Setting Exercise (I)

Once, at a bar, I met a girl who had just finished her master's degree. I was feeling good, so I asked "in what?" The answer was Human Geography. At that point I tilted my head slightly in surprise, wondering what it actually meant. I could most likely reduce her 2 year master's to thirty seconds (not to mention save her $80,000) by telling her that everyone knows that human populations tend to be most dense around bodies of water. Instead I asked, "so, what? You research population demographics and help decide where to put the next McDonalds?" She kind of laughed it off and continued sipping her tequila sunrise.

I'm still not exactly sure what one does with a Master's in Human Geography, but this moment served as a catalyst for the chain of thoughts that followed:

I choose to live here, in this city, in this neighborhood, in this specific apartment. If I don't like my neighbors or my property manager, I can move somewhere else. I choose to work for a specific employer, in a specific area, with a specific schedule in mind. This too, I could change. I choose to speak with certain people as I encounter them when I am walking down the street, checking the mail, or swimming at the pool. I choose where I bank, where I buy groceries, where I fill prescriptions, and where I receive medical care. In these ways we fence ourselves in to a certain comfortable box. In these ways we try to control our environment. Which leads me to my next point...

There are very few universal settings, and by that I mean places where you encounter people from every walk of life. You probably aren't going to run into a crackhead at a private golf club, and you won't find an A-list celebrity walking alone in the ghetto. These are not believable scenarios. Where would you have the setting for a situation where anything goes?

A gas station. Think about it. Anyone with a car needs to fill up for gas. Even people without cars stop in for lottery tickets or to grab a 40. This also leads to beggars hanging around outside, knowing that a new customer will show up every minute with possible spare change. Additionally, gas stations are vulnerable to robberies since they generally have a small staff and minimal security. They occasionally attract drug users stopping in for paraphernalia such as blunt wraps and lighters. Very strange and funny things seem to happen at gas stations because they introduce characters who don't necessarily cross paths at any other junction.

The assignment is simply this:

Create a short story that occurs at a gas station.