What To Do With Destiny?

Kevin had expected the new Wal-Mart to be a lot more like the one he had come from. It wasn't. In fact, living and working in New Orleans was vastly different then visiting.

First, the twins worked long hours and the slow season for them was over. He had to explore for himself and it took a couple of parking tickets and a busted out back window to teach him the places not to park.

 Daiquiri shops were more likely to “card” during the day, but he was able to navigate traffic better on his current shift.

 He had adjusted to the much older equipment the new store had. It wasn’t just that the store was that bigger, but the new Walmart was packed with workers.

 He had basically had the entire building to himself in Meridian, there were three other guys who had worked overnight, and they stocked shelves while he scrubbed and polished the floor.

 The Harahan store had the same concept, but on a much larger scale. His new store had an entire crew of shelf stockers, and a separate crew that unloaded the trucks.

 Kevin, had to drive the floor scrubbing machine over the floor, which given the size of the store and the number of people driving hand trucks was akin to a professional driving event. He then had to drive the ancient floor buffer across the same race course.

 The store had no soft lines for him to vacuum, but he had to walk around the entire store with a dust mop to get up the dust that the buffer left on everything like pollen in Oct.

 He had finally worked it to a routine and knew that he had to work while the stock and shipping crews were on break, a quick one and one run of the two machines were sufficient, but unfortunately it took Kevin a while, and a little bit of embarrassing behavior to realize.

He had been thinking about this girl that worked on the shipping crew since he met her on the first day. He was driving like an Indy Car driver, so he could sit down with her at lunch time.

 Kevin had been doing that for a month, and Dawn, the object of his unrequited affection was stringing him along.

 Finally, one day she looked up at him with those Betty Boop eyes, cast in a tiger’s eye yellow hue and said “If you were smart enough to figure out that you could chill out for 3 hours and finish the floor while it's empty…” She took a sip of something that resembled a daiquiri and rolled those golden orbs “and chill out for 3 more hours you might have had a chance. “She poked out her perfect pouty lips and gazed at him with pity.

 He had taken her advice and the management raved. They had been about to fire him for being slow.

Kevin, discovered that many of the tools in the janitorial room were devoted to the short cut. There was a spray to shine the floors while you buffed, there were three sizes of dust mops, and he discovered the one that required the least work.

 People in the city didn't expect you to do a good job. Kevin, realized that the entire stocking crew and the entire shipping crew had agreed to vacate the floor for him to make two cursory passes. Kevin had been measuring out cleaning fluid in the machines and just the right amount of the spray and shine in the buffer. Striving to do the best job possible.

 “What the fuck, I am an idiot!” Kevin thought to himself. He was beginning to understand why it was called the big easy.

 He was so embarrassed that he wanted to transfer, the dudes on the shipping crew were so cool and the three girls on the crew were all bad. The two girls that were stocking weren't his type at all, but the dudes that “ran stock” were cool too.

 So much free time meant something Kevin was unaccustomed to, boredom. Kevin had worked hard from the age of 13. He was serious about work, but he knew that the less he did here the more praise he received.

 He had been having sex with Dawn in the warehouse one day, and skipped the mopping machine, just buffing and dust mopping.  He had discovered the spray and shine in a bottle and started just dust mopping and using the spray some days.

 The management didn't seem to notice.

Karen, the girl from Lowe's had a boyfriend that played professional ball. Kevin, saw her from time to time when he would pick up some forgotten thing for his house, but he wasn't trying to step on her boyfriend's toes.

 He and Titus were hanging out, but not a lot.

 Kevin, had started working at a poultry plant from 6-2, and while it added something to his bottom line, he still wasn't spending that much money.

 Titus tried talking him into spending something on clothes, but Kevin felt most comfortable in Dickie’s and a t-shirt. Anyway, the girls that he met continually noticed him. Kevin felt that was enough.

Titus had been successful in making Kevin up his shoe game, and he had Stan Smith Adidas and Baileys shoes to complement his Dickie’s. Kevin spent so much time hanging out that the only sleep He was getting came from sitting in the break room sleeping until the stock and shipping crews were heading to lunch.  He would quickly do the floor and wake up in time to go throw cages filled with live chickens off trucks.

