SOUNDTRACK:
[READ: December 11, 2022] “Odam on Till”
This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my fifth time reading the Calendar. I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable. Here’s what they say this year
Like we always do at this time: the Short Story Advent Calendar is back for 2022. We had such a great time last year working with our first-ever guest editor, the one and only Alberto Manguel. This year, however, we’re bringing things back to basics. No overarching theme or format, just 25 top-class short stories, selected in-house, by some of the best writers in North America and beyond. It’s December 11. Ruby Cowling, author of This Paradise, wonders whether you have any smaller bills.
This story is a puzzle from the start.
Odam is working the till (the cash register) in the store. He has been promoted from the sweltering kitchen. He arrived just three months ago, so it’s all a little new to him.
Odam is from someplace else–he doesn’t need food or shelter. He absorbs nutrients from his surroundings. He wonders if it was a good idea for them to send him here at all–did they know what they were doing? What about his new physical body?
But he is here to learn and report back–to increase knowledge for his kind.
I love the way the story is set up so that when Odam is overwhelmed by ideas and concepts the words are presented in a word cloud.
The Till is a bit overwhelming. People offer exact change or not. He has to think on his feet and people get cranky. He asks a woman if she wants to pay an extra 30p for marshmallows for her daughter’s hot chocolate. The woman says no and the girl is upset. His supervisor comes over and says that he could have allowed the girl to have them–it would have been nice.
So Odam takes that literally as he takes everything. And decided to be nice to everyone. So he doesn’t charge anyone for anything.
The next day he would be fired except they are short-staffed. So he is sent back to the kitchen to pay back everything that he stole (there’s no way he didn’t steal it).
He has much to report back to home.
The sweet ending is quite touching. I would certainly read more by her.
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