The Flip of a Coin

Everybody knows that it’s not supposed to snow in fucking Texas. Every year the weatherman forecasts snowy weather…… and every year there’s not a speck of snow on the gotdamn grown

Those were the rules.

Snowy weather was just an excuse to have snow days to call off from work and school. They were supposed to be relaxing.

However, that meant that Slushy Jackson was not supposed to trudging through four foot deep snow, in the middle of gotdamn nowhere, and searching for a winter spirit.

Okay, to be fair– Everything started a couple of weeks ago when she was working her shitty job at the local grocery store. She was a cashier and it was her job to ring up people’s items, greet them, and wish them well when they left. She was supposed to be friendly and personable.

Anyone who has ever met Slushy Jackson would tell you that she’s generally grumpy as a rule. She’s also kind enough to follow her own personal creed. Which went as follows: 

 1)Mind her gotdamn business

 2)Mind her gotdamn business

 3) Mind her gotdamn business.

Which is where the problem started……

Slushy was doing her job at the local grocery store.She would honestly tell you that she hated it…But it kinda paid the bills. Okay… who was she kidding…. It barely paid the bills and she was currently living off of ramen noodles.

Now everyone who's ever interacted with Slushy Jackson while she was at work knew how she operated when they came through her line. You either got fast service….. Or you got friendliness. You could not have both. You either got quick, efficient service—And got the hell on with your day— Or Slushy would stop trying to work and try to force her face into some semblance of friendliness. 

No one wanted her to be friendly. It was an in-store rule that the customers who preferred friendly cashiers don’t come through her line.

The customers who want to get in and get out of the store….. Well– they fucking love her.

Except for one person. He was constantly breaking Slushy’s rules and wanted to have a friendly conversation while his groceries were being checked out. 

Jamal Jackson was the bane of her existence.

“ Hey girl….” Jamal said in a friendly voice as he loaded his overfilled grocery cart onto the loading belt for checkout. “Did you hear about those people who froze to death inside their homes?!”

Slushy grunted at him in answer as her hands quickly scanned and bagged his shit ton of groceries. She wasn’t talkative at the best of times.

“It’s crazy right?!” Jamal continued conversationally, “ Like…. They found these people literally covered in ice. I mean…. It’s not like we live in fucking Alaska or something. This is Texas for goodness sake! These freak snow storms are getting on my nerves and making my heating bill soooooo high. Oh…. and girl…. When you gonna come by the salon again and let me do your hair? It’s time to redo those braids girl! How about some color this time? I was thinking we put some gold cuffs in them and……”

Slushy tuned him out. Jamal was a talker and she was not. She was barely friendly on a good day.

But that did get her to thinking……

The weatherman on the news said it was gonna get really bad….. To be ready to hunker down for days and to be ready to be snowed in. Slushy normally didn’t pay that any mind…. The weather man said that every year….. And every year nothing happened.

Except this time.