Excerpt: Can You Hear Me Now?-(subject to change)

I wrote this short story in preparation of the character...The Cashier is a jerk.
We were out of milk for my cereal this morning so I grabbed my wallet and headed around the corner to the store. Truth be told I was glad of the excuse to leave. There are four grocery stores in the proximity of my neighborhood all the owners know my family and are very helpful I was halfway to the door when I knew I didn’t want any cereal. The deliciously sweet-yeasty smell of fresh baked bread hanging in the air decided that for me.
It didn’t take much to realize where the smell was coming from. Across the street with a big new “Grand Opening” sign was a brightly painted gingerbread trimmed bakery with the kind of retro feel Grandma’s kitchen is supposed to have, though G-ma lives in a mansion and hasn’t cooked a thing in her life unless you count the heap of trouble she’s made back at home….but that’s why I’m out isn’t it? And gosh dang I want a cinnamon bun!
Once inside the smell is about forty times as good! There’s quite a line but it seems pretty fast the commuters are eager for their joes on the go. There are all sorts of treats in the glass cases and through a pathway to the kitchen I can see an employee pulling out a rack of something hot and steaming . But there are scones and muffins and unless my eyes deceive me big thick cinnamon rolls dripping in icing! The line is progressing and I decide on a cinnamon roll, but really was there any competition?
Once I’m at the counter the cashier looks up.
“How can I help you?” He asks.
He has a five o’ clock shadow and his hair’s a mess his eyes indicate he’s slightly hung over but he’ll be handing over my cinnamon roll so I don’t really care. I give my best charming smile and point eagerly toward the display case at the cinnamon roll and take out my wallet. He looks on impassively. I hold up one finger and indicate the shelf.
“What would you like?” He asks again in a mock friendly voice.
I gesture one…cinnamon roll. Good grief it isn’t brain surgery.
“Cut it out just get out with it.” At this point everyone in line seems to have trouble clearing their throats.
God what a jerk. I tap my throat with my fingers. Wake up you idiot! I’m mute, duh. I gesture again at the glass case a bit aggressively I’m quite annoyed at this point.
“Look if you don’t know what you want just get to the end of the line.” A man behind me says.
I turn around and stare at him in shock at all the people in line wearing similar expressions of aggravation. How can they be so dense? I rub my throat again grip it like the dang thing is gonna fall off my shoulders. They are unresponsive except for a few weary sighs of impatience. Oh yeah have a day in my shoes. This is when I notice my eyes are tearing up and I rush out of the store before I begin to cry in earnest.
If my eyes are red Mr. Herb says nothing as he greets me from his perch behind the register. He scans my purchase and wraps it neatly before handing it to me. He gives a little small talk if I reply I don’t remember.
My mom enters the kitchen in her robe sweeping through the hall like it’s a ballroom and every eye is on Cinderella unhindered by the fallout of yesterday’s events. She looks at me sitting there studying my bowl of cereal like it’s done me a personal injury.
“What’re you so gloomy about?” She asks in a trill that might possibly break china.
We were out of milk I sign.
“Oh sorry it completely slipped my mind.” She nearly sings.
There’s a new bakery down the street. I keep my face impassive and shrug in an offhand way.
“Oh what’s it like?” She pretends not to care but I see her shoulders stiffen and she seems quite enraptured in measuring her coffee grinds.
I don’t know I didn’t go in. Almost immediately she relaxes and faces me with a radiant smile.
“Well we’ll have to go sometime then won‘t we?”
And in this way I now understand. Even now she plans to go there and explain my “situation” to all the employees and make sure it is known that the Johansson’s wishes are not to go unheeded. So maybe my world isn’t as large as I thought it was…But at this point I can’t bring myself to really care about the shield she seems to have put before me. But I know at some point I will and when that comes I plan for my world to get a whole lot bigger.