Where Is He Now?

G was 60 or so when he worked at the ice cream shop in the mall. He had curly grey and white hair. He was always in a good mood and usually in some mild pain. He moved slowly. Once, he explained, it's because he went to his daughter's house and had to walk home. I had a lot of questions about what that meant but didn't ask. He said he got home at 4 AM. Was the walk that long or did he leave that late? Sometimes he told me stories that included a lot of 60s slang I didn't fully grasp, so I was always worried he'd already explained something about his life to me last week. I didn't want to make him think I wasn't listening.

The job was simple enough--mainly because I was never trained to do most of what we were supposed to do. I know this for a fact because one day a corporate rep showed up unannounced. I kind of made a show of trying to clean the scoops a little more intensely before she finally sighed and said, "Just work as though I'm not here." I did, and then we got an F on every section of the evaluation sheet besides "Hospitality" (for which I got an A -- insert angel emoji).

I was often alone, but G had some regular hours, so that's when we'd be paired up. Mostly people ordered a cup or cone, but once, a week into working together, someone ordered a sundae. G got a little nervous, like "oh great, something fancy." I said I'd make it, and G would not stop gassing me up for the rest of the day. "It looked just like a magazine picture!" he said. Whenever someone ordered a sundae for the rest of the season he'd point to me and explain something like, "You are not going to believe how good she can do it!" A kiosk nearby sold some weird wind chime music. We'd hear the same quirky hour of music on repeat all day sometimes. One of the songs was, "Our God Is an Awesome God." After a long day I said, I'm tired of Our Awesome God." And G said, "Oh but he's not tired of you!"

I remember one morning G was particularly happy. He just got a new job, he beamed, working in the refrigerator department of Sears. I congratulated him and asked when he was leaving. He clarified it was only half time, just like his hours at the ice cream shop. But the next day I overheard the store owner talking with our manager. "G got a new job, which is a relief, so we don't have to feel bad about firing him." We never said goodbye.