Green tea and Change

There was a glare off the glass window, and if you stood inside the shop, you wouldn't be able to read what had been painted on the window outside. But Samy knew what that window said anyway, she had been looking at it every single morning. And every day at Green's Pharmacy was the same as the one before. The pharmacy was a very old-fashioned place, the manager Mr. Sommer ran it old-fashioned too, he wouldn't turn the lights on in the store till dusk. So during the day the store looked rather dim. It was quite a small place, the same type of small that Birksville seemed to be lately. It's funny how once you start growing up everything seems smaller, Samy thought. Samy was the first one in that morning. There were only two other employees. Jennifer, who worked nights, and Greg the 25-year-old that lived in his parent's basement. He worked weekends. And there was Mr. Sommer of course.

Samy put on her green apron and opened the register. Just to check. The same routine every day. The days went by slowly, and although Mr. Sommer protested for a long time, he finally bought an air conditioner, which Samy was very thankful for, considering the early July heat. She began dusting the shelves, when she heard the bells that hung over door chiming, the way they did when someone had opened it.

"Good morning, Can I help you?" she said, trying to figure out who she was looking at, it wasn't quite clear do to the glare, but she could tell by the form it was a heavy set tall figure wearing baseball cap. He stepped out of light.

"Hi ya' Sam"

"Oh, hey Mr. Felder, good morning. Is there anything you need?" Mr. Felder used to live two blocks down from Samy's house, he was a mechanic till his wife Bonnie divorced him and took their two kids Caroline, seven years old, and Jr. thirteen. After that Mr. Felder hit rock bottom and retired, briefly became the town gossip. He often mentions how much he misses his job, some people say he's off his rocker. He later moved to a smaller place on the other side of town.

"No thanks, Sam I just want a bottle of water."

"Well, you know where to find that." She said and he tipped his cap and turned from her and walked off toward the back of the store, returning a few moments later with a bottle. "That's a dollar." She said. He handed a wrinkled bill and started speaking in a sort of monotone voice.

"I haven't seen much of your family lately, where have they been? Oh wait I think I saw your little brother yesterday in the park on Manor street . . . Or was it Main drive? I'm not sure, that was the other day though. Would you say 'ello to your pap for me would ya?" he smiled widely "That's a girl, there" he added before she could even nod her head in compliance. She smiled faintly.

"Have a nice day Mr. Felder" she said as he walked out, the bells chiming after him. She knew pretty well that he wouldn't be gone for long.

Mr. Felder stopped and turned back around at the other end of the street, as if he had forgotten something. Sam heard the bells chiming, and again she looked up at Mr. Felder questioningly, trying to pretend she didn't know what he was there for. After a moment Mr. Felder took off his cap and began sputtering "Well, Sam I'm awful sorry I just, ya' know I wanted to tell you, you see...you see..."

"Yeah?"

"It's slipped my mind... If you ever need to..Ya know, talk or anything, I mean if you ever need help with anything, you could just let me know. I'm sorry Sam it really slipped my mind about your father, you know me, old forgetful Felder...Eh" he chuckled uneasily. "Well all I'm saying is I know what it's like to loose someone you, really care for, is all. And if you need anything, at all, you just let me know all right?"

"Sure thing." Sam said looking down a bottle of cough medicine she was replacing on a shelf

Felder put his hat back on, wishing her a good day and left.

She had expected that it would happen the moment he mentioned her father. She knew he would come back to show sympathy. Ever since her father committed suicide in mid-June all anyone did was show sympathy. The first few days after death it was okay, it was nice to know that people cared about her family's well-being, and were so willing to help Sam, since her mother was out of town so often, always working at her office or on a business trip somewhere. Sam was nearly surprised when her mother came home for the funeral.

The line "Allen Sanderson killed himself" was running wide around the town for three days straight, at least. At first none of it bothered Samy at all, she was too busy and confused and tired to have really noticed, but once everyone had repeated their sympathies twice, and listed all the things they would love to help her with so many times over, it began to bother Sam. Especially when it came from people who hardly knew her father, or worse, from people who didn't know him at all. About a week a half after his death, a woman, she had never even seen before stopped Sam and her brother and began saying "I'm so sorry" etc. The woman wrote her number down on a napkin and insisted that Sam call her, that she would be more then happy to drive Alex, Sam's little brother, to and from school every day. She never even knew the woman's name. It became ridiculous, almost like a mockery, soon enough every woman with two hands in the town was baking cookies and cakes for them, some even went so far as to bring them dinner! Of course Alex didn't complain but Samy didn't know how to handle it, it was too much commotion. What bothered her most was that none of them even knew the real Allen Sanderson, the side of him she knew ever since she was a child, when he came home from work everyday yelling and screaming at her mother and her. That was when her mother hadn't found a job yet, before Alex was born. That same side of Allen Sanderson that sat all night from the minute he finished complaining over dinner, sat and watched TV on his lay-z-boy chair finishing as many beers as he could. Only two winters ago when Alex was five, the doctors diagnosed him with dyslexia, when Allen found out, he went into a fit of rage and yelled at and beat Alex. There was little Samy could do to help her little brother. His scars had disappeared slowly. That was the same father that always had "football parties," but kicked all of her friends out on her sixteenth birthday, made sure they were gone and then slapped her around a bit. He later ate her cake by himself.

Her mother would have filed for a divorce, but she was too busy ever since she got her job, she hardly knew how bad it had gotten. And in the first place she believed Alex needed a father, Samy believed that too, but Allen Sanderson was not much of a father. Sometimes Sam thought her mother busied her self with work obsessively so that she would hardly have to come home.

