Neil Clark
1. THE DISPATCH11:11
She hasn’t received a birthday card since her hair had color. For more years than she cares to count, she’s spent the mornings of her birthdays in the greetings cards section of her local supermarket. This morning, she picks out one that says, ‘Don’t Grow Up, It’s A Trap!’ She opens it and gets lost in the blankness inside. She runs her hand over the bit where a somebody might write, then with her fingernail, she makes letters and shapes. D e a r e s t. The letters of her name. A heart with a cheeky face. This morning, she will pick up every card on display, one by one, sign off with a different shape for each, then pop it back. At 11:10, she will go home to check the post again.
* * *
Nobody in the Customer Service Partner’s team is allowed to be miserable. That’s a tenet. #1 of 5. The tenets are displayed on a poster in the staff room, just before the door out to the shop floor, next to the mirror that says, ‘Practice your Smile!’ Even when the customer can’t see your face, the customer can hear your Smile in your voice. The customer can taste it in the produce you are putting on the shelves. The customer can feel it in the handles of the bag they use to carry their groceries out. Yes, you can literally hold the happy customer’s hand as they exit, and all it takes is a Smile. Isn’t that just incredible? This is more than a job and you are more than an employee, Partner.
* * *
A pretty young thing and another pretty young thing enter the aisle from opposite ends and converge at the cards section in the middle at 11:11. They are strangers until the moment they both reach for Don’t Grow Up It’s A Trap at the same time and giggle as their pinkies touch.
One says, “This is like one of those things you see in...”
“A meet-cute,” says the other.
* * *
Practice Your Smile!
#5 Our customers are often wrong
#4 EVERY LITTLE HELPS
#3 The company values every Partner’s put-up or shut up
#2 Pennies add up to pounds of flesh
#1 If we were allowed to be, maybe we wouldn’t be so miserable
* * *
The song that just came on the car radio used to make him feel something. Now, it goes over his head like the breeze through his thinned hair. He barely noticed when it began and barely notices when it ends. The radio host tells him today’s date is a palindrome. “Wow,” he thinks. He remembers what day it is, but not how old this makes him. As he walks through the carpark, he forgets what he came to the supermarket for. The answer is the same as ever—to pass the time. “Scented candles,” he thinks. “It’s a special occasion.” He puts jasmine in his basket, “Such a pretty name.” At 11:12, he arrives at greetings cards. He picks out one with a big red number on the front, surely within five of being correct. He runs his thumb over the blankness inside and feels the shape of a flame. He puts the card in the basket. “For the mantelpiece,” he thinks. Tonight, in flickering light, he’ll make a wish and blow, then he’ll think about all the things that might have passed him by, by a whisker. “Or maybe things don’t pass anyone by,” he thinks. “Maybe they just pass onto someone else.” This makes him feel a little more at ease. Shortly, he will go to bed, where he will fall asleep with his two pinkies locked.
2. BUREAU INVENTORYBlack coffee, getting just the right amount of cold.
Laptop. I tried writing longhand recently and just can't.
Speakers / music
Books. I can't write anything until I read some sentences by another writer to warm-up. Random extracts work best.
My new hammock—what a game changer.
3. BIOGRAPHYNeil Clark is a writer from Edinburgh, Scotland. His work has been featured in publications such as Wigleaf, Bath Flash Fiction, Jellyfish Review and The Molotov Cocktail. His collection of cosmic micro fiction 'Time. Wow.' came out in 2020. You can find him on Twitter @NeilRClark, or visit neilclarkwrites.wordpress.com for a list of his stuff.