News

  1

  The Staff

  Thursday, December 16 - 9:43 P.M.

  There’s always something disturbing about the mundane conversations that people engage in just minutes before an unexpected tragedy comes that changes their lives forever.

  What should have been a forgettable Thursday night shift at Movie Madness was just the opposite. The store had seen only three customers in the past hour. All were Thursday night regulars who’d learned to stock up before the weekend rush emptied the shelves. Alex didn’t mind the slow shifts because it gave him ample time to debate movies with his blatantly less passionate coworkers.

  “Wait. You’ve never seen Psycho?” Alex asked as he cleared out the video return box. “It’s the pioneer of horror films. Nothing like it had ever been made. It was unprecedented for its time. People didn’t even know how to react to it.”

  Molly shrugged, not nearly as bothered by this as he was. “You know I don’t like scary movies.” She stacked some DVDs in her hand and gladly walked away from the conversation. Alex chased after her, continuing the one-sided debate.

  “But it’s not just a scary movie!” he argued. “It’s a classic. You like classic movies. Psycho changed the way movies were made. Forever. Listen, you have to see it Mol. In fact, I’m pulling it off the shelf right now.” He darted past her toward the rarely-visited classic movies section.

  “Won’t make a difference,” Molly said back with a casual smile. Arms crossed in protest. “I’m not watching it. I don’t waste my time on scary movies.” She rubbed her eyes as she checked her phone. 9:45. Ready for bed already, but couldn’t go home quite yet. Working on weeknights was dreadful to Molly, especially with her having an early morning mid-term the next day.

  “Well, I’m going to check it out for you anyway.” Alex set it by her purse on the counter. “Look at it as a reward for getting through all your exams.” He smiled, causing her to mirror it back.

  “That is the last reward I would choose. Just give me a day to sleep. That’s what I’d take.”

  “Hey, Molly!”

  Molly turned to see Peter, the assistant manager, walking in. Peter was tall and lanky with glasses. Dark complexion. His family was from somewhere in the Middle East. Iraq? UAE? One of those. Maybe the nicest person in town, he always had a smile on his face.

  Sometimes Molly wondered if it was fake.

  “Peter,” she smirked at home. “What are you doing here? We’re about to close.” She half paid attention to him as she shut down two of the three dusty computers. Though technology had far surpassed these ancient machines, the owners appreciated the vintage vibe they gave off to customers. Locals seemed to appreciate their age, almost as a local novelty of what once was. The vintage, preserved style of the store’s technology was one of the few reasons Movie Madness had survived through the digital media area.

  If you didn’t know any better, you would assume it was 15 years in the past when you walked into Movie Madness. One of the few remaining independent video stores in the state, and the only in the area, it had found its footing in the town’s entertainment scene. Or lack thereof. Pecos was like many other small towns in the country. A higher value for tenure over innovation. A deeper appreciation for history over technology. And a clear, obvious preference towards the local mom-and-pop joints over the big box stores and restaurants – which had mostly avoided franchising in Pecos for that exact reason.

  “I’m not sure, actually.” Peter said. It was rare for Molly to see him out of his work uniform and in a polo and jeans. He was more fashionable than she would’ve guessed. “Christine asked all the staff to come in for a quick meeting,” he explained. “Plus, I told my mom I would grab her a movie.” He laughed, which didn’t fit the situation. His insecurity towards Molly, and most people, dripped off of him as he forced a smile.

  “Why is everyone coming in?” Molly asked, now curious. “And on a Thursday night? Is it an emergency or something?”

  “Is Christine quitting?” Alex piped in, hopeful. “Does that mean you will become the store manager?” He elbowed Peter, who immediately threw up his hands and shook his head.

  “I don’t know man,” he said. “She mentioned some message from the owners that she needed to relay to us. That’s all she told me.” He smiled again, this time an authentic one.

  Alex raced to clear the return rack before Christine would come to the front. He, just like Molly, had school in the morning and was already exhausted from working a six-hour shift on a school night. He knew he had to roll out of bed by 6:15 the next morning to get to school in time for his first midterm. After putting all the movies back behind their covers, Alex slipped back up to the front to see Molly studying the back cover of Psycho.

  “There you go! Maybe this weekend we can watch it together…” Alex suggested. She smiled, then brushed past him toward the supply closet to restock the candy. He chased after her, as he often did when they worked together. “I’ll take that as a ‘Yes, Alex! I would love to!” When she rolled her eyes, Alex made his way back to the front of the store.

  He plopped on the counter and looked around the store. It had been almost two years since he joined the Movie Madness staff. The only job he’d ever had. One week after he got his license, he applied. The store manager, Christine, was so impressed with his unmatched passion for movies that she hired him on the spot.

  He loved the job. It was far better than flipping burgers or bagging groceries. Pecos offered few jobs for 17-year-olds as it was, so he was thankful to even have one. The recession had hit little towns like this one a bit harder. Tidal waves of poverty washed out many of the stores for good, even ones that had been there for decades. But for some reason, Movie Madness survived the economic storm. Sitting pretty in this little strip next to an Italian bistro and an insurance agency, it was one of the busier places on a Friday night.

