We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

Author:Jas Hammonds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

THE CASHIER

IN DOWNTOWN BARDELL, on the corner of Juniper and Main, there was a charming brick building that perpetually lived in the Draper Hotel & Spa’s shadow. Before it was bought out and gutted into a clothing boutique, the building was home to Easy Does It Drugs & Soda Shoppe for nearly sixty years. Many older Bardell residents had fond memories of sipping chocolate malts on the swiveling red stools and chatting up friendly Mr. Wilson while picking up prescriptions. But locals privy to gossip would always know Easy Does It as the site of the Letty Harding and Tallulah Oliver Dollar Debacle.

Letty June had been working at Easy Does It for one mind-numbing month when Tallulah Oliver waltzed in and asked for a soda on the house. It was July, and that particular afternoon was a sweltering ninety-nine degrees. The air conditioner was on the fritz. Mr. Wilson’s breath smelled like garlic, and Letty had a nasty, splitting hangover. All of these details were minor annoyances by themselves. Together, they were sticks of dynamite, and Tallulah’s doe-eyed I forgot my wallet and Let me speak to your manager were the matches that lit the fuse.

Dottie Henderson had been enjoying her weekly root beer float when she overheard Letty June say, Let me tell you one damn thing before proceeding to berate poor, sweet, pregnant Tallulah Oliver. Dottie had never been known to keep anything to herself, and by the end of the day, half of Bardell County had heard the news. It was awful, folks said before launching into a version of the story that snowballed every time it was told. That cashier down at Easy Does It was a raving lunatic. A cashier lost her job after verbally assaulting Tallulah Oliver. An unhinged cashier threw a soda on Tallulah and pulled her hair. The cashier punched Tallulah in the nose. Lord, I heard Tallulah Oliver might lose her baby after that cashier down at Easy Does It pummeled her in the stomach.

The truth, which often went ignored as it was much less exciting than the rumors, was that Letty June Harding never laid a finger on Tallulah Oliver. It was true she was fired immediately when Tallulah cried to the owner, Mr. Wilson. And it was also true that Letty gathered her things in a stream of expletives and, oddly, a demand that Mr. Wilson brush his goddamn teeth every now and then. Tallulah was too emotional to register when Letty June added, It’s not about the fucking dollar and it never has been before leaving the building. These words, this seemingly insignificant detail, became forever lost to time mere seconds after they were uttered.

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