FicWad

Chapter 1: A Good Ending Maketh Room for a Good Beginning…or So I’ve Been Told

“I’m glad you could make it,” he didn’t look very glad, but still the thought is what counts right? I stood before his desk, waiting the worst. Ever since Mr. Schleofer had become the head over the Library, I hadn’t liked him. He hadn’t liked me and I had a feeling that his dislike was going to take on a form that would hurt me much more than it would hurt him. He stared at me for a minute before hastily rifling through a few stray papers on his desk.

“I understand that you are in some dire straits financially.”

I raised my eyebrows.

He looked at me from over his glasses, “Is this so?”

“Perhaps,” I said hesitantly.

He nodded, “Yes, that’s what I thought. Do you have any other income besides this job?”

“I don’t see any reason for you to-”

“Quite right,” he interrupted, continuing to shift the papers in his hands from one side of his desk to the other, he didn’t even seem to be looking at them, “I have no right to pry.”

“Then why did you ask?”

For perhaps the first time he looked squarely into my eyes, “With your usual bluntness you have forced me to come straight to the point.”

I waited, but he didn’t seem inclined to continue.

“I worry about you,” he said with a sigh after a very long pause, “what will you do without your job here?”

I swallowed, “Is that in question?”

“No,” he said tartly, returning to moving the papers on his desk to various places as if he was designing a scrapbook page, “No, it’s quite decided.”

I waited, my stomach clenching uncomfortably.

He didn’t continue.

“And the verdict is…?” I said after a while, hoping it would be in my favor.

“You know we haven’t gotten along in the past, and I think you’ll remember those times at lunch when you deliberately defied my judgement…”

“I’m fired for speaking my opinion?”

“Speaking you opinion?” He sat up straighter, “Speaking your opinion?”

“Well, yes!” I wanted to tell him that he had been transferred from a small branch in Molene, and he had no idea how a library had to run in a place like Chicago! I couldn’t though, I’ve never been very impetuous.

“Elene, that’s an awfully mild way of putting it,” he regained his composure, “at any rate, we’ve found someone to take your place, you may go.”

“What?” I breathed, for I couldn’t speak at such a sudden drop off.

“You may go. I am sorry, you’ve been a wonderful employee, and I’ll miss you.” He seemed almost genuine, but I’m no judge.

“Oh.” I managed, swallowing back tears, then, with nothing else to say, I turned and left the office. That was it. End of story. I no longer had a job.

It was raining outside, how apropos. I didn’t really feel like running, and I didn’t mind the rain so I walked to the crowded bus stop. I found a seat by a woman with her hood up. She grunted at me as I sat down, which I took to be a greeting.

“I just lost my job,” I blurted out to her, perhaps in an effort to explain my dejected appearance, and not having my friends to rant to.

She looked at me, “Honey, you got to move on.”

I smiled weakly at her.

There was another woman sitting in on the corner of the bench, she began to talk in a slow, whiney voice about when she lost her job. She started but then she never stopped talking. No one was really listening to her, but she spoke as if someone was listening. She seemed sort of lonely, so I felt that I wasn’t so bad off after all.

I looked at the driver as I boarded the bus. He cast me a glance and then went back to his stoic inspection of what was in front of him. I looked at the people already on the bus, and wondered about their days. There was a lady with a book who looked up and smiled at me as I walked past. She had startlingly light brown eyes, that must have been what they what they mean when they say someone’s eyes are honey colored.

I felt eyes on me as I sat down, and I looked up to see the driver observing me through his mirror. He looked away as I looked at him. He looked younger than I had originally thought him. Black hair stuck out from under a baseball cap. His eyes met mine and I transferred my gaze to the white dashes that sped by.

Unintentionally, my mind drifted to my home. My parents being both dead, I lived by myself. My brother, Alex, was in Nebraska, going to the University in Lincoln, he was my legal guardian until I reached the age of 21.

The bus stopped by the grocery store and I stepped off along with the woman with honey colored eyes. She smiled at me as she began to walk away.

I stood at the stop, suddenly not knowing what to do.

A slight jingling in my pocket brought me back to reality. I pulled out my cell phone, Damaris’s name was blinking at me.

“Girl, are you ready?? Are you totally ready for this?”

I smiled, “What’s up?”

Her voice deepened with conspiracy, “Gladiators.”

“Ah,” I nodded as I walked away from the bus stop, “so you got tickets.”

“Pshaw! Yeah! Of course I got tickets, we’re meeting tonight at my house and we’ll catch the bus to the theater.”

“Right. Gram and Grampy there?”

She grunted a laugh, “No, they said Samoa had their names written all over it.”

