Liver Island ~ Chapter 2

I guess I didn’t tell you my name, and it’s Alex Henderson, so there you go.  I’m the one that showed you the lay of the land. I live here on Liver Island with my family. We run the local grocery store that my great-grandpa opened up 60 years ago, called Henderson’s food supply. I know it sounds like a pet food store, but bear with me here. I’m casher, my dad is the manager, my little sister is bagger, she’s seven and three quarters, and my mom is the run-around help-people person.

Right now I’m helping my sister bag some random, very demanding, time-driven person’s groceries. My dad is currently on a business trip to Dog Foot Island to, very surprisingly, do business. Mom is, as usual, running around with a sign on her apron that says “Hi My Name is Helen. Can I help you?” helping people.  I have some friends; one lives on Organic Island so I don’t see him very much, but my other friend lives here on Liver Island and I see him almost every Saturday. My dog’s name is Clifford and although he’s not red, he is almost as tall as me on all fours (not me on all fours, him) and not exactly the runt of the litter.

I met my friend in Organic Island when I was ten. I had just been promoted to casher.  I’m less excited about it now than I was then. I was the store greeter until we got Clifford who has always looked intelligent and friendly. I know it’s kind of creepy, but I think that Clifford is more intelligent than he looks because I think I saw him writing in his journal… I plan on sneaking into his doghouse and checking it out. So now Clifford is the greeter and my sister is, of course, the bagger and I’m the casher.

Anyway back to my story, I’d just been promoted, as my dad called it, and was doing well, when Gimble Tenirty Yuppytoo walked in with his parents. I was eager to show someone my age my new job. So when they came around the to counter, I tried to act perfect (which was impossible in my case; I was a very good prankster, I could climb the tallest tree on Liver Island, catch lizards, tame them, make a flea circus, I could probably even join a real circus if I would ever desire to [you could say I already have], but I could never act perfect.)

“Would you like a discount or should I just not give you the discount and tell my parents I did and use the extra money for this chocolate I’m so addicted to”, I had said, indicating the impulse buy with a wave of my hand in a very polite voice. 

Gimble laughed his heart out of his mouth but his parents didn’t get it and thought that I was a dangerous child. “We’ll take the discount” they had said with worry riddling their voices.

They kept coming to the store not because they liked me or thought I was funny, but because this is the only store on Liver Island and the next store is thirty minutes away on Stay Away Island… nobody goes to that store. So I saw Gimble more often and we’ve been friends ever since... until he moved to Organic Island.

            The store opens at 9:00 a.m. and closes at 7:00 p.m., so after hours I hang out with Clifford. He’s pretty cool because he has a Packman machine. I’ve never been able to beat him at that game. He always has Coca-Cola in his small size refrigerator. We’ve never really known what his deal was, but he’s the family dog and so we give him a dog house and dog food. He thinks it’s for the birds so he gives it to them, and we pay him four dollars an hour and he always saves some of it and spends the rest on Coca-Cola and junk-food. He has a girl friend named Hilary and she comes every once in a while and says “hi” to him in the store.

Well I better get back to the customer that’s standing at the counter looking at me like I need to do something about it.