Merchants Tire and Auto

I’m currently sitting at my most least favorite car place, Merchant's Tire and Auto. They changed their name to NTB several years ago, but it will always just be Merchant’s to me. 

It doesn’t matter what I do, I always end up spending 2 plus hours in this damn place. Today I set an appointment for an oil change and am leaving with a new set of tires an alignment and $1000 poorer.

Despite all of that, I still keep coming here. They have always done all the maintenance on my Odyssey mom van and I don’t really feel like they try to rip me off too badly. I always bring my notebook with me to write. I have written several poems in the waiting room of this grimy car shop. I’m writing this from the same spot right now.

But I don’t feel poetic right now, just reflective. There is a couple here that made me feel the urge to go prose. Characters in my day. There is a tall skinny, furry necked man sitting across from me as I first sit down. I could hear him as I was checking in. Grunting and breathing hard. Twitchy. Eating from a bag of cherries.

I know who this guy is. His name is Adam. He doesn’t know me and doesn’t know that I know who he is. His child goes to after school daycare with mine.

I used to work with the mother of his child and know that she is a recovering junkie. It is clear that this guy is not recovering.

He is disgusting me. He oozes addiction. His girlfriend is sitting beside him with her face in her hands, covered with a wadded up t-shirt. She has scratches all over her thin hands. Maybe she has cats. She is all but silent.

Eventually he goes to the bathroom for an extended amount of time. When he comes out, he stumbles just a bit and tells his girlfriend to come on. She grabs her stuff and they head out the door. All that is left, is this random bag of cherries on the floor. 

It looks like they are finally pulling the tires off my car. Hopefully I won’t be here too much longer. I wonder how long those cherries will stay on that floor?