easy street haunt

There’s a 7-11 down my street, which I frequent. I’m one of their rewards members, and occasionally I redeem my points for a discount on pizza or a free Big Gulp. I shouldn’t drink the Diet Coke, but I want the caffeine and salt, and the caffeine helps me take a shit, even if the soda is watered down.

The place always smells of refrigerator, cigarettes and garbage. It takes me back to the days I use to skate board down there when I was a kid and buy a bunch of junk.

At any rate, the place has been robbed a few times, there’s usually a homeless guy hanging out front. I saw some guy piss in a bottle and chuck it in the parking lot. Sometimes kids are there in the afternoon; they buy slurpees, Sourpatch kids or other junk and then, they take off on their bikes.

The lid to the garbage can out front is cracked and there’s always bird shit on it. Some homeless guy scribbled incoherent messages on the pavement in black sharpie. There was a really annoyed Indian clerk who spent an hour trying to scrub the messages off. He had limited success.

More than a couple times someone(s) broke the glass window next to the counter, and the owner covered it with plywood until he could replace it.

There’s an old woman who clerks at night sometimes. Someone held her up at gunpoint. They stole the register cash and most of the cigarettes. I showed up an hour later and the old woman was on the phone, crying. It’s pretty fucked up someone’s grandma is working the register by herself at 2:00 am, almost as fucked up as her getting held up at gunpoint. Her whole family showed up in pickup trucks later, kids and grandkids I think. It was nice to see she had support.