Napes

It is five letters.

A gas station is well lit at night. I guess I never noticed how well lit a gas station is until I started working at one. Not much happens during my shifts, I'm finding, except a few people pulling up and filling their cars with gas and then driving off. Sometimes, someone will buy coffee or use the bathroom. Sometimes, it is a stick of beef jerky.

I read the newspapers. All of them. Because I can and because I used to deliver these newspapers so that other people could read them, but I never looked inside, flipped the pages, smeared inky fingers on tabletops or on coffee mugs or on my face, by accident, haha! If only I had looked inside these bundles earlier! What great pleasure it gives me.

Down.

It's all about the Funnies. Dad never let me read the newspaper, or, maybe I never wanted to read the newspaper. Either way, it doesn't matter because I'm aware of the Funnies now, and that's what's important. That I know about the Funnies. The games. The comics. The crossword puzzles.

A clue is way of getting to know someone.

Neck parts.

Someone walks in that wants to talk, but not necessarily with a stranger. I have worked two shifts and already I can tell who these people are. They possess a nervous kind of energy like a bowling ball without a hole for the thumb, buy vitamin enhanced water, knock before using the bathroom, etc. They come to the register and there I am. Waiting.

I ask: What's a five letter word for neck parts.

In most cases, the response is a: What? Or a: I don't know.

But sometimes the person really gives it some thought, really doesn't want to let me down.

Sometimes, they come up with an answer that fits.