1 post tagged “west”

      Garrison West looks like a clean-cut guy. He smiles at a person with a flash of style and with a courteous wink. He has a sense of what he wants to do with his life, just without sense of how to get there. He lives with his mom, for now, until he gets on his feet.   
      “Hey mom, I’m going to work,” said Garrison West as he leaves the house. He gets into his mom’s van and drives out from his mother’s suburban neighborhood to work. West drives down the road to his place of work, where he has to wear a long sleeve buttoned up shirt to hide the tattoos that portray his story in full color. He drives there not in bitterness that he only makes minimum wage and that he has to be at work every day from nine to five, as a matter of fact, he's happy about it. Anything is better than the penitentiary. Six months out and he's never been better. Everyday, he drives to his job thirty minutes early just to show that he is a changed man and he only wants to have another chance at life. Arriving to work he pulls his sleeves down and makes sure that everything is buttoned up and that he looks nothing less than perfect.

“Hey there Charlie” shouts West to a co-worker that just got there as well.

    “Garrett you better have your running shoes on, it’s going to be a busy day. Herb is probably going to call you to the back to help cut some meat with this sale we have going on today.”
    “No problem, I think I can handle it. You think Todd has the new schedule up? I forgot to write down that I needed next Tuesday night off, I wanted to take my mom out to a nice dinner.”
    “I wouldn’t worry about it, if anything I’ll trade you hours.”
    “Thanks Charlie.” West punches in and checks the list of tasks that Todd (his boss) has left for him.
    Nothing out of the ordinary: Face shelves, stock shelves, refill paper stacks at the front counter, mop up bathrooms, and clean the backroom for inventory.
    “Inventory already? I was hoping that we would hire that one company to do it,” Sighed West.
     He started with the official rounds of “Hey there’s” and “how was your weekends” and things such as that. He slowly made his way to the back with contentment and the satisfaction of his job. However, today he’s been thinking about his future. He loves his job, but he knows there’s something else that he wants to do. He never tells anyone that his secret desire is to speak to youth in schools about his life as a gang member and how he dramatically changed his route of destiny. Maybe he’s thinking about public speaking? He always wanted to go back to school.  I mean he has been looking at a brochure for that community college down the road from his mom’s house for quite sometime now. Maybe this next fall he’ll enroll.
   “Garrett, customer service please, Garrett customer service please,” blasts the overhead.
Time to stop fantasizing and get back to work. Walking to the front he gives his usual “hello’s” and “how are ya’s” to the customers. Reaching the front he sees his old history teacher is the one who needs assistance.

“Hey Mr. Barron what do we want today?”

“Put em in plastic would you please Garrett?”

    “Not a problem. How’s the teaching going now days, I mean, since im gone?” Laughed Garrett
    “I always liked you Garrett, you always kept me on my toes! However, I’ve retired. This old man finally decided to start that garden he’s always wanted.”
    “Glad to hear…” Garrett began saying before being interrupted by a loud complaining teenager in the next check out lane.
    The young man was making a fuss over the new check out girl giving him the wrong change, small mishap, however to him this was a very big deal. West was watching as this young man was waving around his arms in the air and saw the scar on his left hand that looked like a knife wound and a red stripe tattoo on his right fore arm, the same red stripe on West’s right forearm. This kid is a part of his former gang. West excuses himself from his position and goes to the young man.
    “Hey bro, calm down ok? It was a small mishap. Let her give you the right change.” West trying his best to calm the kid down, but it was to no avail. The kid continued to rant and rave. West felt his anger starting to rise, not the typical yelling anger, no, the old anger. The anger that put him in prison before, he remembers the feeling, that feeling of breaking someone’s neck in an instant. He looked at this kid and knew he could take care of this problem without breaking a sweat. He snaps back into reality and reason.
    “Kid, I’m telling you, just calm down, your making a huge deal out of nothing. If you want to pick a fight come after five today, I get off, you come pick on me tough guy.” The kid actually listens to West’s idea and snatches the money from the clerk and walks out.
    For the first time in awhile, West felt a bit of excitement and fear. Excitement that, today when he gets off work he gets to teach a young gang banger a lesson and hopefully talk some reasoning into him. The fear that’s in him isn’t because of the other members that will be coming with the kid. It’s not that the kid scared him. What he fears is that he might go too far, he might kill again, he might have to hurt someone. But, that’s not his biggest fear; his biggest fear is that he might like it.