Free Olivia by Donna Sturgeon

bitching. She needed a distraction anyway because Yvette transferred from third shift to second with Olivia’s crew. It took everything Olivia had not to fly through the vinyl strips that separated Quality from Shipping and Receiving and kick the little whore right in her bubbly ass.
    George and Yvette’s romance became the talk of South. Everyone thought they were adorable together. Everyone thought they were perfect for each other. Everyone loved Yvette and said what a blessing she was for George. Gag! Olivia was so sick of listening to the talking and the gushing, she went straight to Walmart and invested an entire paycheck on a brand new iPod and enough iTunes cards to fill the stupid little thing to capacity.
    She didn’t leave her trailer without plugging in and tuning out the world. Jenny Owen Youngs’s “Fuck Was I” replaced “Sick of Life” as Olivia’s theme song. She listened to it at least twenty times a day while she wallowed in sorrow and self-pity.
    Since she was no longer going to Kitty’s, and Izzie was still desperately trying to make a baby, and Mitch wouldn’t let her come over during the week so she wouldn’t make him late for work, and she had no friends other than the ones either drinking, screwing or sleeping, Eugene was the only person left for Olivia to hang out with at night. She tried it for awhile, but his incessant crunching on Cheez Doodles drove her insane. She found herself turning into a knee-bouncing, chain smoker just like him. She tried finding a new bar, but they all made her miss George. Her new hangout became the only other place in Juliette open past midnight—Walmart.
    Surprisingly, Walmart at night turned out to be a pretty fun place to be. For one thing, the night crew consisted mainly of young people with no work ethic. For another thing, the store was full of toys, snacks, alcohol, video games, and places to chill. And, probably the best thing, they had scooters. Every night after work, Olivia would drive across Juliette to the massive Supercenter on the very northern edge of Northside, hop on one of the battery-powered handicap scooters with the basket in the front, and start making her rounds.
    She’d do her daily shopping first, picking up toilet paper, Pop-Tarts, shampoo or whatever else she needed to get through the next day. Then she’d go down the aisle that housed every type of alcohol ever imagined, packaged in pretty boxes and bottles. If she’d had a hard day at Garretson, she’d go for tequila. If it was Thursday and she was short on cash, she’d stick with beer. If it was any other day, she’d get vodka.
    Once she had everything she needed, she’d drive her scooter to the self-checkout, pay for her purchases, and then scoot over to the McDonald’s restaurant in the corner of the store. She’d order a nine-piece of Chicken McNuggets and a large fountain pop. They’d hand her the box of nuggets and an empty cup, and she’d scoot over to the bank of soda fountains.
    If it was beer or tequila night, she’d fill the cup from her shopping bag when no one was looking, but if it was a vodka day, she’d put a splash of Dr Pepper in the bottom of the cup first. As she worked on her buzz, she’d scoot around the store again and chat with the employees while she ate. Usually she’d top off the night with a round or two of ‘Halo’ on the 360 in the Electronics Department.
    In the end, she discovered George was right. She’d been wasting her money buying his beer. Her dollar stretched much further at her friendly, neighborhood Walmart.
    The only downside to Walmart was Louise also favored shopping there at midnight. Olivia also discovered that Louise was quite the chatty person when she wasn’t busy trying to suck up to Sam. The first few times Olivia saw her, she was able to avoid Louise catching sight of her in return. But one night at the end of April, Olivia zipped around an end-cap display without looking first—and crashed right into