  And Alex loved it even more since Molly had started a few months earlier at the beginning of the school year. Every shift he worked with her raced by. His crush was a powerful force, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. They hardly saw each other at school, so their shifts together were the highlights of his week. Talking about movies. Flirting with the idea of actually hanging out outside of work together.

  So far, he’d been unsuccessful with that part.

  Alex wasn’t the most attractive guy. He would be more handsome if he lost thirty pounds, but he liked burgers too much to bother. He knew that his selling point wasn’t his looks. It was his personality. And vigor. Molly was way out of his league, but she didn’t act like it.

  Her beautiful red hair was cut just above the shoulders. Always brushed well. Always smelled like fruit. Molly was down to earth, unlike most seniors at Pecos High School. Not much of an athlete, her reputation was built on her GPA. She had the highest in the class and was dead set on keeping that way.

  But the selling point for Alex? What made her so irresistible to him? She loved movies. Almost as much as him. They had spent hours together discussing their favorite movies between customers. Both had gotten in the pattern of renting movies for the other person. They now expected movies to be sitting in the hold drawer for them, already checked out in their name. No permission needed.

  The front door flung
open and a huge, 325-pound man with a shaved head and a rough beard presented himself. Ken, the larger than life employee with just as large of a personality, had essentially deemed himself as the staff mascot. He raised his hands in the air as if he was entering a ring in a stadium of applause, mimicking his favorite pro wrestlers.

  “Special K!” Alex said, greeting him with a high five.

  Ken was the longest-tenured employee at Movie Madness. Though you would never guess that. He was going on at least…seven years? No one really knew. Including him. He was everyone’s favorite coworker, for all the wrong reasons. Hilarious. Inappropriate. And all about keeping things chill.

  “What’s good, A-bro-ham Lincoln?” Ken said back. “You dropped out of high school yet?” Alex laughed at this. “What’s this secret staff meeting about?”

  Alex shrugged.

  “Wow,” Ken said with wide eyes. “Secrets, secrets…” He came around and camped out on his favorite side counter, his designated seat. He’d probably logged five hundred hours in that spot since he started working there years ago. Almost enough for there to be a gentle outline of his cargo shorts on the counter surface.

  Peter walked to the front. “Ken! Hey, man!” Peter formally shook his hand.

  Ken slid open the drink cooler and opened a soda. “Good evening, Mr. A.M.” Peter always laughed when Ken called him that, mainly out of fear that Ken was jealous that he had been promoted over him the past summer. But Ken actually liked the minimal responsibility. Bare minimum was his comfort zone.

  “Hey, everyone,” a voice shouted from the back of the store. “Let’s meet up at the registers.” Emerging from the back was Christine, the store manager. She was short in stature, the most petite on staff. But she had the bite of a pit bull. Straight to the point. And far too serious

  of a person to be running a video store. She was counter cultural to rest of the staff in her demeanor and severe lack of smiling in her life.

  All five staff members came together at the front, anticipating the reason she called a meeting on a Thursday night like this. Peter stood next to Christine with his hands in his pockets, ready to support whatever she had to say. Alex leaned against the check-out computer, his arm resting on the monitor like a sloth. And Molly leaned on the front counter, still holding a few boxes of Junior Mints to stock.

  Christine paused, arms on hips in her signature fashion. The staff could never read her. The last time she had a spontaneous meeting like this was a few weeks ago, to let them know that one of the employees was being fired. Literally, in the moment. Right in front of all of them. So they had no idea what this meeting would be about. Before proceeding, she noticed Ken’s complimentary snack.

  She shook her head. He set it down on the counter.

  “Thanks for being here, team,” she began. “I know that some of you had to come in on your night off, but the owner insisted that I share all of this with you in person.” She paused, letting the tension linger just a bit longer.

  2

  The News

  Thursday, December 16 - 9:58 P.M.

  “Is everything okay?” Molly asked. She gripped the candy boxes tightly as she began imagining all of the worst-case scenarios. That was Molly’s default. Even with having perfect grades at school, she worried she wouldn’t get into a single college for the next fall. She checked her mailbox daily. And her inbox hourly.

  “Everything is fine,” Christine said. “I don’t mean to alarm you. I just wanted to get everyone on the same page before we go into the weekend. Our owner just called me this morning and wanted me to relay some information to all of you regarding the holidays.”

  The staff looked at her in anticipation. She always put these unnecessary pauses in her staff meetings. They created tremendous suspense, though she didn’t intend to.

  “As you know, Christmas is only nine days away…”

  “That’s this month?” Ken joked. Alex and Peter laughed, as usual. Christine kept talking. “Crap. I need to make my Christmas list. Let’s see…donuts, Bud light, Transformers: Collector’s Edi-”

  Christine interrupted.

