True Love Delayed

It was just another routine shopping trip to the local GossipMart. Joseph made the trek two or three times per month, buying whatever was needed by a single man running a household while caring for an aging parent.

Sometimes it would be to use the pharmacy, with both the old man and the dog at home needing their monthly meds. Sometimes it was to buy food for quick light meals, replacement tools for the shop, shoes and socks, or whatever whatnot was needed at the moment.

He never really thought about it much. He had been doing it for years, always going quietly unnoticed. It was quick and convenient. For someone who was a terribly unskilled shopper and found domestic duties to be a misery, one-stop low budget shopping certainly was the ticket for taking the easy way out.

Joseph had always taken the easy way out. It was in his nature. Now, here he was, with ownership of a house to maintain; a semi-helpless aging father to look after; a dog with epilepsy; grass to be mowed; and bills, bills, and more bills. That was the deal he had made with his grandmother before her death, and he was going to honor it.

The agreement was made in the kitchen of his grandmother’s home, years earlier, during a brief private chat. She had told him that she had a tumor in her head, it couldn’t be removed, and she wouldn’t be long for this world.

“If you promise me that you’ll take care of your dad and provide him a home when he gets old, I’ll just give this house as an inheritance. Both my girls are married and have homes of their own, but he doesn’t.

All he has is that damned truck of his. He lives out there on the road, hauling his steel. What’s going to happen to him after I’m gone and he has nowhere to call home? What’s going to happen to you? I worry about you both.”

* * *

Stacy was a new hire at GossipMart, the checkout girl in the electronics department. She was just your averagely ordinary looking trailer park-type girl you’d find working at GossipMart: skinny, mostly flat chested, peroxide-blonde hair, and the typical clueless look. Joseph was attracted to her instantly.

He thought she was just beautiful and a perfect looking woman, built the way God had intended a woman to look. He liked everything about her, from the sound of her voice to the shape of her shoulders, and the delicately fragile way she walked.

Maybe she would finally be the one, he thought, but she seemed shy and hardly ever spoke or made eye contact. It was like bad things had happened to her and she was still afraid to come out of her shell.

He was just going to take this slow and easy, until he finally could work up the courage to ask her out. She could either say yes or no, and that would be that.

Two months had now past, before he finally went up to her counter for one last confidence check. He wanted to see if there was any hint of mutual attraction before he would final ask her out. The store was fairly busy and he had some small item to checkout.

He had develop a habit of always using the side-counters for small purchases. Going to electronics, sporting goods, or cosmetics was a lot more convenient then standing in line at the main checkout counters, followed by a quick exit through the lawn and garden side entrance. Today was Stacy’s day to be manning the most convenient register.

She rung up his item without making eye contact. The only word she spoke was the amount due. Joseph handed her cash and she made change. Then she held out her hand to give him the change, but turned her back to him like he didn’t even exist, while commenting to her nearby co-worker:

“The store is really busy today.”

Joseph looked at the co-worker with a ‘What the fuck is this?’ look. The co-worker glanced at Stacy with a ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ look.

Joseph was pissed and refused to take the change from Stacy’s hand. Instead he held out his palm-up hand right beside hers to force her to turn and place the change in his hand. There was a second long standoff before she whirled and smacked the change into his hand, as the two angrily glared at each other.

“Thank You!” said Joseph, in a toned that was more of a ‘Fuck You!’ than a pleasantry.

He turned in a huff and walk away while thinking to himself, ‘What a nasty rude little bitch! There is definitely no connection there. I wouldn’t ask her out if she was the last person on Earth! If she worked for me I’d fire her right there on the spot for being rude to her customers… and the co-worker standing there with her!’

The months went by as Joseph continued to shop at GossipMart and Stacy continued to work there, as well. He tried to avoid her and never again went to her counter, but chance encounters were inevitable. On each one, Stacy would react negatively, progressively escalating, and Joseph would do his best to ignore her.

‘If she’s got a problem with me shopping here, like I’ve done for years before she started working here, she can just go work somewhere else!’ he thought, as the stubborn clash of wills continued.

* * *

Then came the ‘Egbert Incident’. Joseph was up at the front of the store on a monthly pharmacy trip. Toward the back of store stood Brian Egbert and the GossipMart loss prevention officer, who had been recently hired along with Stacy. Joseph just happened to turn to look behind him for some unknown reason and made eye contact with the two from across the floor.

“That guys a stalker!” exclaimed Egbert, audible enough for Joseph to hear him.

