Most people didn’t understand the pure rush that comes with stopping crime. They live their lives as future victims, hoping to get through the day unscathed.
Someone else will always take care of things.
I press my knee deep into the young man’s back until I hear the sound. It’s part gasp, part plea for mercy, but they can’t get the words out. I don’t have to do it, but I can.
I had noticed him before he even reached for the snacks. The thought was clear in his mind, ‘nobody will miss a bag of chips.’
He was trying to sneak out of the store while the lone cashier was helping someone with a return.
I smile.
Bet you can’t eat just one.
I laugh.
Did I just say that out loud?
The police arrive and take him away. They offer no thanks. They don’t even acknowledge my work.
It doesn’t matter.
Their thanks are meaningless.
I don’t concern myself with the thoughts and opinions of weaker humans. I’ve been blessed with a gift and have sworn to protect those in need.
###
“Dale, you’ve been fired,” Mr. Winslow said as he sat in his chair, elbows on his desk. He loosened his tie and poured himself a drink from a bottle he kept in the bottom drawer. He didn’t offer Dale anything.
“I stopped four robberies this week! They should be thanking me.”
“Look, I gave you a shot because your dad was a legend, but you…I don’t know if you’re a fit.”
Dale looked around the room at all the photos and plaques for Superior Loss Prevention. Awards from the Chamber of Commerce, pictures of Mr. Winslow with the mayor, the chief of police, Dale’s dad.
“I told you I’m not my dad. I’m limited.”
“I get it Dale, but come on. Why are you even in an electronics store and watching the impulse buy racks?”
“But I…”
“While you were beating up that kid, someone had broken open a display case and walked off with about $2000 worth of RAM and video cards. And you broke two ribs in that kid’s back.”
“Probably when…”
“You did your signature move.”
“It’s just…”
“It’s just nothing. Shut up for a moment and pay attention. What does that say?” Mr. Winslow pointed to the logo that hung behind his desk.
“Superior Loss Prevention.”
“Damn right, superior. Look, I don’t have anything for you right now. Go home, take some time off…”
“But…”
“If I find a place that can use your particular skill set then I’ll call you.”
###
The fluorescent lights around the gas pumps flicker haphazardly as I approach. So this is how far I have fallen, from upscale retail security to lurking in the shadows of some off-brand gas station.
The pylon sign off the road said GAS. Just GAS. No branding. No allure.
The doors had seen better days. They were covered in old stickers for cigarettes and sodas, the prices scratched out to cover deals and brands that no longer exist.
7-up Gold?
The station is located in a neighborhood with a high school within walking distance and a community college further down the road. A prime target for thieves, no doubt.
My road to redemption starts here.
###
“Mr. Winslow told me a lot about you, Dale,” Rob Warnack said as he and Dale sat on two folding chairs thrown into a small back room that could politely be called an office. It smelled of gas and mold.
“All good things I hope.” Dale smirked as he cautiously eyed the room.
“He says you’ll be a perfect fit. We got a couple people here with powers already.”
“Thrilling.”
“And you have something like your father had?”
“I can read minds, but only if the person is thinking about stealing something inexpensive.”
“Oh, well lucky for me everything here qualifies as inexpensive.” Rob smiled broadly, sensing Dale’s own disappointment. “So the basic thing is…”
“You’re in a shitty neighborhood with lots of high school and college students and they steal a lot of inexpensive stuff.”
“Wow, you’re good.”
“That’s why we’re Superior Loss Prevention,” Dale rolled his eyes as he shifted in his seat.
“Indeed, you are! Well then, let’s get you started!”
###
I am justice.
In a world full of deceit and villainy I am the silent protector.
You need me on this wall.
An empty rack of potato chips next to me suddenly fills as a gust of wind tussles my hair. I rub my eyes, wondering if I imagined what I just saw. There is a knock behind me and the once empty shelf space is now filled with canned tuna.
I feel a light tap on my bottom.
###
“Sorry, I was just messing with you,” a young man said as he playfully tapped Dale on the shoulder.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“I’m Kenny, you must be Dale. I’m the stockboy here.”
“I’m the new loss prevention officer. Rob said some people here have powers. I guess it has something to do with what I just witnessed.”
“I was blessed with super speed, but only when I’m stocking shelves.”
“Oh…uhm…cool.”
“I do some maintenance work around the place as well,” Kenny said as a section of crackers suddenly filled in front of Dale. “Isn’t your dad that detective…”
“I really don’t want to talk about my dad,” Dale scowled. “I did get his mind reading abilities… as long as the person is thinking about stealing something inexpensive.”
“Lucky for you everything here is inexpensive.”
“So I heard.”
“Everyone else here is normal except for Chloe. She’s one of the cashiers, has some sort of math skill, but it is completely useless like…” Kenny trailed off.
“Ours, it’s okay. I think about that a lot. But then,” Dale put his hand on Kenny’s shoulder, “we all have our role to play.”
“Uhm, sure. Well, I have work to get to.” Kenny was gone and an aisle away a shelf of candy bars filled.
###
Two-thirty. High noon for convenience stores near schools. Soon, the vermin would come flooding in with their backpacks and sticky hands, hungry for ill-gotten snacks.
