Three cars pulled onto the forecourt simultaneously. Denny stared out at them through the window, looked as if they were all getting fuel. It was self-service after 9pm so there was no one else working, Denny was alone, just sitting at the till wishing that the night would pass so that he could go home and do something more interesting like ….go online or something.
He glanced down at the security cameras and instantly regretted it. The grey almost hesitant images moving around suspiciously made him think the worst, he always thought the worst. Denny believed that a filling station would be a prime target for a robbery, someone just looking for some quick easy cash. How hard could it be? Hood up, drive in, threaten the clerk and take the contents of the till. That’s what worried him, how hard could it be? Even though the place had never been robbed before he had already made his mind up that if it happened he would just smile and open the till. Hell, he would probably admire the guy for doing it; he wished he had the balls himself. The problem with following up on something like that was the risk to reward ratio. Denny knew that once the cash in the till reached a certain level then it had to get sucked up the money tube straight to the safe. This was the problem; if you went in to rob the place the chances of getting any decent sort of money were slim. Compare that to the ten years you would get for armed or aggravated robbery and the appeal of the easy money diminished.
He checked the monitors again; two guys were filling their cars while a woman in the driver’s seat of the third car was turned around as if she was talking to someone in the back. Denny’s mind raced;
They’re waiting for the other two to leave then they’re coming in.
“Twenty Marlboro light”.
“Shit” Denny jumped back knocking over his stool in the process.
“I didn’t see you come in”.
“No”.
The man wore a black suit, white shirt, black tie. He had his hair slicked back like someone trying to cover a bald spot, overall he pretty much resembled an undertaker who’d gotten caught in the rain.
“Twenty Marlboro light”? Denny repeated the man’s request while turning to the cigarettes.
“That’s right, trying to quit”, the man smiled revealing a set of teeth that said he should have tried years ago. “It’s the little things that’ll get you in the end”.
Denny took the man’s money and gave him the cigarettes and his change; their fingers touched briefly causing a shiver to erupt from the base of Denny’s spine.
“Will that be all”, Denny was hoping one of the others from outside would hurry and come in. He checked the monitor; there was no one outside just shadows gambolling around the pumps caused by the flickering fluorescent lights overhead.
“Almost”; not the reply Denny wanted to hear.
“I’ll be needing you to accompany me”.
Fight or flight? Denny always found fight to be the option he preferred. Even though he was afraid, this guy didn’t know that.
“Get out of here, I’ve hit the silent alarm, the cops will be here in a minute.
“The alarm doesn’t work Denny, hasn’t in months, and you’re right the cops will be here but not for another twenty minutes”
“How do you know the alarm doesn’t wor…….how the fuck do you know my name”?
The man paused and lit a cigarette.
“Take a look around Denny”.
Denny looked everywhere the shop was a mess. There were sweets and crisps all over the floor; the newspaper stand was on tipped over on its side, scattering tabloids and mundane magazines in a disjointed pattern. Denny looked across, the till was open and empty, no sign of life on the monitors.
“Shit, what the fuck happened”?
“The place was robbed Denny, you were right all along”.
“What do you mean”?
“It was the woman in the car, when the other two guys paid you and left she came in and told you to empty the till, she had a gun”.
“Bullshit”!
“Not bullshit Denny, sorry. When she realised that there was only about a hundred in the till she told you to empty the safe, that was when you started laughing. You told her that it was impossible to get into the safe and that everybody knew that. Then you laughed and told her how dumb she was for not covering her face and that she’d probably get arrested before morning”.
“What then”?
“Then she shot you Denny, she was at the end of her tether, no money for the bills and she had a two year old to look after. Your life was easy compared to hers”.
“Why did you say she had a two year old”?
“She pulled in up the road a bit, shot her passenger and then put the gun into her own mouth, very sad”.
“No”.
Denny tried to run but froze when he got to the other side of the counter, he gaped open mouthed at the lifeless body on the floor, a large pool of blood swelled around it enveloping the cheap patterned floor covering. A sad picture of the end of a miserable life, the body was Denny’s.
“Why”?
“Why not” he was behind Denny now, his left hand on Denny’s right shoulder.
“This is shit; I have loads I still have to do”.
“Like what Denny, you just plodded on through your life, you never lived it”.
“I’ll change, just make it stop”.
“Sorry Denny, no second chance for you, sometimes it can be done but the person has to deserve it. Now let’s go I haven’t got all night”, his voice took a more sinister tone.
As the man spoke Denny kept backing away from him in a vain attempt to put distance between them. He was behind the counter again, the man was saying something but Denny couldn’t hear, utter panic had set in, his head began to spin. Denny fell backwards over the stool that he had knocked earlier. He struggled to his feet and picked up the stool.
“Twenty Marlboro Light”.
“What”.
“Twenty Marlboro Light”.
“But I already gave you….” Denny looked at the man he looked different. He ran out from behind the counter, his body was gone. He looked all around the shop, it was back the way it should be. He laughed it was just a daydream.
“Let’s go I haven’t got all night”.
Denny felt as if his heart stopped, those words, the same sinister tone.
He went back behind the counter, grabbed the cigarettes and put them on the counter in front of the man. The man paid and Denny gave him his change, their fingers touched briefly and Denny felt a familiar shiver rush through his body.
The man laughed.
From the corner of his eye Denny noticed movement on the security monitors. Turning he seen two men out filling fuel into their cars while in a third car he seen a woman turned in the driver’s seat as if she was talking to someone. He froze, he wanted to run but couldn’t. Then the woman turned back around and started to drive off. As the car moved Denny could see into the back of the car, the woman had been talking to a child in the back seat.
“You gave her a second chance didn’t you”?
The man lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply.
“I really should quit you know, It’s the little things that’ll get you in the end”.
