Clean-up on Aisle 4

I've worked at Gus's Groceries for a decade, since my last year of high school.  The work is easy.  I deliver groceries and gardening materials to the old ladies in town, and stock the shelves with overpriced food items.  Not too many people shop at Gus`s anymore.  There`s a Wal-Mart ten blocks away.  It`s called a Super Centre, because you can buy fresh produce there.  I always do my grocery shopping at Gus`s, even though I can`t afford it.  My mother insists on it, because her and Gus used to date before she met my father.  She doesn`t even eat anyways.  My mother is a drunk.  She has been since my father disappeared ten years ago.  She used to be so beautiful, and kind, and now she`s a hollow, cracked, rotted shell of what she used to be. 

Nothing much ever happens in this town, and I like it that way.  I don`t like to draw too much attention to myself or my mother, but Gus always asks how she`s doing.  I always say ``fine`, but he knows I`m lying.  My mother is going to die.  Part of me feels relief over this fact, and the other part hates myself for feeling relief over this.  It`s sick.  I hate my mother, and I love her fiercely at the same time.  But I`m tired of looking after her.  I'm twenty seven, and I`ve never had a girlfriend.  I`ve never kissed a girl, been on a road trip, made a new friend.  Maybe that will change after my mother dies.