text: July 14- 00:00 I never understood the point of keeping a journal until I started working at this little taco stand at the corner of 6th and 8th street. It wasn’t your ordinary taco shop, it was below ordinary, All the food was frozen and had to be microwaved. My little hut consisted of four rooms, the main area where I stood, the kitchen, which was just a microwave and a freezer, the employee breakroom, and the bathroom which was the only way out of the shack. Our stand used to be one of these old Japanese food stands with the pedestals outside, how it turned Mexican? Beats me. I got the job through a phone call interview; I was told to be dropped off and will be called when my shift was over. Now, the location made no sense to me at all. The taco stand was in buttfuck nowhere, I remember only seeing one car pass in my four-hour shift and it was my car! I can’t complain though, 16$ an hour for the nightshift? Who would say no! It’s been boring for a little but an hour ago I had seen my first customer... it was a man in a trench coat. Now it wasn’t one of those small dick flashing trench coats, it was a whole ass noir suit, something you would see in a detective movie, really fucking weird. I obliged and took his order, “what’s the order?” “Empanadas... two....” “uh sure 5 bucks” he smiled with almost one big hillbilly tooth and put the money on the desk. I heated up the empanadas and stared at him. Now a NORMAL human being would engage in conversation, No! the fucker stared at me and rubbed his gums with his tongue. He took his empanadas and left, where he went? Different ass story. 03:15 Okay, what the FUCK just happened? A little while after the incident a new guy, no scratch that, A FUCKING STATUE appeared! I didn’t even see it at first but every time I had blinked it appeared closer and closer... twelve blinks later and it was basically where my stand was. Now I freaked the fuck out, I closed the shutter and sat in a convenient area under the register. The statue or whatever kept knocking louder and louder, I was shitting bricks. I locked the bathroom door and sat there in complete silence. Couple minutes later it stopped, and I peeked through the slit in the metal shutter to see if whatever it is was gone. Fuck me. July 15 The rest of yesterday’s shift was normal, couple crackheads needed to use the bathroom. Heard one of them scream and checked to see, no one had entered... whatever. The dayshift dude, Nunez took over and I went back home. Now I just got back to work, and Nunez finally tells me about the dumb things that happen during the nightshift. He calls them “rules that I muse oblige to or end up dead and missing!!” How the hell does he know I’m going to be dead if I’m missing? Load of bull shit. He gave me the list anyways. “Lil Jose’s nightshift” Rules To Stay Alive 1. Keep the bathroom door locked, if you need to go, run to the exit door and lock it. DO NOT WALK 2. Always have one thing being microwaved, does not matter what. 3. Always have the lights on unless Steve comes. 4. Never keep the register open 5. Never look outside for too long, if you see something that is not a customer, close the shutter and wait until daylight. 6. If Steve comes, do as rule five but go into the employee breakroom and stand in the middle. Continually laugh until Steve leaves. 7. Do not clog the toilet you fat fuck Wait, that’s it? So, fucking dumb ??? Okay not as dumb as I thought, Steve came, well he’s HERE. He has round glasses and stuck up hair. I was in the middle of his order when It finally struct me to ask for his name. “Oh, I’m glad you asked... it’s Steve.” I smiled and looked at the listen which he could also see on my naked desk next to my phone which had po- which was off. “ah one second there...” I slammed the shutters closed and went into the employee breakroom. I’ve been laughing for who knows how long, he wont leave. He keeps knocking and asking to come inside. “I just want to laugh with you Jonathan!” I started laughing harder, this place has no fucking name tags and the last time I checked I was NOT employee of the month, Nunez was. I’m terrified and I don’t know how long he’s going to stay. FUCK July 16 Eventually Steve left, or disappeared, or was abducted, who cares? Nunez opened the room and I finally stopped laughing. I feel like I have a six pack now. Hello! This is Kenneth, Jonathan took the day off and allowed me to work for once. He probably forgot to mention me but I’m one of the workers of the nightshift, granted I sleep in the employee lounge all day, it was rude that Jonathan never brought me up shame!! Jonathan said he needed to “find himself” whatever that means. So, I must work for once. I’ve been working here for a little over seven months, I’ve seen a lot of people come and go and learned a lot from it as well; how to correctly heat up a burrito, the price of every item, how to defend the shop during the blood hours... the usual. A customer came up to the shop and asked to use the pay phone. I groaned and looked at the freak, “10 cents and hour no change is provided." She pleaded with urgency, “please you need to let me use your phone I don’t have any cash I’ve been chased for a little over an hour please please please” I denied, a policy is a policy and it’s dumb to lose this treasure of a job over 10 cents. She ran away and I continued with my night. Later, a man with a wolfs hide came up and asked if I saw a girl. His voiced changed every time he spoke; it went from an elderly voice to a child’s... Without looking up from my phone, I pointed in her direction and kept swiping left on my phone. I really don’t understand the point of this food stand. I know Mexican delicacy is great and all but we’re in nowhere New Mexico somewhere near the border of the state. But for SOME reason this shack gets new inventory every week. It amazes me why the store is still open.