First there was the retail inventory job: doing inventory, though you didn’t actually do anything with it. Taking inventory, though taking it anywhere would have been an arrestable offense. Sight counting, Corporate called this skill, that ability to stoop and peer within dim dusty store shelves, to bear witness to a pile of objects, a row, a column, a rack, an end cap and know—without touching—how many, to type the number into the heavy oversized calculator on your belt without looking down at the keys. In Connecticut, this skill was worth eight bucks an hour—no benefits—plus an extra quarter if you could pass the accuracy test. The belt calculators bellowed if more than fifteen minutes elapsed between numbers entered, even in the echoing bathroom, in your mom’s car parked at the edge of the strip mall lot, in mildewed breakrooms, requiring the secret tongue of a manager to shut it off. The nicer manager, Bradley, didn’t yell at you when you turned down the worst shifts in the worst locations (you’d be amazed by the thickness of chalky bird shit coating everything within home improvement store walls). But he did complain too much about how few DUIs you’re allowed to get before they take your license away. He did ask for rides to the jobs you didn’t turn down and to maybe hang out you know maybe listen to some music afterwards even though you were underage and he knew it. He did insist you climb the ladder to inventory merchandise on the high shelves so he could stare at your khakied ass while you counted. He did follow the rule about no touching, at least. Things can always be worse, Gary the old timer answers every time you say how’s it going as you both belt up at the start of a shift, proving him right by the time you’re through.

Steph Sorensen (she/her) is a writer, parent, activist and organizer. Her writing has appeared in Gulf Coast, Necessary Fiction, Barrelhouse, Mississippi Review, and others. She is a member of the National Writers Union and organizes with her local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America. Steph lives with her family in Pittsburgh, PA, and can be found at stephsorensenwrites.com or @phenompen