a trip to walmart by chris. friday night is no better than thursday, and saturday is horrible. i sit in the 24 hour kettle drinking stale coffee and i sneeze into my hand. snot flies out from my nose and mouth and i embarassingly wipe it off on my shirt, looking around to see if anyone saw me. someone did, the girl at the bar, doubling as a waitress this late at night whenever anybody needs anything. later she picks up my money by the corner. it's three in the morning when i walk out into the night, the dead humid air attaching itself to my face immediately. it makes me want to vomit, or just lie down and die, slowly fading out in a puddle of water. i'm a block from the super walmart, open 24 hours, so i decide to walk through it [growing up in my small town, walking through walmart or getting drunk or high was pretty much all that there was to do. doing all three in one night was only for special occasions. -chris.]. i don't know why they say walmart is open 24 hours. yeah there are people working there, but the aisles are stuffed with palettes of new items that said workers are stocking on the shelf. nearly every other aisle is blocked, or mostly blocked, so you have to squeeze your gut in and try to slide past the crate, and then when you knock some cheezits from the shelf because you can't suck in your ass, the guy who's been stocking it gives you a dirty, stoned look (there is an empty bottle of cough syrup lying next to him). i don't feel bad. they should close the store when they're restocking. they probably lose more money being open all the time than they make anyway. an hour later i've walked through all of the super walmart and decide to make my way outside. i've barely reached the few cars left in the parking lot when i hear violent cursing and screaming. there are two walmart employees behind me, and one is blocking a woman, or trying to. the woman is large and black. "ma'am," says the guy blocking her. "can you please step back inside the store?" "get the fuck out of my way!" she screams, and tries to push past him. he's frail and doesn't really take his job that seriously, so he is easily moved. "ma'am..." he grabs her by the arm and she tries to jerk free. again, he is frail, and she does jerk free. then he bear hugs her from behind. "ma'am, we just want the merchandise," he says into the hair in the back of her head through clenched teeth. "just give us back the merchandise." "get the fuck off me, shiteater!" she screams, and tries to wrestle free. you know what happens. the other guy is shouting into his walkee talkee: "we've got a shoplifter, can someone give us a hand, please." as i'm watching i'm wondering if the woman knows that the walmart workers have no right to touch her, that all they can do is ask her to return the goods. i wonder if she's going to have to go to court, and wonder if her lawyer will care about this enough to bring it up. "i don't got nothing!" she screams. "get the fuck off of me!" both of the walmart workers are on her now, and both their frailness combines to form mild weakness. "get the fuck off, mother fuckers!" two more male walmart workers rush out of the store. all four of their frailness combines to form tepid strength, but enough to overcome her. "fuck off you son of a bitches!" the woman screams. she scratches one of the worker's face leaving four long red cuts in his cheek. "bitch!" he screams, backhanding her and sending her to the ground. she falls between two cars so you can't see her from the store. the worker touches his cheek and finds blood on his hand. he looks at his hand for a while, then at her lying on the ground, about to get up. "come on!" he shouts to the other workers. "hold her down!" they all pounce on her, bloody-faced-guy getting on top of her, pulling his pants down and ripping hers off. "no free ride in the police car today, bitch! i've got one for you right here!" i keep walking until i get to the river. what an awful day.

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