The Day I Wished I Was a Vampire

By Cassie Baran

Ever have one of those days in which you wished you could turn into a vampire? So do I...One happened just recently, in fact! I work at a gas station near 2 inter-modal centers and lots of warehouses. One day, when all of our pumps were occupied, someone came in to prepay on a (broken) pump. I'll call him Dreads.The conversation went something like this:

"Sir, pump 2 is broken. I can prepay you on pump 5 if you like, or you can wait for another pump to open up."
"No, just give me 5."

Now, upon prepaying Dreads, I noticed that there was a car parked at pump 5. Needless to say, Dreads couldn't get his car close enough to the pump for the hose to reach his tank! As I scanned the line, trying to figure out what to do next, someone else whom I'll call Beard, stepped up to my register. He says to me, "I want 20 on 5," at which point I attempt to shut down the pump. Well, since I had already prepaid Dreads on that pump, I had to cancel the prepay. Can you see my eyes turning red yet?

As Beard was running back out to his car, Dreads came in rather irate, as was I! He half -asked, half-yelled at me, "Oh, so you're gonna take care of this guy first, or what?" Trying to hide my fangs, I informed Dreads that I had canceled his prepay since he hadn't picked up the pump yet. I told him that he would have to wait until the first car was out of his way, or move to another pump and I could set him up there. In the midst of this, I noticed that we were out of coffee. When it rains.....ya know?

Trying to muddle my way through the last 8 customers, I noticed that Beard was due some change. So, I hollered to my maker; I mean manager; that I was running it out to him. Now, I'm no dummy when it comes to a hustle, so I poured on the power and got him his change as he was finishing pumping his gas. Guess who was still waiting? Yep...Dreads! Leaning his head out of his window, he barks at me, "Hey, yo! Should I just pull into 5 now?" Barely feeling the 30 degree chill, I tell him that's fine, I'll go inside and set him up again. Again, pouring on the speed, I race back in to get Dreads set up before he gets to the pump. So much hassle, I thought to myself, over one broken pump. It would have been so much easier if I could have just sucked him dry.... and so much less aggravating, too!