Indeed, there had been an incident between Joseph and Egbert's sister, Sandy, about eight years earlier but it wasn’t stalking. It was more of a misunderstanding blown out of proportion by a drama queen, and then exacerbated by an elitist family seeking petty vengeance. Sandy’s father had been the Mayor of their small town, and as such, in charge of the town’s police force.

Joseph began heading toward Egbert and his mall cop buddy with the aim to confront them, but the two quickly ducked into a side aisle and scurried away.

After that, cute little Stacy really began escalating matters every time Joseph ventured into the store. She would stop whatever she was doing and rush into the backroom of the store. Then make a coded alert over the stores public announcement system to let everyone know Joseph was in the store shopping.

This wasn’t something to be ignored anymore but Joseph still tried his best to do so. He knew it was about him because one of the cashiers at the electronics counter even said so when a customer asked:

“What is that all about?”

“Oh, one of the girls doesn’t like that guy”, as she pointed at him as he walked by.

He knew Stacy was also watching him shop through the stores camera system, even going so far as to make comments to him over the intercom system mounted in the ceiling.

“More socks? I see your true colors now.”

Unavailable items that Joseph had been looking for on previous shopping trips began to appear front and center where they couldn’t be missed; a proper sized belt; a lamp shade. He felt Stacy was now playing games with him and it pissed him off even more.

It seemed like everywhere he went, even outside of the store, Stacy would show up nearby and act like a victim. When he walked out of a specialty hardware store, there she was driving by; stopping her car for an instant as if she were shocked, and then sped away.

Living in the same area, they past each other while driving more than a few times. Each time Stacy would act like a terrified victim. She even wrecked her car by rear-ending the car in front of her because she was watching Joseph in her rear-view mirror. Joseph was just driving home from his auto repair shop and had no idea she was four or five cars ahead of him until he saw the wreck.

This was followed by Stacy driving by Joseph’s house at least a half dozen times over the course of several months. It was a residential street with a T-intersection, there was no legitimate reason for her to even be on that street. She put road signs up along a road she knew Joseph drove every day on his way to work, complete with arrows pointing the way.

‘Stacy & Jerry’s Birthday Party’

Jerry was her high functioning autistic brother, Joseph assumed. He had had several encounters with him as well. Jerry appeared to have been stalking him, as he went about his business.

Egbert’s friend, the mall cop, upped his game as well. Stalking Joseph through GossipMart. Stalking him outside of GossipMart, as well. He was just showing up in odd places he shouldn’t have been but also keeping a discreet distance.

Then came the Saturday morning when Joseph looked out his kitchen window, only to see Stacy standing directly across the street trying to peep through the windows of his house. He had just climb out of bed and was wearing nothing but his underwear. Thankfully, the house curtains were mostly still closed, leaving no chance of her reporting him for flashing.

* * *

Across the street from Joseph house was a fire hall’s parking lot. Over the years there had been many disagreeable incidents with those people, volunteer fire department member who felt they belonged in a privilege class. It all started over a property management issue so long ago, when Joseph was just a kid and his grandparents still owned the home.

They had put in a short sloped driveway to their parking lot, sending two-acres worth of parking lot rain water out into the street and onto the property owned by Joseph’s grandparents. It flooded out the front yard and seeped into the basement every time it rained.

Instead of fixing the issue, the fire department opted to give Joseph’s grandparents and attitude of ‘Oh well, fuck you, that’s called progress. We’re the fire department and we can do whatever we want. Every member of town council is a member too, so there is no use complaining there, either. Just shut-up and deal with it.’

Instead of filing a lawsuit like they should have, and always wanting to be good neighbors, Joseph’s grandparents dealt with it as best as they could. His grandfather even built a small earthen mound along the property to redirect the water. It was just a never-ending hostile situation. Thirty years later the run-off water was still ponding in the street every time it rained.

When Joseph was twelve years old he was finally allowed to take a canoe out onto Lake Pymatuning by himself. That same year, the fire department’s assistant chief tried to hit him with a high-speed motor boat while he was out canoeing alone. Then he had the audacity to lie about it.

"Oh, he was out there sleeping in the canoe! I didn’t see him and had to veer away at the last second!"

There were many incidents between that man and Joseph over the years. He was just a constant pain in the ass and a trouble-making liar. When Joseph inherited the house, he inherited that conflict too.

It came to ahead one day when the assistant chief falsely accused Joseph of complaining about a firewood pile that the fire department kept across the street in their parking lot. He dumped a small truckload of firewood directly across from Joseph’s front door and doused the whole thing with lighter fluid; put a cheap barbecue grill on top of it and lit it on fire.