Sam was glad though that this topic of conversation was slowly dying out in the town, and sure enough got fewer and fewer cookies and cakes every week. That meant it wouldn't be long before things starting getting back to normal for her again. As normal as they could be in a town like Birksville.

Sam sighed. For now though, she thought, the day was going to be the same as the day before, everyone who entered the pharmacy would offer their apologies, and ask what they could do to help. She was sure of it. There was nothing they could do to help and she wished it would just stop. Often she wished she'd had a normal father, one that could deal with responsibilities, a dyslexic son and unpaid phone bills, not just take his own life when things got a little bit shaky. Or maybe she wished it because she just wanted a normal childhood. But she knew well enough what was done was done.

Mr. Sommers walked into to the store. Stopping her train of thought. He looked grumpy, as usual. "Good morning Sam, how do you do?" Mr. Sommers, aside from being an absurd boss, was also quite a cornball when he wasn't looking.

"Fine." Samy answered.

"Good, did you dust the shelves?"

"Yes."

"Check the register?"

"Yeah."

"Sweep the floor?"

"Not yet."

"Then get to it please, it looks filthy."

"Right, Mr. Sommers." She said dryly. She took the broom out of the back storage room and began sweeping as Mr. Sommers headed toward the back in the direction of his "office." Which was really just a room with a desk and papers.

She continued sweeping though the aisles, day dreaming as she went. Another chiming from the door called her attention, she waited for someone to ask for help or say hello, but they didn't. She lifted her head and looked around, but saw no one. Standing in the middle of the second aisle she stood up on her toes and tried to peer over the shelves. She saw movement in the next aisle but she couldn't see who it was. She was still on her toes trying to see over the shelves when someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder and ask "You got any green tea?" Sam spun around quickly, losing her balance, but regaining it with a side step, something that looked like a little dance. She was facing a man about her age but easily a head or two taller then her. He was wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans with a sky-blue baseball cap on backwards, and he had sunglasses hanging from his T-shirt collar.

"You shouldn't do that to people." Sam said meaning to sound cold, but surprised at how breathless she sounded.

"Do what?"

"Sneak up on 'em like that."

"Right, sneak up. Anyways, sorry bout that. So you got that green tea?"

"Yeah." She said walking past him rudely to the back of the third aisle. Examining all the boxes as she asked him what he needed the tea for. Since everyone in the town hadn't minded asking her things that were far more personal she didn't bother being too polite about it.

"I donno, my mom wants it."

"Uhuh...Hmm..." She remarked, as she spotted the boxes of green tea on the top shelf. "At ten o'clock in the morning. She needs it that badly, huh?" she went up on her toes again, but she still couldn't reach the box. "Eh...could you, get that." She said struggling to keep her balance, and finally giving up. He reached up and casually grabbed the box.

"Well, I don't ask. My mom is like that. I told her I'd be out so she asked me to pick up some tea for her. Is that okay with you?" he said sarcastically and smiled.

"Oh...Uhuh." She hadn't been paying attention, she noticed his voice sounded very familiar, and she was trying to figure out who he was. "Would I know you from some place maybe?" she asked analyzing his face for a clue of anything she might remember.

"Maybe...It's a small town. Ya know?"

"Yeah." She said leading him toward the register. "I'm Samantha Sander-"

"I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are." He gave her a look that said who are you kidding?

"Yeah, or at least they think they do." She mumbled to herself but loud enough so that he might hear. "That's $4.25"

He handed her a five and took the box and started to walk out. "Thank you Samantha Sanderson. Later." He said as he opened the door.

For a moment Sam stood stunned, for the first time since her father's death, someone hadn't given her a thousand sorry's and sympathetic stares, and even more so, she was sure he wouldn't stop at the end of the block, and come back to apologize. It had taken her awhile to realize that she was holding his 75 cents in her right hand. She had forgotten to give it back. She ran out of the store to stop him, but he was already on the next block. "Hey, hey you!" She called but he didn't hear her. She was certain she knew him from somewhere and she tried to remember his name. "Dave-no, Daniel-Dan-Danny!" She muttered to herself at the corner of the street. "Danny! Danny!" she called. She tried to remember his last name too, but it didn't matter because he'd turned around. "Danny I have your change!" She yelled from across the street. He started walking toward her and she crossed the street to meet him. Suddenly it hit her...the sixth grade Valentine's day dance. She had gone with Danny, this very same Danny. She couldn't remember who asked who out, or how long they lasted (likely that it wasn't too long considering the age). But she remembered that something happened, something to do with his mother, that caused him to move away. His mother had cancer. Samy vaguely remembered him telling her a long time ago, that his mother wasn't going to live for long.

He was standing about two feet away from her now, starring a hole through her face. She wondered why he was back in Birksville. And why he really bought the tea. She noticed he was smiling at her like he knew what she was thinking. Or maybe it was the type of smile you give someone you hadn't seen in years, and you feel like you know them again despite the gap in time. Maybe it was only that he was surprised that she remembered his name. Sam's thoughts wound down and she handed him his change. She was trying to avoid looking him in the eyes. They were a pale green with flecks of brown, like stars. He was still smiling.

"Thanks again Samantha Sanderson." He said excepting the change she had in the palm of her hand. "Oh, and by the way it's Birk, Danny Birk, like the name of this place." He said his eyes darted around like fireflies. "So, I guess...See ya." He gave her a final smile and turned around and started walking away.

"Yup, I guess so, Danny Birk." She said softly and sighed, she headed back toward the shop. She knew if Mr. Sommers found out she had left the pharmacy unattended he'd be mad, but he would never fire her. And even he did, she wouldn't care. She knew that for once, for once in a long, long time, she'd had a good morning.