  “-and Christmas is always a hectic time around here at Movie Madness. For those of you that have been here for past Christmas seasons, you’ve seen that it gets pretty busy. And I know that you all have school break and family trips and everything. So our owners have taken all of that into account and are changing things for the next two weeks.”

  Molly looked over at Alex, always assuming the worst. He shrugged back.

  “So.” She clapped her hands. “They are going to have a special sales competition starting tomorrow until the new year. For each pre-viewed DVD or Blu ray you sell to a customer, you get a one-dollar commission. Whoever sells the most between now and January 1st gets a hundred-dollar bonus.”

  The group cheered at this. Excited. Relieved. Ken high-fived Peter. Alex elbowed Molly, insinuating that he was going to crush the competition. She was just glad it was good news.

  “Wait,” Alex said. “So, was that the big news?”

  “Yes,” Christine said. Sighs of relief. “They wanted to keep morale up. They know how hard all of you have been working. And every year, they’re just thankful that Movie Madness has enough customers to stay open. Especially in the age of streaming.”

  “…and the fact that you can just watch everything online for free now,” Ken added. “I mean, sure. It’s illegal. But who cares about ‘the law’ anymore?” Peter laughed again.

  “For a moment there,” Alex interjected, “I thought you were going to tell us the store was shutting down. Or that we were all getting fired or something.”

  “Not at all.” Christine shrugged. “Movie Madness is a staple in Pecos. Somehow, it just keeps getting more business every year. All these local stores around us are closing left and right. Yet here we are, year number twenty-three in the books. And it’s been our best year yet…”

  “Like you said,” Alex added, “it’s a staple. Townies are faithful people. That’s why we outlived Blockbuster and Movie Gallery. I called that, by the way.”

  “Everyone called that.” Molly shot back.

  “So, question,” Ken said. “Back to this competition. Is there a cap on this commission? Like if I sold…twenty extra movies each shift I worked and I worked ten shifts, I could walk home with an extra two hundred dollars?”

  “Good math, bro!” Alex gave a sarcastic smirk.

  “That’s correct,” Christine said. “In fact, that’s the point. The owner wants to clear the inventory going into the new year. And give you an incentive to not take off all your shifts. We know how hard it is to staff this time of year. Especially with being a few team members short right now. So the hope was that this competition gives you one more reason to come in and work shifts right now.”

  Christine went through a few more logistics referring to closeout procedures and holiday hours. Peter nodded in agreement with everything Christine said, like a loyal lap dog. Molly took notes on her phone. Alex and Ken’s minds phased her out and began thinking of how they could win the competition.

  “Oh, and one more thing,” Christine said. “Because it has been short-staffed, I am looking to hire a few new team members. In the meantime, I’m just asking everyone to pull their weight. I know things have been busy for us all since Thanksgiving.”

  Christine was referring to the debacle that led to her firing their sixth team member in the last staff meeting. A college guy named Ted. No one ever got the full story on it, but they could definitely feel the weight of going from six members to five.

  “I’ll post the job opening online,” Peter said. “That’s how we got Molly last year.”

  “Good idea, Peter,” Christine said, looking over her notes.

  “This is why he’s the A.M.!” Ken cheered.

  Peter laughed again.

  Molly checked her watch. 10:02.

  “Okay. That’s all I got. Molly, Alex, can you finish the closing duties so we can lock
up in a few?”

  They both confirmed.

  “Is it okay if I put on the news before I go?” Peter asked. “I wanted to check the weather for tomorrow.”

  Christine nodded. Peter turned on the news as Christine made her way to the back. Ken and Peter watched together as Alex and Molly started to move around the store, restocking soda and putting away the final remaining films.

  “We have a story that is breaking right now as we speak…” the news anchor shared from the TV. This caused everyone to stop and look up at the screen. “After a four-day search for the teenage girl who has been missing since Sunday evening, Amy Powers has been found dead just moments ago.”

  “Oh, no. No…” Molly put her hand over her mouth as tears instantly poured out. Alex stopped what he was doing and came over next to Molly. The news story showed a picture of Molly’s classmate on the screen. There she was. Seeing her picture made Molly shake. She’d seen that exact photo of Amy before in her yearbook on her bedroom shelf. “Alex, how…we just saw her at school last week…” Molly’s tears stopped her from being able to say anything else. She buried her face in Alex’s shoulder. “I just saw her…”

  “After a town-wide search and rescue efforts ceased earlier this morning, her body was found by a local citizen in the back of Wilson Park. The story is still unfolding. More details to come as we learn more.”

  “Molly, I’m so sorry,” Alex said. It was the first time she’d ever hugged him.

  “I’m sorry, Molly. Did you guys know her?” Peter asked.

  “Yeah.” Alex said. “She went to school with us.”

  “I think she was a customer here, too,” Ken added from the counter. Everyone looked back at him. “I’m just saying…I’ve definitely seen that girl in the store before.”

  It was all too surreal.

 

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