He snidely remarked to his fireman buddy who was with him, “Boy, I hope the smoke doesn’t blow that way!” as he fanned the smoke in the direction of Joseph, who had come out to investigate.

His next words were aimed directly at Joseph, “This isn’t a fire you can call to complain about! It’s a barbecue that’s gotten out of control and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

Joseph wanted to hop over the chain-link fence separating them and just beat Mr. Assistant Chief to death, but he knew that would end in prison time, so he just kept him cool and held his temper in check.

“Dickhead, we’re not the people complaining about your woodpile. Why don’t you stop being an asshole; stop coming down here trying to cause trouble; and just fix the problem you and your buddies created with this driveway?”

There was no response except blank glares. Joseph turned and walked away. He went into the house, closed the door, and sat to watch TV while totally ignoring the assholes across the street.

Good neighbors, that volunteer fire department was not. 'That would be the last group of people on Earth that I’d want coming into my home with fire hoses, Joseph thought, I’m sure they’d do more water damage than the actual fire damage.’

Eventually, Mr. Asshole died for suddenly diagnosed cancer and the troubles mostly ended for a few years. Joseph had heard the man suffered terribly his final few months, but that didn't bother him one bit. Karma's a bitch, buddy.

Now, here was Stacy standing across the street peeping through the windows. She had brought others with her, along with a mini-van full of tree branches they had gathered somewhere. The others were throwing the branches into a pile where the fire department had previously kept their woodpile.

Joseph realized this was an attempt to add insult to injury; to provoke a conflict were there should've been none. Instead of playing along, he just got dressed, walked out to his vehicle and then just drove away and left.

He did notice that one of the stick-throwers that had been with Stacy was Brian Egbert’s daughter; Sandy Egbert’s niece. Her grandfather was one of the volunteer fire departments board members. It became obviously clear who was behind this witch-hunt. It was the Egberts and they were using a girl with emotional health issues to do it.

* * *

As time went on, GossipMart became worried about being hit with a lawsuit. They had spent over two years accusing an innocent frequent shopper of being a stalker. They had zero proof or evidence of any devious activity taking place in their store, not one bit of video.

All they had was an employee with emotional health issues creating drama; a wannabe mall cop encouraging her to do it; and a gaggle of employees acting as her enablers.

They made the decision to try to create evidence were there was none so they could cover their asses in court if a lawsuit was ever filed. They brought in bait-girls who generally looked like Stacy to see if an incident could be created. Nothing.

They then brought in a former romantic interest of Joseph from twenty years earlier. Joseph totally ignored her. Nothing again. At least a dozen set-up attempts similar to these were made, but each came up with nothing.

In desperation, GossipMart had Stacy dress up in a mini-skirt and stand in a very visible spot in the middle of the store towards the back. Nothing again, Joseph just ignored her and walk right past her like she didn’t exist.

They had her pose in a sexy position on top of a ladder. Nothing. They made four, maybe five, other attempts at entrapment, directly using Stacy as the bait. Nothing.

Finally, when Joseph had had enough, after he had gathered enough evidence of his own, he walked up to one of the main checkout counters and said to the cashier ringing his items up:

“You know, I’m getting really tired of being accused of being a stalker every time I shop here. I’ve never stalked anyone before in my life, and if there’s one more incident in this store, I’m going to file a lawsuit. I already have it prepared. It’s twenty-two pages long, containing every incident.”

“Oh my God!” came her reply. “You should tell one of the managers!”

“Nope. They’re the ones who are doing it.”

“Oh my God.”

* * *

Joseph’s next regular shopping trip to GossipMart was completely uneventful. Stacy, the mall cop, the enabling employees, and even the managers were gone. They had all been transferred to another store twenty miles away, which is how GossipMart encourages unwanted employees to quit due to the longer commute.

No lawsuit was ever filed, in fact, it was a bluff. In order to file a lawsuit, Joseph would’ve had to throw cute little Stacy out under the bus, exposing her emotional flaws to a worldwide media audience.

He wasn’t going to do that. Not to her. He opted to just take the hit instead, moving on and just letting it go. Besides, what lawyer would take a case like this? He would have to be as crazy as Stacy.

If he confronted his tormentors and accusers at GossipMart, where else was he going to shop? If he assaulted one of his accusers in the inevitable fist-fight, he would’ve been arrested.

Who would’ve bailed him out of jail? No one. Who would’ve taken care of his elderly father? Who would’ve paid the bills or made the monthly back-tax payments on the house? No one.