I am under strict orders from Mr. Winslow to focus solely on prevention. Stop ‘em before they steal. Rob doesn’t want any kids with broken backs littering the floors of his off-brand gas station.
I guess that’s justice.
Even if they don’t pay for their crimes.
I post up in the magazine aisle, the perfect place to keep an eye on the sodas as well as all salty and sugary snacks. I picked up a People Magazine and acted casual.
Who the hell is Paulina Porizkova?
The first students arrived, two males, backpacks, bad intentions.
It’s go time.
They each buy a soda and a candy bar.
Crisis averted.
Do they still make Now & Laters? I could crush a pack of watermelon Now & Laters.
At one point I see an old man forget a pack of mints that he put in his pocket.
I should have him face down on the ground.
When I point out his mistake he thanks me profusely as he pays.
###
“Hey new guy, you just going to read People Magazine all day?”
“Let me guess, you’re Chloe.”
“Wow, you can read a name tag, you really are a master detective.” Chloe leaned against the counter, incapable of the effort it would take to pretend to care about her job. “Is this what you do, to try to ruin kids' lives over a Hershey bar?”
“I’m not ruining anyone’s life.”
“Anymore.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You think I didn’t look you up? How many people’s ribs have you broken over potato chips?”
“Well, I haven’t run into anybody here who wants to steal anything.”
“Yeah, it’s amazing what the world looks like when you don’t assume everyone is guilty.”
“Why are you so angry at me?”
“Because you act like this is serious. Like we don’t see you playing Batman. The Joker isn’t coming through that door, dude. If you’re lucky, some kid who hasn’t had enough to eat all day will come in…and then you can make him feel like shit about it.”
“I’m just doing my job based on the skill I have. Not all of us were blessed with low level math abilities.”
“You’re a real hero, aren’t you?”
I am.
###
The smell hangs in the air. The dirty city, the gas, the fluorescent lights humming in the store. You can taste it when you breathe.
Chloe stands at the register, smug as always. On the rare occasion where I needed to stop a perp from stealing, she’d smirk, knowing that it killed me to let them off the hook.
How will they learn if I don’t teach the lesson?
From my perch in the magazine aisle I see everything, Chloe, the shelves filling silently around the store, even the old man who hangs out front, bumming for change. Every day he thinks about coming in and swiping something, but he knows I am here.
I’m dying. Without arrests, there is no proof of my value.
The last kid came in around three forty-five. He was set on stealing some candy.
Go for it, kid.
Test me.
From behind the latest copy of Pro Wrestling Illustrated I watch him pocket a pair of Snickers bars. I let him pay for a bottle of water and leave. As he steps out of the door I spring into action.
I race to the exit, hoping to tackle him in the parking lot. Just as I reach the threshold the door slams into my face, knocking me unconscious.
I wake up in the back room, Chloe leaning over me, still smirking.
###
“You okay there, hero?”
“I don’t… what happened?” Dale asked, putting his hand up to the large knot on his forehead.
“You tell me,” Chloe moved Dale’s hand away from his head and handed him a bag of ice.
Dale winced as he held the ice on his wound, then pulled himself up to a sitting position.
“I don’t know, I don’t remember. That door, it just slammed into my head.”
“Yeah, that was me.”
Dale looked up at her, his eyebrows raised and a sneer on his lips.
“I saw what you did, so I slammed the door in your face, as hard as I could.”
“How?”
“I’m going to tell you a secret, incredibly basic math is not a power. It’s just something that stupid people struggle with.”
“So what, you can control doors?”
“I can control metal. I just pulled the door closed as fast as I could. We’re both lucky you didn’t go through the glass.”
“Did you get the kid?”
“I let the kid go, geez, what is your problem?”
“What is your problem? I’d kill to have a power like yours.”
“I imagine you’d kill a lot of people with a power like mine.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Dale said as he got up on his feet.
“But I’m not wrong.”
“So what are you doing here? You could be out there, doing good, keeping the world safe.”
“Is that what you think you do? You think the world is safer thanks to your important work stopping petty shoplifting.”
“Crime is crime.”
“I called Rob to let him know what happened. He said to let you know to not come back.”
“What the fuck?”
“You didn’t follow procedure and you got hurt on the job, you’re a liability.”
“You’re the one who hurt me!”
“Me? I just do simple math. And I’ve made my workplace a little safer today.”
###
I am the shadow that separates good from evil.
I am the shield that defends the powerless.
Thanks to a series of convex mirrors placed strategically around the store I have full coverage of the “Everything’s A Buck” store in the Kerrington Mall. From my spot in the gift wrap aisle, I see everything and I have total insight into the diseased minds of those who would break the social contract.
A small twitch in the back of my brain.
Soon, a theft will be in progress.
I have been unleashed, free to dispense justice.
I leap out from the aisle.
The ‘psssht’ of a bottle of soda opening confirms what I have already surmised.
Leaping over the counter, I elbow the cashier in the throat, knocking her to the ground as the bottle goes tumbling, spraying sticky, orange soda everywhere. The coins in her other hand plink off the counter.
“You haven’t paid for that yet,” I growl as I grind my knee into her back, my signature move.
I am justice.