have it be known. The thought slipped into Maria's head about her Christmas knife sitting in her purse, which was in the employee lounge. Silvio had gotten it for her the year that Pedro's girlfriend had cut her.

"Next time you can cut that ho back,” he'd said.

It was ridiculousness the things she had to put up with for $9.50 an hour. Maria had only vaguely been aware that the customer had resorted to profanity. She'd been thinking about Christmas, thinking if she could only win the lotto. Her manager was talking, asking if there was a problem and she was responding. At that moment everyone seemed to be watching. How long had she worked there?

The woman's eyes were filled with victory and poison. The manager stepped in to ring up the purchase and gave her the price as noted in the expired advertisement. "Thank you Ms. Smith" he was saying "and sorry for the misunderstanding."

He turned and looked at Maria, his arms folded across his chest. The expression on his face softened as the woman galloped down the aisle toward the front exit. "Is everything ok?" His voice was always kindest before the storm, before he broke from his professional disguise and marched triumphantly into reprimands. It hadn't been easy to find a $9.00 an hour job, most stores started at $7.00 and she'd still have to be the pin cushion for issues. Maria looked at him wishing that he'd understand that it was just life, she wanted to tell him to get one and to stop ogling her breast, it was her ass that had gotten her the job she wanted to say but didn't. Her days of letting him brush past to articulate non verbally his need for inappropriate friction had past. Maria stood in the moment watching his worm like lips moving, his jaw looked so tense it could fly of the hinge, the tantrum peeked in volume only once but the words were all sad and cruel.

Later that evening she felt a little better when she heard Silvio's van snuggle up to the curb just outside the bedroom window. She'd taken her mordant smile to the break room at the end of her shift and left it there. She'd gone into the manager's office with a key to the restroom that everyone was discouraged from using. His bathroom was the booty where he'd steal away moments with the new girls under the guise of training. Maria shut the lid over the bowl and removed the one from the tank placing it on the floor squarely by the toilet, she stepped onto the seat careful of her balance, squatted, and emptied her bowels. When the splashing stopped she cleaned her ass and closed the tank.

In the moment, she turned on her side away from the window and saw the ever changing eyes of the Madonna. They were contemplative, or perhaps remorseful she thought. The soft light from the street gave the statuette a foreboding shadow that curled up the corner of the wall whenever a car passed. She sat looking at the soft pink lips, the pale skin and the waiting arms of the mother God. The key turned in the front door and the air changed in the room as though she lived inside a small vacuum when Silvio came in. Was that her heart being ripped out, or was it that he was coming to sooth all uncertainty.

She hoped he would consider her, ask