Badge Lost at the Call Center Mall in the Rain

Badge Lost at the Call Center Mall in the Rain

I was late for my shift at the call center, except the building was also the old mall by the bus stop. Rain kept smearing the glass so the ads on the windows blinked my name and my leftover grocery list. I couldn’t find my badge; it was supposed to be in my jacket but every pocket opened onto someone else’s locker. An old classmate from high school was at the front desk, scanning people’s wrists instead of IDs, and he kept saying I was already clocked in on floor twelve even though we only have three. The elevator skipped numbers. I ran down a hallway that was just the break room stretched too far, vending machines humming like servers, and my phone kept buzzing with work tickets about “patching the rain.” I felt embarrassed because I was still in yesterday’s hoodie. When I finally sat at a desk it was my kitchen table, headset on, and I couldn’t remember the customer’s name even though it was scrolling across my vision. Woke up annoyed I still hadn’t found the badge.