Red Sand by Ronan Cray Read Free Book Online

wanted.”
    Sometimes she fantasized holding the shotgun, especially during staff meetings.
    Cursed with an intellect, she inadvertently paid attention to much more than her own role. She listened to the other departments bitch about their jobs in the lunchroom and formulated theoretical solutions. She tabulated pricing structures toward increased profitability.  She studied shopper habits and drew planograms of premium product placement that would appeal to shoppers rather than manufacturers. She researched high-tech gadgets that could improve the shopping experience – handheld scanners, iPad POS stations, self-checkout lanes. Undaunted by a track record of ignorance, she ran every new idea past her boss.
    He was a prick. He never took them to the owner, and he didn’t make any changes himself. She resented this. As a result, she badmouthed him to the rest of the staff. Her ideas came out more like snide criticism than genuine improvements. She resorted to sarcasm. She alienated her manager.
    Being smarter than the rest of the staff made her stupid at interpersonal relations. She never really fit in because, well, god forbid should she fit in. Even after five years, she felt like an outsider.
    Eventually, her boss promoted one of her coworkers, Judy, to Assistant Manager. Judy was a dull, unimaginative peon running the customer service desk. Lauren hid her resentment, but it was the last straw. Genius is never recognized in its prime , she thought.
    She started going to the gym after work. A regular workout quieted her overactive rage. One hour a day became three. She did yoga, Pilates, cardio, cycling. She took classes, hired a trainer, thought about running a marathon. Running a marathon is what people do when they have no control over the outside world beyond the functioning of their own limbs. She decided against the marathon, but she peaked in body performance.
    Despite this, Lauren had not yet found her M.O. She was bored. Her career had stalled and, in all fairness, she couldn’t hope for her boyfriend to rescue her from this ennui. His career peaked the day it started. She had no hope of promotion. She’d squandered her chance for college. Bagging groceries makes for a poor entrance essay. Five years of cashier work didn’t qualify her for something better, something she felt she deserved. She had no choice but to get creative.
    That’s when she figured out the coupon scam.
    Here’s how it works. A penny pinching matron clips a coupon out of her Marie Claire for 25 cents off frozen pastry dough. She presents it to the store, wrinkled by her sweaty, anticipating hands and receives her hard-earned quarter. The store, now short twenty five cents, collates all the coupons for the week and sends them off to the manufacturer, who then sends a reimbursement check. A busy grocery store takes in hundreds, even thousands of coupons a week.
    That makes for easy money if you don’t have to sell the product in the first place. So many coupons stream in from so many local grocery stores and bodegas that most manufacturers don’t bother to investigate who they’re paying.
    Lauren started small. Two years ago she had filed for a business license when she thought about starting an on-line store. Now, she legally changed the name to that of a small grocery chain she knew that operated in an adjoining state. Manufacturers rarely, if ever, cross reference the coupons coming in with orders going out, but she didn’t want to take any chances. Any corporate bean counter who took an interest would just think the supermarket had opened a new branch. She had the checks mailed through a forwarding agent rather than a PO Box, which made it look more official. Then she set to work.
    Every Monday morning, the local paper dropped off leftover Sunday editions on her doorstep. Officially, she generously recycled them into Sunday school paper mache projects. Realistically, no child ever saw them. Every Monday night she sat down with the