Though Craig Willis was able to successfully deflect Pierre’s attempts at forcing him to work weekends, he is nonetheless cajoled into driving up to Palmyra and helping that grocery department, for one full day, at time and a half. He returns to Southside the following Monday, flopping into Edgar’s “therapy patient” chair to relate his findings.
“Man, I think out of everybody working in that store, Trudy…your mom…and Shelly…those are the only three in the building who aren’t on drugs!” Craig tells him, shaking his head at the continued insanity vortex this store represents.
But even Southside has found itself in a relative state of upheaval recently. With Pierre effectively offloaded to become someone else’s problem, the search for a new assistant manager had begun, and didn’t take very long.
Vince Brancatto is an old Italian guy with whom half the store has already worked. In Edgar’s office one afternoon, Valerie’s giving him the lowdown on some of this history. She of course is a former employee of the long since shuttered local health food operation, Frilly’s. So is Vince.
“He seems to have chilled out quite a bit since then,” she explains.
And this would be an understatement – from whatever baseline you’re talking about. Edgar doesn’t need to know the starting point, because it’s impossible for an individual to be any less chill. Stoic does not even begin to describe the dude, who moves very slowly, but walks around with a serious expression pretty much non-stop.
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://jasonmcgathey.wordpress.com/2021/05/20/tales-of-a-scorched-coffee-pot-chapter-42/
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“Tales of a Scorched Coffee Pot” – Chapter 42