Work Food Aesthetics

Work Food Aesthetics ✨

(It's tap from the emergency eyewash station)

A Report! From Inside The Walls of Mallmart

The colorful shores of Okaloosa County were blasted with 200 watts of 90s rock as a car zoomed down the road. Its course is clear, and the movement precise, as they turn into the Mallmart parking lot. I gaze up at the sign, and those old, dingy faded signs plastered up on the sides of the store, a Arched wings over a carcass on the top of the building. I ignore the warnings, and press on, because this is the story of Taylor Peyton.

The back rooms were bleak, and Taylor dreaded them whenever she entered the building. The porosity of wood fibers in the cardboard sucked any and all moisture out of the air, she knew this was fact. It  left her throat dry and sore as if she had swallowed glass. The lights were dim and flickering. She was always terrified of being crushed between moving shelves as she scanned products.That awful ringing, from the emergency alarms that everyone just ignored… In a nutshell, it was sensory hell. What could she do? Just sit there and endure? No, that wasn’t her style. While she was here, she might as well get to the bottom of the oddities that were happening here in their little town. The only thing was, how much of it was really happening, and how much of it was in her head? A bit unsettled, she pulled something from her bag, and with a piece of Mallmart standard tape, she set up a sanrio calendar, there at the beginning of the home merchandise shelves. With what little of her surroundings she could control, she was resolved to change them for the better. The cartoon frog stared back at her with a pointed smile. ‘It’s May already…’ That meant that Taylor had been here in Okaloosa County for a total of four months. Four months, since she had left Arizona. With everything that had happened, she had hardly noticed that she had stayed for so long. She heaves another box onto her cart, deep in contemplation. 

In fact, it’s nearly 9 o’clock when the emergency alarm sounded overhead, dragging her from her thoughts abruptly. It was time for her first mandatory 15 minute break. Right… Taylor took a step in the direction of the breakroom, only to find her feet slide from under her. She stumbled, catching herself on the side of a shelf for support. There, on the concrete floors was the budding of condensation. The walls of Mallmart were alive, sweating in the spiking heatwave that was cast on Okaloosa Island. This fascinated Taylor because the air conditioning was regulated to keep the store at a consistent temperature, and yet the amount of moisture seemed nearly impossible that was collecting on the ground. It wasn’t exactly ‘fleshless humanoid speaking in tongues’ but this was a good start, as far as investigations go. In fact, Taylor would dare say she found herself eager at the prospect of finding answers to why Mallmart was as odd as it was. She had to find someone. Anyone who'd accompany her. Tiptoeing around taking notes on their company while Mallmart’s overseer loomed close nearby made her nervous, to say the least. Her first thought was ‘Ciara’, but as she glanced down the hall she could see I was busy directing the new trainees. That left one other person she knew would be down for this impromptu investigation- Aiden. Even better, he was rarely busy or as engrossed in his work so this would not take much convincing. All she needed to do was find him. 

Logically, she knew there were only three places she’d be likely to find Aiden. One place was the toy and game department, where he was often assigned to. That was often later in the day though. He could be hiding in the breakroom, getting a headstart on his 15 minute break, but somehow, she didn’t think that was the case either. That only left one place.

“Aiden! Hey, look up!” Those sunglasses donned eyes looked up from his phone, as he stood in the cosmetics section. He had not yet put the false eyelashes or press on nails behind their locked glass case (As they were recently announced highly dangerous items). “I need your help for something. Something important.” 

“Huh?”

“I need to find out where the air conditioning is controlled in the store first, and then, I need to figure out where there’s a temperature irregularity because something is fluctuating and causing high levels of moisture in the store.” She explained. “Isn’t that like, management’s job?” Taylor stared at him, not even amused. “Are you going to help or not?”

“....Yeah, I’m coming..” With that, our heroes were off on their quest to the heart of the store.

 Sure enough, the refrigerated grocery area of the store was significantly more cool, but that did not explain, why on the opposite wing, deep in the backrooms where it seemed to have low humidity, there was moisture slicking every surface. “We need to take our break, we’ll end up getting in trouble. I don’t know about you, but I think getting in trouble for doing more work is a stupid way to end up in re education for real.” 

“Just one moment,”  Taylor stared at the air vent desperately trying to blow out cold air. “This is going to lead somewhere in the back, I know it.” Her eyes  followed along the ceiling towards the grocery wing of the backrooms. Wordlessly, she pushes ahead despite the protests of her now exasperated sidekick. Deep in the back of the store is a room labeled, “Technical Control” It is where the lighting is managed, and power generator, and probably, the temperature of Mallmart. “If I could just take a look in there, I could get a rough idea of what we’re dealing with,” She thinks aloud. “No dude, you aren’t breaking into there. That’s just… no.” 

