When I first saw my nephew through the glass window at the hospital, he looked like an alien creature. It got to a point where it almost felt wrong to be reading about any of the hours Keiko wasn’t spending inside the “shining white aquarium” because she was so comfortable there. Over the course of this quick read the rhythm of the convenience store became almost meditative. When I first started here, there was a detailed manual that taught me how to be a store worker, and I still don’t have a clue how to be a normal person outside that manual. Keiko doesn’t know how to be normal so it’s a good thing the Smile Mart manual clearly outlines how she is supposed to ‘human’ at work. While I suspect we’re all like this to a certain degree, Keiko’s speech and the way she dresses are an amalgam of the people she spends time with, morphing over time as new people enter her life and others fade away. But at the Smile Mart she feels like she fits perfectly. People have wanted to fix her since she was a child. I really liked Keiko who, at thirty-six, has never fit into society’s mould. There have been eight managers and countless workers serving customers since it first opened eighteen years ago, but Keiko has been there from day one. I’m very late for my shift at the Smile Mart but I’m so glad to have finally walked through its doors.

Keiko convenience store woman