Friday Black

Content Warning: This story references suicide.

This story is narrated by Florence, a secondary character from “How to Sell a Jacket as Told by IceKing.” She begins by suggesting that retail workers need to “find ways to make the bleak a little better” (159). She alludes to a girl named Lucy, who has become well-known among retail workers at the Prominent Mall for dying by suicide on her lunch break. Lucy’s name has since been turned into a euphemism for bleakness (i.e., “[Y]ou could end up a Lucy” [163]). Florence clarifies that she doesn’t use the name herself and goes on to advise retail workers to find happiness themselves.

Florence is approached by an old Spanish-speaking woman with whom she tries to establish common ground through the little they speak of each other’s languages. The customer is seeking a red shirt for a young girl, so Florence leads her to the women’s side of the store, listening as the customer speaks pleasantly in words she cannot understand.

Florence then thinks about her Spanish Regents teacher, Ms. Ramirez, who gave her high marks. She suspects that this was because she was the only student who obliged her teacher’s off-beat anecdotes.