Under the Mackey Building
Richmond Norris turned the open sign over to closed and locked the front door of his store. The jack o' lantern decoration on the interior of the door smiled gleefully at him. He stuck his tongue out in retaliation. It had been a long and busy day and he was ready to be home. There was at least an hours worth of work left before he was finished with the store, but all he wanted was a pillow beneath his head.
Daylight Savings time was this weekend. The clocks would be "falling back" and he'd be getting back the hour of sleep he had lost in the spring. He loved Autumn for that reason more than any other. Despite the darkness in the morning when he rose, the ease of a perceived extra hour of sleep made his days much more palatable, at least until next March when the whole cycle began again. He flipped the switch for the exterior sign to off. His last customer of the evening, Ethel Blackwell, had left about fifteen minutes ago.
Ethel was usually his last customer every night during the week. She always came in fifteen to twenty minutes until nine to pick up a chocolate bar. Sometimes she would buy a bottle of Tums or a tube of Aspercreme for her arthritis but she always purchased a single chocolate bar. On Saturday night she would buy two bars as Norris was closed on Sundays. He always smiled to see Ethel. It meant his work day would soon be over.