“Where is your sense of adventure?” She chides him, her voice flat and marvelously devoid of emotion. “Wait, someone is coming-” and in that moment, they both panicked, ducking behind the black plastic waste bins at the end of the room. 

"I already paid you more than enough to cover the costs. This will end here, and you will not contact me at this establishment anymore." The man's voice was gritted and harsh. "Had I not given you the sweat of my brow? Have I not given you everything you desired? And you've gone cold to me, with all that money, all that power-"

"Final warning."  

With a huff, the man left our overseer disheveled and running his fingers through his hair. One question was buzzing through everyone's minds, 'If he had all this money and power, why stay with a place like Mallmart?'

A Face Down Burial

I always sleep face down. It's a habit of mine, I guess. I know what you're going to say, 'That isn't healthy!' 'Studies shows that sleeping on your stomach or in a way that restricts your airways is a common cause of nightmares and other sleep disturbances!' And I know these things, I consider them carefully. At the end of the day though, when it is time to retire to my bed, I always lay face down. And when I'm dead and gone, they'll bury me face down too.

I guess when your life is out of order, you turn to a lot of different things- booze, relationships, etc. 

Mine? 

Mine was religion. I saw all this stuff happening around me and I thought, my life is falling apart. I need to get baptized. So I planned to go in, and sink back into my roots, my family, my faith in order to make sense of the strange happenings in my life. Maybe when I re-emerged from the water I'd be different. Maybe I'd be better. I needed this for me. So when I went into work that morning, I thought for sure everything was going to be looking up. 

…

I didn't realize my video was uploaded. I had tried to upload it originally, of course. I had gone to great lengths of converting the recording so that it could be viewed on my blog, but then I got cold feet and canceled the whole thing. And now here it is, up and running. And management wanted to discuss it with me. Now that's a frightening thought. I can't go too into it, but nobody likes to have their name called overhead, directing them to the big boss's office. The amount of times I've seen people leave that dark, dingy room looking hollowed out is more than I can count on one hand which is probably bad. So you can imagine how I felt when it was my name being called this time, right?

 Management's office had all the lights out and it was unreasonably dark for the rest of the lights in our store. It smelled of old carpet and coffee- something that shouldn't be nostalgic, yet somehow is in that closed, confined space. So, I took a seat across from the frail and wobbly little table that was repurposed into a makeshift desk, and I listened quietly. Very quietly.

"We already know about your blog, Ciara."

Being honest, hearing an actual voice on the other end of the desk put me at ease immediately. "Oh! By all means feel free to give me a follow on Madam-" They didn't have to cut me off, I already knew that was not what this was about. "Hand over your work phone, and give us your password." Everything was no nonsense immediately (as it usually was). My blood ran cold. This was it, this was the day I inevitably went too far. With my phone in their possession, they turned on the screen, and tapped that little t icon on the phone. You know, the one work phones shouldn't have? They fumbled with my phone foreveerrrr. Like my god, how can someone who's above me in the pecking order of this strange little business be so dense? "How did you upload this? This needs to be taken down." 

"I dunno…" I mumbled shyly, running the sole of my sneaker into the flattened and sticky fabric on the floor.

"Tell us how you created this,"

"I just hit a bunch of buttons until something worked, I don't know how I did it!"

I could feel the exasperation behind the table. "This insubordination will get you nowhere. Why don't you have a granola bar, and calm down. We'll discuss this again once you have this keto-friendly, perfectly nutritious granola bar." The eyes behind the desk are looking at me desperately, ginting from far away led overheads. I can read the straining in there, the need to stay professional and calm. 

"No thank you."

"There's no need to be stubborn. Granola bars are comforting. This is vegan friendly. Go ahead, take one." From the darkness, a single box of granola bars was pushed across the desk. "I don't think I like how you're asking…" 

By the time I left, my head was spinning, I grabbed my cart and made my way to the main salesfloor…and rammed that cart right into the side of an aisle while in a complete daze oh my god Ciara, why- 

The cart was now pushed up against a craft department aisle, the items on the shelf jostled. What's more is that I felt the dawning realization that I was in fact out on the main sales floor now, and I could feel eyes burning into me. 

