Munni's LIA - A Serial Fiction - Episode 2

Note: All characters and venues are totally fictional; any semblance to real persons or places is merely coincidental. 
Synopsis:Uncle Benny is introduced; Munni works at a convenience store near Ann Arbor, MI.

Episode- 2 Munni's LIA

The Mysterious Uncle Benny

LIA= Life in America
     After an hour and a half and serving twenty or so walk-ins, it looked like the bowling alley and bar crowds were gone. After all, it was a school night. At night he was supposed to clean all the displays, turn the bottle/can labels around if labels are not visible and clean all the floor space. Munni is tall, almost six feet in his shoes, and had a slight frame. When he took off the store's overshirt in the mornings at the back room locker, he made faces at himself in the mirror and always told himself "handsome and tired, na?". 

The cash register did a running count of sold stock numbers, and he sent the requisition by email to the warehouse at the beginning of his shift. At midnight, he'd usually get a stocking guy come in and unload merchandise in the back store room and do the restocking of the shelves. Cleaning the floors is a chore that he had to work himself into. The floor cleaning machine seems to have been made for short stocky mexicans. When he used it, he always ended up with a crick in his neck. So he used the wide push broom and did the job twice, dry and then wet. Sometimes he'd even get the stock guy to run the machine around while he stocked the shelves, or just simply put off the floor cleaning until 3 in the mornings when all is totally quiet and he really needed to stretch and stand up to avoid falling asleep. 


Munni decided to eat his midnight lunch, and look at some posts on the computer. He had brought pita bread, tea bags and subji along. He lifted the counter top door open and stepped out from behind the counter. Just one car parked outside; someone had parked there for the safety of the shop lights. The entrance door had a spring loaded bell; so he decided to take a quick walk to the coffee location and get a cup of hot water for his tea. The coffee had been brewed and getting more bitter by the hour. He went back to the cash counter and put a tea bag in the water and opened his subji tupperware. 

While on his 2nd mouthful, he heard that spring loaded bell of door opening. He leaned and looked around. It was his uncle coming into the shop. It was pretty close to mid-night. He leaned forward without getting off his chair and said "hey…Benny", and his uncle, coming towards the register, said "…well…I was in the area and figured I'll visit with you…" and went on " and give you company…it is very late and I don't want to go and rouse auntie". "…um..OK" said Munni and recalled what his mother told him in Chennai "…be careful with your uncle in amerika, if you see him", she had said,"he is my brother and everything, but he had grown up by himself for 40 years, and never visited …and he also changed his name…..". 

When he asked his older brother about mother's warning, he was told,"…just be careful…uncle is going to help you with money for college next year….but don't get too close to him or anything". When he asked his mother again to tell him something about why he should be careful with uncle Benny, she told him"….well… I don't believe this…don't ever tell anyone also….your uncle Benny left when he was 13 or 14 and went to sea …..some in our family will say that police was looking for him…..so he ran away……our grand uncle will say that uncle Benny killed a police…..and then ran away….but I don't believe that…..so be careful anyway". When MGR left India, he was very nervous about his future on more than a few counts.