Technically he worked from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. but he only had to empty 3 trucks and he and “Star” who's nickname came from the open-faced gold star in his teeth, usually finished by 1:15 at the latest. Kevin, still hadn't decided on a career. He was happy to just enjoy the day to day.

 Until he met her. She wasn't that attractive, physically, but she dressed to impress, and she was the epitome of classy, and very intelligent. She didn't fawn over him the way lots of the girls he had met.

 Kevin had basically been throwing continuous parties every weekend, it didn't cost much in the way of money, but he wasn't really making friends in the neighborhood.

He had partied with woman who outshine any starlet in Hollywood's past or present. He was smoking and drinking more than ever, and most Sat night memories ended on the dance floor, and he was never alone when he woke up. Then come Sunday night he was back to work.

 Her name was Destiny, she was Perseus sister. Perseus was a fair skinned man, named after the Greek hero, he had a large map-like birthmark in the middle of his face. Perseus, was a notorious ladies man. Kevin, had considered trying to imitate his crisp hip/nerd style. That cat could dress. His sister though, she was probably what designers dreamed of when they designed their clothes.

 Destiny was NOT pretty, but she wasn't unattractive just kind of plain, like vanilla pudding. She was however, brilliant, and the night he met her Kevin was so enthralled, so captivated that he was sober and ended the party like a good neighbor.
 He had begged her to stay.

 “Nothing sexual I swear I just want to listen to you talk. You are the smartest person I have ever met.”

Destiny made him comfortable and uncomfortable at the same damn time.  Kevin couldn't get enough of her views on George H. W. Bush and his opponent Bill Clinton, he had never discussed politics with anyone least to say anyone, as intellectual as Destiny.

 Her view of the world, delivered in the nude, while she prepared a meal for the two of them, would have been fascinating without the visual of her flawless body. He had kept his promise and not even attempted to initial intimate contact.

Destiny was determined to make her footprint in New Orleans politics, and Kevin had faith that she would. She was pursuing her master’s in political science and had worked on a couple of different campaign staffs.

 Kevin was intrigued by her graceful table manners and her complete lack of accent. Destiny had attended the finest private schools, including boarding school abroad, she spoke French, German, Spanish, and Italian all as if they were her native tongue.

She made Kevin feel “common”, he knew nothing about the topics that Destiny introduced and every moment he was awake and not at work was spent learning from her.

He told her on Wednesday “Can you please put some clothes on, I am not a priest.” She came back in one of his T-shirts, that made it worse.

 Kevin was so intrigued and learning about stuff that Destiny found “Mundane and Primitive.”  was broadening his horizon. Man, he wanted a passport. She was lying in bed beside him, talking about the water in Phuket Thailand when she showed him hers. Destiny’s passport had stamps from all over the globe.

Egypt, Italy, Russia, Japan.

 He had never known anyone who wasn't in the military, who had left the country and he told her.

Destiny’s coffee no cream irises widened and then narrowed.
 “Kevin Lawrence Delaney III! You are lying to me!”
 Kevin, wished he was. His father had been to Vietnam and Germany, but Kevin honestly didn't think he had the resources.
 “Wow, I got you bro for real.” 
Just like that Kevin forgot that her body looked delicious in his t-shirt. Kevin had a maturation moment, and he was hard pressed to get up and go to work.

 Destiny had made him think about her namesake, what was his?  What was he doing with his life? Kevin thought about it as he showered and put on his tan work Dickie’s.

 He thought about it as he stuffed his braids into a baseball cap.

 He walked past the lunch Destiny had made him, Kevin was consumed in thought. According to Destiny for the price of what he spent on parties and partying in the last month he could have gone to Puerto Rico.  If he had charged for the parties he could have gone to Spain! Kevin didn't understand destiny as a concept, but his home girl Destiny was talking sense.

 She rapped on the car window. “I Thought you liked my etouffee, yeah? Why you left it for?” Kevin laughed and apologized. “I literally forgot. I like when the Nawlins comes out in your voice. You got my head spinning. I want to travel. Look give me that food girl. I gotta get to work.” She stood in the center of the driveway in her bare feet and his t-shirt, as he drove to work.

When he arrived home the following afternoon, she and all her things were gone. His Destiny was gone.

Kevin called Perseus, making sure not to let him know just how devastated he was at the woman’s disappearance. Perseus, had told him that she decided to hop a plane.  Kevin had no idea what had made her leave.