Drug Store

By Mark Aliperti

When Marco is approached by a local drug dealer and pressured to smuggle opioids out of the pharmacy he works at, he is forced to choose between a negative impact in the short-term versus a negative impact on his future. Co-worker Mia becomes a willing sidekick as she struggles to support an addict mother and aspirations of college acceptance. Their lives quickly unravel when a one-time transaction becomes a weekly expectation. The teens are confronted with the criminal aspect of what they are doing while having money in their pockets for the first time.

The story examines how each of the characters deal with trust issues and the question of where they are going. Art the Pharmacist keeps a suspicious eye on the teens as he deals with bitterness as a result of losing his wife to cancer. Art represents the authority figure and moral reason the teens question what they are doing, but the pressure from a menacing and increasingly violent Anthony drive the two deeper into the madness. When Anthony is arrested for another violent act, the teens see any hopes of future slip away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098371203

Book preview

cover.jpg

© Mark Aliperti.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 978-1-09837-119-7 (printed)

ISBN: 978-1-09837-120-3 (eBook)

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Introduction

Tick, tick, tick the second-hand sweeps methodically around the traditional wall clock making its way past the nine and towards the top of the hour as the minute hand waits patiently at the 59th notch to introduce the new hour. The scholarly looking substitute teacher serving as proctor, peers over the tops of his spectacles to ensure his watch is in sync with the old timekeeper on the wall. The classroom is lined with pensive faces; 25 or so students from the class of 1995 anxiously twirling their Ticonderoga number 2’s, biting cuticles as they await the start of the college entrance exam. A teen with her hair pulled back into a ponytail sporting a sweatshirt emblazoned with her school’s fighting farmer mascot, pumps away on a red stress ball that was swag from the previous week’s college fair. Another girl in a nylon tracksuit bites down on a hangnail so intensely that blood engulfs her cuticle. The proctor scans the classroom and counts down the list of names on his roster with a pen trying to determine if all scheduled students have arrived. He straightens the knot on his plaid tie and smooths it down under his gray sweater vest, buttoning the middle button on his navy corduroy sport coat as he turns to close the door before providing final instructions to the anxious college hopefuls. As the last students enter the classroom and quickly occupy the remaining vacant seats, the proctor stops just short of shutting the heavy door as he halts and awkwardly smiles, holding the door open for the last participant to enter the room. The seated teenagers stare as the final student’s entrance momentarily distracts them from the anxiety of the moment.

All eyes in the room are focused on the overdressed girl as she pulls the last open metal chair back from the wooden desk, making a screech that breaks the deafening silence. The now center of attention is wearing plaid pants that hug her curvy hips, with burgundy Doc Marten boots and a short gray jacket covering the tight-fitting cropped t-shirt that leaves her navel and belly ring/chain combo exposed. Her make-up is smoky around her eyes and dark around her lips, accentuating her exotic beauty. Her big hoop earrings are partially blocked by the blonde highlighted strands of hair framing her face minus one pesky piece that falls in front of her left eye no matter how frequently she tucks it behind her ear. She smells sensual but stale with the strong scent of Sunflowers Perfume that she doused herself with before walking into the school in an attempt to cover the distinct odor of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana smoke. The majority of the room was wondering if she had slept and where she was going…or coming from, for that matter.

She stops chewing her gum for a moment and looks around the room slowly as if to stop all the stares and assumptions. She inhales slowly and deeply, eyes smoldering as her focus intensifies and she locks eyes with the proctor as if to say, We can start now. Despite the lack of sleep, she will find out in the coming weeks that she proceeded to execute a perfect math score and only one error in English. As she pushes open the heavy building door, the cool late October air rushes to her face and deep into her lungs. She feels temporarily exhilarated and relieved before exhaustion starts to set in. Each step closer to the bus stop is a step closer to a warm shower and a nap, but she won’t be getting either any time soon. Mia Bella Reyna? calls out the serious-looking bald man wearing black dress pants, cracked leather dress shoes, and a black windbreaker over a white dress shirt and generic tie. The man steps between Mia and the bus entrance. I’m Detective Murphy, and I need you to come with me to answer some questions.

Chapter 1

I need the type of person who can work independently and do the right thing without being constantly reminded. I’m not here all the time, and need someone I can trust. Art will provide you some direction, but he is busy in the pharmacy. It’s best we leave him to focus on that, Maureen informs Marco as they complete their walk through the store.

It is Friday afternoon and Marco was about to start his first full weekend working at Render Drug Store. A weekend in which Maureen has no plans of being at work, which is the norm. The most important thing for you to nail down this weekend is the newspaper process, she says. Re-stocking shelves and training on the register and lottery is great, but take your time and make sure you are comfortable with the newspapers. Now tell me what needs to happen with the papers Sunday morning?

Marco pauses for a moment to give the appearance of this being somewhat difficult and hoping to show the importance to Maureen given he was just hired. "I get here at 6:45 a.m. Sunday and bring in the last bundles of delivered papers from in front of the store. I create an assembly line of the different sections for the Star Ledger, since that sells the most and comes completely separated. Once I get a few dozen assembled, I go clear any unsold papers from Saturday still on the rack and replace them with the ones I assembled and the other smaller papers that come already assembled. This needs to happen by 8 a.m. when the store opens. Build another 40 to 50 papers and replenish the rack every half hour or so, since the papers tend to sell early. Once the rack and reserves are built, organize the unsold papers from during the week. Fill out the returns sheet with the number of unsold papers by type and by date, cut the header off from each showing the name and date, and put the headers and inventory list into the manila-colored envelope and put that in the mail when I leave for the day. Around 3 p.m., I should remove any unsold papers from the same day and process those returns as well. The unsold papers should be stacked and tied up with twine for recycling, but don’t put them in front of the store until closing." Marco pauses and looks for a response.

Maureen smiles and nods approvingly. You really paid attention. Good. Any questions?

Marco knows it’s wise to ask a question simply to seem engaged, but also has been pondering something since he was trained the week prior. Why do we only send the headers back and not the entire newspaper when they don’t sell? he queries.

Maureen nods, Good question. Because they only need the header as proof for credit but don’t want to pay to haul the papers back to the return center only to recycle them there. It’s cheaper for us to dispose of them immediately than to transport back. It’s the same process for unsold food and products that expire in the store; you’re not sending back products but rather proof of products.

Marco nods, impressed by the simple yet effective logic to the process. He finds the reverse logistics process oddly interesting. Over his first few months at the store, Marco would immerse himself in every process that they would teach him. Constant curiosity and desire to put more money in his pocket made him very valuable to Maureen as she realized that every responsibility she passed onto Marco equaled less time she had to spend in the store.

The store itself was tucked away in the back corner of a large strip mall wedged between the A&P Supermarket and Front Street Pizzeria and Deli. The space was nothing compared to what Walgreen’s and Rite Aid had made the norm in regard to pharmacies; large footprints with drive thru pick-up, coolers, photo processing, and so on. This was a traditional Mom and Pop Drug Store of yesteryear where you could pick-up your lottery, a pack of smokes, or daily paper from the front end of the store, and more importantly your prescription needs. Render Corporation had purchased the store just under three years prior and made some attempt to standardize with their typical megastores but were mostly unsuccessful. One might wonder why the store was still open and what the benefit was to such a large company? The answer to those questions resides approximately a quarter of a mile behind the shopping center: four separate senior citizen and/or assisted living facilities that were home to over 2,000 prescription-needing, medically insured citizens. What the store lost in revenue for day-to-day items it significantly made up for in its pharmacy revenue. In addition to the senior housing, Union Hospital is located at the nearest intersection, which drove even more prescriptions to