Another calm day here at work. The kids are all running around happily going from game to game putting in their tokens and pushing the buttons. Laughing and giggling away. The parents are all following them around and some adults are here all on their own. And yet you feel something unsettling… like something horrible is about to happen. You look to your coworkers and see them all happily smiling and talking so you decide to try and engage or start a conversation with them. You approach them smiling and hear them all making jokes with each other. You tell a joke that makes two of your coworkers laugh and so you smile feeling happy and proud that you managed to get involved. You open your mouth ready to talk again when your third coworker suddenly ices you out, or in simpler terms embarrasses you and humiliates you, just as customers approach the desk by saying you are not allowed to make jokes until you have been an employee for a certain amount of time. You feel upset… and completely blind-sighted by this action. You go to help the customer when he once again pushes you out of the way and helps them instead calling you a newbie. You look to the one friend you have amongst your coworkers only to discover they ignore you. You look at your other coworker and she ignores you too. Distressed and humiliated you grab a set of keys and a screwdriver and head off into the game area to check for token jams and avoid contact with your coworkers at all costs.
You are now fully immersed in the game area and have checked every game for token jams and have a pocketful of tokens. You feel accomplished again because now the kids wont get upset about a game taking their tokens and not working. So you head back to the front to see if maybe the whole incident has blown over. You approach your friend and try to bring up videogames like you normally talked about…. but they ignore you… they dont even acknowledge what you just said.. they move away from you and start talking to the jerk who iced you out. They all start laughing and joking away. You feel hurt and so you decide to try and immerse yourself in work by wiping the top of the display counter for the prizes. Then you get swarmed by thirty kids all shouting and yelling at you about the things they want. You desperately gather up some calculators and start adding up the totals for each different kid while trying to remember who's points belong to who. You look to the side stealing a glance seeing your coworkers watching you…. why wont they come over and help you think to yourself.. you call out to your friend who picks up a pair of keys and a screwdriver and goes out into the game area to check for jams even though you just finished checking them. Your other coworker goes outside to check on the mini golf course while the guy who iced you out just leans back and starts texting on his phone. You are alone and without help as the parents of the children start yelling at you to pay attention to their kid while you run back and forth from the counter to the prize boxes grabbing toys the kids all shout for. You feel on the verge of breaking while on the inside you are screaming for help and no one will come. The kids start getting angry and complain to their parents about you giving them the wrong toy on accident and one of the parents calls you incompetent. The slurry of insults, demands, yelling, and complaints keep coming at you relentlessly as you try and hold yourself together and keep a smile forced on your face when all you want to do is scream. You manage to somehow make it through the swarm and are left with one little kid picking out his last prize. Your friend comes back empty handed saying there was no jams in the games, and your other coworker comes inside saying that the mini golf area is clean and they both return to the guy who iced you out and start chatting… even though there is only one kid you feel hurt yet again that they pushed right past you and offered no help or assistance. You finish with the final kid and walk over to sit by your belongings on the counter near the drink machine and your friend asks you what you think your doing. He tells you to get busy and start doing some work then returns to his conversation. You want to scream or cry from how frustrated you are but you swallow it down and go out into the game arcade once again to check for jams just to get away from them.
You used to love coming to work, and enjoyed the conversations you would have with your friends. But now all you want is to sit down on the floor and hug your knees while you cry or scream in frustration from the overload of demands and isolation you are receiving. You want to go home and get away from the hostile environment as the pressure and the stress begin to overwhelm you.. Slowly you start walking to a wall and then lean against it holding a hand to your head and whimper softly to yourself… its too much.. this is too much… You pull yourself together after a 30 second meltdown to let at least some of the steam and pressure out before returning to the isolation front you are burdened with. The last remaining hour of your shift drags on for an eternity as your coworker and friend suddenly notice you are upset.. There are ten minutes left on the clock and your friend says you can leave early and out of pride you mentally say no and stay right where you are ignoring your friend. He brushes past you going outside to smoke while you do the work your coworkers are suppose to be helping you with but instead they are throwing a prize ball back and forth giggling like 6 year olds. It was too much.. it is too much and you cracked.. but instead of allowing yourself the release of overloading you need you feel tears well up as you finally clock out and run to the car. You sit in the car and sigh out slightly yelling in anguish as you drive home finally letting it all out… but even after you arrive at home.. there is no one there to comfort you… your all alone.. your parents arent back yet and you cant talk about the stressful day you had… so you sit on the floor and hug your knees as you feel darkness and loneliness weigh down on you and you hang your head silently wishing it was all a bad dream.
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