Safeway.

A Nightshift. A great way to earn money for university.
8:30pm-7:30am five days a week.
I would get up at about 6pm and have things for breakfast such as Curry or Pork Chops. Then when I got home, for dinner I would have things such as Corn Flakes.
There were three of us on the nightshift.
I swapped night for day.
Open cans of pet food brimming with Maggots.
I always enjoyed stacking crisps because they came in big boxes.
Second aisle was always difficult, pasta sauces, fiddly things like herbs and spices.
Beers, wines and spirits failed to look like things that brought people to life. They were just objects in glass and metal. I would always wear the same pair of adidas tracksuit bottoms and after a couple of months the material on my left knee began to wear away because that was the knee I would rest on whilst stacking the lower shelves.
One particular night in summer there were only two of us working compared to three. Chris, my fellow worker had been doing nightshifts for something like 15 years. We shared interests such as the Beatles and spent many an hour talking about them, boring the olive oil to tears. The crisps would try to snap themselves into tiny pieces as we spoke about Revolver.
I would take care of one aisle whilst Chris would tackle the other.
That night I kept seeing things out of the corner of my eye. Chris walking past the end of the aisle, but it wasn’t. When you see something out of the corner of your eye it happens again, half because your brain is telling you it just happened again. Black shadows were there. It’s nothing, I said to myself. Focus on the wall of sugar you are building. It will be break soon and you can have a microwave meal of some description. The special offers were always great. I remember buying a ridiculous amount of condoms when they were half price, no embarrassment buying them when there are only two people in the shop, just the embarrassment of never using them.
The shadows kept coming out of view.
Break time came, have you been seeing things tonight? Asked Chris.
What do you mean? I asked.
Like black shadows out of the corner of your eye?
Yes I have, I said. Feeling rather scared.
Yeah it’s been bad for it tonight. Said Chris.
What do you mean?
Well its built on top of an old hospital he said.
Oh dear.