I saw him every time I rented movies. His name was Ray, although I couldn't be sure. He was almost endearing in his faded button down shirts his mother had bought him last Christmas, and his black shaggy hair, evidence that he was too poor to afford a regular hair cut let alone shoes that were in style.
My entrance into the store always brought the same greeting, a brief smile and a hello. He'd stand behind the counter on guard against shoplifters and watch me. Usually about fifteen minutes into my perusal of the new releases he would walk up to me. His hands always shook slightly when he spoke to me, small beads of sweat would sit on his forehead as if he was caught in a light snow. "Can I help you find anything?" he would ask me, his voice cracking ever so slightly on the word you. "No," I would reply most nights and smile slightly in that ways that people do to acknowledge that they are not a threat.
I would drive away and think about him sitting in his room, in the basement of his parent's house. His walls I imagined were covered in various anime posters, his prized collection of Star Wars figures sitting in their boxes with emotionless stares. When he was sure his parents were asleep he would crack the window and light a joint blowing the smoke out of the window, and then he would collapse into an old worn recliner that had belonged to his father. He always checked the volume before he turned on the television, listing for sounds of the world outside his room as he took his hentai tape from under his dresser. His body tensing as he masturbated watching the animated sex, he was in his drug induced state, entranced by the color, and sometimes, just sometimes he thought about me.
I'm really not sure what changed that night as I walked in about closing time but there was something thick and salty in the air. I walked as I always did save the nights I was in a hurry slowly and methodically looking at the shrink wrapped boxes displayed on the shelves. Various titles and stars lined up like puppies at an animal shelter all begging me to take them home. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him lock the door, but tonight it being just he and I he did not return to his station, tonight he walked towards me.
"Can I help you?" he asked, trying to look me in the eye. "Yes", I said with a coy smile, "Do you have anything, more, well, adult?" He was obviously taken back by my statement as his body language changed, because now I was a threat.
"It's in the back, follow the wall with the stars on it" as he spoke to me as if I were the floor. "Show me" I answered him in a low determined tone.
The room stark and well lit was rather unremarkable. Shelves covered the rounded room, various body parts advertised on the cardboard. "Is that all you needed?" he asked me. I turned away from him, placing my hands on a picture of a girl with pale skin, large breasts and red hair. "Do you like her?" I asked him. He started to shift his weight from side to side looking at the floor. I picked up another box, this one's cover depicted two women, I showed it to him and asked, "Would you like to see this?"
