Robert Bak, 9/16/2019

Current occupation: Agent/Manager for BAK Editions.


Former occupation: DynaTheater & Planetarium Manager for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.


Contact Information: Robert has published stories and essays.  He has been involved with the entertainment business for many years.  First starting as a stage manager Off-Off Broadway in NYC, and then working in Los Angeles and Albuquerque.  He has been a director and producer of plays with national award-winning playwright William Derringer.  In addition to his involvement in theater, Robert has written a number of short stories, essays, and plays.  Door Is A Jar magazine will be publishing his essay, “Robin’s Tea Leafs” in their Issue #10 Spring 2019 issue.  SERIAL Magazine thought that Robert’s story, “One Wicked Ride” was a real “slice of life.”  Fiction Southeast selected his story “I Became A Writer” a finalist for their publication.  Work Literary Magazine Issue 8.38 published Robert’s story, “Move To Make Move.”   Diverse Voices Quarterly published Robert’s “Why Is There A Queue?” story in their Volume 8 – Issue 30.  Robert’s short story, “The Magic Room” was a finalist with Fiction Week Literary Review.  Work Literary Magazine issue 7.9 published his short story “The Flying Vase” in their 2015 magazine.  Agave Magazine (Volume 2 – Issue 4) published his short story, “The Monthly Bill Is What” in their fall issue.  Work Magazine at WordPress.com published his story, “Dark All Over.”  He would like to thank William for the training and insight of what the writing process is.

 

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SEPARATING THE NUTS

A FLASH FICTION STORY

 

It was the second week of Lucy’s new position of being in the retail business.  She was now a show presenter of food and supplies working in a big box warehouse environment.  After completing a rigorous training course in food safety and guest relations.  Lucy would be on the floor offers to the member's food items that the manufacturers had selected for presentation and hope for sales.

There would be cold and hot food items, plus different selections of cakes, fruits, cereals, and nuts.  Every day Lucy worked, her supervisor would make the choices the team members would be suggesting.  Lucy’s schedule would be Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  The weekend shifts had extra staff working on the floor as they had additional products for display.

Saturday morning came bright and early, and Lucy got her uniform ready for the day.  She got to the warehouse early, and went to the prep area and checked to see what she was scheduled to be offered.  Lucy found that she had been given the mixed nuts display, that was on a special sale price for that day.

Her clock in time came and she started to get her cart ready, it had a large metal bowl, two large stacks of small paper cups, napkins and plastic gloves.  She also retrieved the sign that would be on the front of the cart to inform the members of what they were sampling and what the sale price was.

Lucy found her assigned space near all of the dry food items.  She opened a couple of large containers of the mixed nuts and put those in the large bowl.  She then transferred a small number of nuts into each cup and placed those on a serving platter.

The nut combination included pecans, almonds, cashews, pistachios, and Brazil nuts.  Lucy tried to make sure each cup had one of each nut.  The members were enjoying the nut selection and many were buying the sale price two-pound containers to take home.

After about an hour, an older gentleman approached her and declared to her.  “I only want to taste cashews and pistachios!”  At first, Lucy was not too sure what the man wanted?  Lucy told him to take as many cups as he wanted to taste.  He then repeated his first request.  “I only want to taste cashews and pistachios nothing else!”

Lucy had to think fast as how to respond to this man.  Other members were trying to also sample the mixed nuts but could not approach as the man was standing right in front of the cart.  Lucy then told the man in a clear voice “that what was on the cart was available for all of the members.  If he wanted to purchase a container, he could take it home with him and separate the nuts himself.”    

The man had a shocked look on his face as what he wanted was not going to happen.  Then another member asked him to step aside so other people could sample the nuts.  He had a deflated look about him, but Lucy was not going to separate the nuts for him.

The rest of the day went much more smoothly for Lucy and she was able to sell her quota of mixed nuts.  She had learned quickly that not everything was included in her training class.  She was much more prepared now for any strange requests the members might throw at her.

Lucy found out that working with the general public was not always easy.  Every working day offered her a new challenge, being quick on your feet was very important.  Lucy had found out that there was more than one kind of mixed nuts to have?