Twenty years have now past since Joseph and Stacy’s first encounter. There have been sporadic incidents from time to time, but nothing that couldn’t be dealt with or ignored. Living in the same area, encounters were bound to happen.

Over that time, Joseph had done some research. It seems that Stacy had been involved in a very traumatic event a few short years before she began working at GossipMart. Her father had shot and killed the father of her two young children in a domestic violence event.

Stacy had broken up with her lover, determining he was more interested in just sex than raising a young family. He showed up at her house with a knife, demanding to be with her. She refused, as he became increasingly aggressive. Her father arrived and intervened, doing what any father would do for his daughter. It ended with two shots from a hunting rifle.

Joseph actually knew her lover, having gone to school with him years earlier. He wasn’t surprised to find someone had shot him. He had always been that type of asshole.

The GossipMart mall cop was just a wannabe who had failed his psychological testing to become a real police officer. He had bought a used police car with a spotlight mounted on the door. He had been elected constable of his local township, receiving one write-in vote, which was his own. He had also been arrested by a real cop for carrying a gun into a school, while he was playing duly elected constable.

Yep, this was the type of man who would buy a flashing blue light to place on the roof of his car, and then attempt to pull women over along a secluded stretch of highway, just so he could play policeman. GossipMart’s finest.

Brian Egbert was a divorcee whose wife had left him because of his overly critical nagging, constantly yapping like a small dog that had no real bite. Condemn, complain, and criticize. He had been arrested for domestic violence. It was in the local newspaper.

'How ironic, Joseph thought. This guy was accusing me of being a stalker, when I’ve never been arrested for anything like that, but he’s a domestic abuser who gets drunk, slaps the girlfriend and her kid around, busts up the kitchen chairs, and gets drug out of the house in handcuffs.'

As for the incident with Sandy Egbert, Joseph had been taking a piss in a parking lot behind a bar at 3 AM, when she walked up on him. He had been too drunk to even drive his car. His friend had been driving and that’s the spot he chose for a piss break.

Sandy turned and ran away screaming with her hands in the air. “Gary!!! Gary!!!”

Joseph’s friend thought it was hilarious, but drunken Joseph didn’t. A few days later he wrote her a letter in a half-assed attempt to apologize. He had no idea where to send it, so he left it on the windshield of her car, under the wipers.

Four or five months earlier, he had sent her flowers and poem he had written. He had no idea where to send them, not knowing where she lived, but one of her co-workers was happy to volunteer the general information. All he had to do was ask. He then paid a florist an extra $20 to go door-to-door to do the rest.

Sandy wasn't interested and that was the end of it. There was never any stalking to it. Joseph had never known where Sandy actually lived, nor did he ever follow her around.

Eight months after the piss break, the police called Joseph, “You aren’t in trouble, but you could be.”

“OK. I haven’t been in your town in at least eight months. Do you mind telling me what the problem is?”

“I can’t. Just come down. I want to talk to you.”

The next day, when Joseph did go to talk to the cop, he wasn’t there. Joseph never did talk to him. The cop never called back and the matter just faded away.

Joseph knew it had been Sandy's father, the former Mayor, just trying to create a situation where there was none. It was just local town politics in action. Why else would they wait eight months to call the police?

Then eight years later, members of the Egbert family created a new situation by walking into GossipMart and using a woman with emotional health issues to do it. It was simply petty spite. Sandy had married and moved out of the area years earlier. It had nothing to do with her.

As for the rest of this cast of characters? Well, they’re just a bunch of townie clowns and rumor-mongering idiots. ‘Oh, I heard this, and I heard that. It must be true, even if it isn’t.’

There was no stalking of anyone, ever. No arrests. No charges. Nothing. Joseph would happily put his moral values and character up against any of his accusers, at any time. His might not be better but they definitely wouldn’t be any worse.

As for GossipMart, trying to destroy an innocent man’s life, career, and reputation for committing the crime of being a frequent shopper is about as low as you can get, especially when you use an employee with emotional health issues to do it. Maybe a lawsuit was needed after all. Then everyone could sit there under oath and tell the truth.

Joseph still thinks of Stacy, from time to time, twenty years later. She was his crush-girl for a very brief moment, so long ago. He thinks of what could’ve been if the townie scumbag trash hadn’t stuck their noses into something that wasn’t any of their business to begin with. He regrets the choices he made and the actions he did, and didn’t, take.

* * *

Joseph made his daily walk to the local convenience store, to buy his daily pack of cigarettes and a lottery ticket. He turned toward the soft voice he heard behind him, as she said:

“I – I read your story on Vocal Media…”

It was Stacy.