Zero arrived a few minutes before seven to start his shift.
“How was the night? I hope not too cold?” he asked Fiona.
“No, I’m fine. You good?”
“You know me, Fi, I’m always good. But you look tired. Go on home and get some sleep. Should I stop by later?”
“If you want to.”
Fiona went to the locker room to get her stuff. She found Lucas there, one of the petrol attendants.
“Good morning, Fiona.”
“Hey Lucas.” She saw he had a new leather coat. “That’s nice.”
“You like it? If you want I can organise one for you.”
“No, but it looks good on you. I guess it helps you pull the ladies,” Fiona joked. Lucas always had lots of flash things like that. She wondered if he worked another job somewhere else too.
“I don’t need any help pulling the ladies,” Lucas boasted, and then laughed. He hadn’t been working at the station for long but Fiona liked him. He was always fun to share a shift with, even if he was a bit lazy. Being a supervisor, Zero didn’t agree, so Fiona never mentioned Lucas unless Zero brought him up.
“OK, see you,” Fiona said.
She headed home. At least the sun had come out and the biting wind of the night was gone. Claudia was just leaving for university when Fiona arrived. That was another reason she hated night shift: her life seemed to run in the opposite direction to the entire world.
“Hey you, you OK?” Claudia asked at the door.
“Yeah I’m good.”
“OK, got to run. We have a mock trial today and I want to meet with my team beforehand. Get some sleep. You look like shit.”
Fiona watched her sister rush down the road to catch the combi. She was a happy, confident young woman and Fiona was glad for that. Of course, she’d been sad when their mother died, but, somehow, she found a way to keep living. She wondered if Claudia ached every day from missing their mother, like she did.
Fiona crawled into her bed. Even with her uniform off she still smelled like petrol. She thought she should go and shower but she was only just getting warm and couldn’t take getting wet and cold again. She fell into a dreamless sleep until she was woken up by knocking at the door. She checked out of the window and it was dark. She’d slept the entire day away.
“Hey, what took you so long? I’ve been out here knocking for a few minutes,” Zero said.
“I guess I was sleeping too hard, sorry. What time is it?”
“It’s seven. Good I woke you; don’t you need to be at work at eleven?”
Fiona rubbed her eyes. “Yeah.”
Zero had bought some food and Fiona sat down and watched him unpack the takeaway containers. “So how was your day?”
“Good, except for Lucas again. He pissed off one customer; filled for a hundred Pula when the guy said fifty. I had to give the customer the extra P50 petrol for free. I should take it out of Lucas’s salary.”
“That’s not fair. People make mistakes. How do you know the customer wasn’t lying?”
“Don’t stand up for Lucas, Fiona. That’s a waste of your time. He’s bad news. I doubt he’ll last much longer, to be honest.”
Fiona said nothing more. Zero wanted everyone to have the same commitment to the job as him, but for most of them it wasn’t their life. It was just a way to make a living. She wouldn’t say that though.
They finished eating and watched some TV then Fiona got ready for work. Zero gave her a lift. At the station, he leaned over and gave her a kiss.
“Try to have a good shift.”
“OK,” Fiona said.
“Smile, it’s not so bad.”
Fiona smiled to ease Zero’s mind. It was for no more reason than that, though.
***
Tell us what you think: Do you agree that Zero is expecting too much of Lucas?