"I'm blind as a bat, aren't I?" I pushed my glasses up as the customers stared on. "Don't tell my boss, 'kay?" I laughed a little too hard at this before briskly moving ahead to our sports department. Taylor asked for me to document what I can so that's what I'll do, is what I tell myself. Just because it's a little inconvenient, doesn't mean I get to stop now. "Ciara, hey dude! I'm going to need you over here to lift the pool sets in our seasonal section," Aiden was now speed walking alongside me, pointing back at aisle two of the seasonal department. Aiden Gossman had come in late to work yet again, and I could feel my blood pressure rising. How many times have I asked him to get a head start on the traffic by driving in early? And yet he does the same thing, every time without trying to do things differently, but that was something manageable in terms of stress. This? Whatever this was, it was threatening to break me down to my more melodramatic baseline. I sucked in a breath as I turned my cart. "I'm also going to need you to talk to management on my behalf because they haven't fixed-" He rambles on, fidgeting with his hat on his head, knowing full well if he keeps talking to me he can beat the clock and go to lunch having worked very little stock. It's a game. The "oh, I'm getting paid by the hour" game. 

"I just got out of talking with management!" He flinched a little, glancing me up and down. "You okay? You seem a little uh… nervous?"

"Going to be honest Aiden, I'm having a mental breakdown!" My voice raised in octaves that could possibly, possibly be heard by dogs. "Okay, okay. Good to know," This dynamic was unusual for us. It was usually him asking me where to be, and I could tell it was throwing him for a loop. He squirmed a bit more as he waited for me to get a grip. I tried breathing in several breaths. Mallmart still seemed unmanageable today. Same with Our little county on the emerald shores. "Where are you looking to move the pool set anyways? That just went out front last week." Now this seemed to be news to him- 

"I don't know man, they told me to move it here. We got it down but the other guys helping me went off and I can't find them." 

"Wellll? Who were they?" He knows who, and yet he shrugs. These pool sets I have lifted by myself, and yet here Aiden was needing multiple people's help. Multiple people who could be working on other things in the store. I realized the irony, that I was being roped into working on something different than what I should be doing. The pool set went up just fine, me handling it alone, and when I looked back after lifting it up until its aisle shelf, Aiden Gossman was gone. The passage of time seems non-existent when you're working, I wondered how long he stood there before he finally turned away? Just to be sure, I pulled out my work phone that was given back to me after that wonderful meeting, and clicked the screen on. "Of course," I mutter grimly.

"It's lunch."

Some things you may not know about Aiden;

One is that whenever Taylor is not at work, he tends to avoid talking to me. He will pointedly sit at another table, talking to the trainee girls, or he'll stare vaccantly into his phone until it is way past his allowed lunch break. Finding him with his eyes glued to his phone in a corner of the break room was not a surprise at all. "Where are you being sent after this?" As soon as I sit down and start asking questions, I can see him tapping out. "Dude, this is lunch break…Hba, probably…" He groans, not taking his eyes off the screen. He's hoping I'll disappear from his peripheral vision so he can breathe again. He is so burdened by work and responsibilities, he surely must long for the days back in highschool. Time to test a theory, "It's funny," I grinned. "Rosa told me that she's been on your case because she thinks you have a crush on Taylor."

"So what if I do?You and your Misty Quigley looking ass don't have a shot with her," His head immediately picks up from his phone, speaking on the defensive. Ah, now he's listening. This little bit that I said though was a lie. The higher ups were on his case because he was a slacker. "Oh, I told her that she didn't have to worry because you told me you had a girlfriend back in Georgia. Maybe I got it wrong?" He could've said he broke up with her, but instead he squirmed in his seat, looking caught. Bingo. "Don't worry Aiden, I made sure that everyone was on the same page so that you wouldn't get in trouble. You know, you aren't exactly supposed to date coworkers. Not ones in the same department or position of work as you."

"Well, it's a long distance relationship, so…" he doesn't know how to finish his sentence. He shouldn't either. With every word, he is digging himself into a grave. After an awkward silence, Aiden retreats back into his phone.

The only thing that kept me going during that work day was the fact that I would be going to the church on Partin street, to look into the steps of getting baptized. The doors felt sleek in my hand and cold, and the doors opened to what felt like home. Not Okaloosa County, not my parents house, and not even the where I moved from, originally. This reminded me of childhood, of the dust covered crucifixes and the dimming lights of days gone by. I followed that path home, right down to the nave. 

There are some things to know about Catholic religion. One such thing is that you need to speak to a priest before you plan to be baptized at all. About your life, about your faith, about what led you to make this decision. You need to take classes beforehand I remember, at least as a kid anyways… The classes I had taken long ago, but never followed up on the actual act of being baptized. "We'll get around to it one day," Was what my parents had said. 

Another thing is, that I hadn't known, was that you can be denied.

Not, 'Oh, you have to retake some classes, and fill out forms' not, 'Oh you can't do that right away, you need to devote yourself to the lord' I was denied, and in fact when I'm buried, I'll be buried face down.

A friend dm'd me with this and I just had to put it on here 💛

Feeding cats by remote control 😹😹😹❤️

Art by @ashleyvalentinelee