“But they just got back from Madagascar!”

“Yeah, well, their old, their retired, I mean, what else are they going to do with their time? Hey, I’ve still got to call Imari, so I’ll see you at 6.”

“But the movie doesn’t start until 7:30-”

“I know, but we’ve got to get good seats! See you then?”

“Alright,“ I said just before I heard the click of her phone.

She was happily oblivious to trouble. Damaris was the greatest optimist I knew, strange because she was fascinated with perhaps one of the most dominant minded Empires in history. Rome was Damaris’s passion, and it was evident In her choice of movie for the month.

I hoped Imari would be able to come, she was, like me, free of parental care. You never knew when she would have to work. Her home hadn’t been a happy one, so she seemed more comfortable in an independent life style. She was a strong willed, physically fit girl with a, sometimes, disturbing understanding of weaponry from all ages throughout history.

I turned into my block and was greeted by the cheerful bark of Rufus, the sheepdog owned by my neighbors and one of my daily charges for walking. How is it that when we have a horrible day, it seems the whole universe is determined to cheer us up if we let it?

I scratched his loose jowls and he licked my hand with the usual relish. He padded along at my side until I got to my house and unlocked the door.

“I’ll see you in about half an hour,” I told him as I closed the door behind me. For the first time that day, I stopped to think about my situation. No more job. I leaned against the door and put my hand to my forehead. What was I going to do?

I dropped my stuff on the couch and unzipped my jacket as I went into the kitchen – which was a mess. I didn’t have time to worry about that now, I had Rufus and four other dogs to walk the energy out of before six. I grabbed an apple out of the fridge and ran upstairs to change.

“Oh, Elene, there you are, I was beginning to worry,” Mrs. Thomas said as she handed me the leash to her Scottish terrier, “You know, Greg just doesn’t feel the same when he hasn’t been walked. It’s such a wonderful thing you do for him in his old age, and he just loves you! He had six other walkers before you. Six! Can you imagine? And you know, he didn’t like any of them half so much as he likes you.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Thomas, but I really need to be going, I’ll see you in about an hour.”

“oh, you’re a dear, and you know, I met a very nice young ma-”

“Good Bye!” I waved as I succumbed to Rufus and Nanna’s – an Afghan– tugging. Phew! That was a relief.

I got all five of my charges to the park and unhooked their collars, this would be the fastest way to get them moving. I ran with them until I was too tired and then threw sticks for them to fight over and then bring back to me.

As I sat on the grass I felt eyes on me once more. I looked around to see a man sitting on a bench. He mock-saluted me before standing up and wandering off. I stood up straighter and watched him until I could see him no more.

I looked at my watch…and panicked. I whistled for the dogs and called them until I had them gathered up and hooked to their leashes. Then we were off.

Finally Rufus had been returned to his owner and I had only a few minutes to shower and get cleaned up before I had to be at Damaris’s house. In the bathroom I looked at my reflection.
What had that man been staring at? I wasn’t very pretty, but something had caught his eye. I have dark, dark brown hair and large, somewhat close together green eyes with a spattering of freckles. I smiled at my reflection trying to judge if I had a pretty smile or no. I shrugged, he was probably just one of those weirdoes they always warn you about. Good thing I had had my dogs with me.

I grabbed a semi-fitted shirt with a jester – my favorite! - on it and a pair of jeans and hurried out the door, tying my hair up into a messy bun as I went.

I was, of course, late to meet my group of friends, and they were all already there.

Kuri was sitting demurely on the couch with Imari, and Damaris burst from the kitchen like an Italian mama as I came in. Her hair was in lots of braids that hit just below her collarbones. She already had her aviator jacket on, ready to go.

Kuri is half-japanese, which pretty much makes it a given that she’s beautiful. Her hair is short, cropped at the nape of her neck. She’s much more composed, I think than the rest of us, but she knew how to make life fun. Imari sat there reading a textbook with her short hair falling out of a pony-tail, in a long-sleeved white shirt with a dark grey marshmallow vest. There was a back pack at her feet.

“Are we ready?” Damaris asked, already half-way through the door. And we were off.

*

“That movie was grossly inaccurate,” Damaris said with disgust as she picked popcorn from her shirt.

“I would say this calls for ice cream,” Kuri said as she shook the popcorn from her hair, “Wouldn’t you?”

“Damaris, you weren’t pleased?” I said, half-mocking. She only grumbled something in reply, which was cut short as I hugged her tightly around the shoulders. Imari joined in the glump, and Damaris blew a stray braid out of her hair as we let her free, “sheesh.”

We laughed as we walked, it was good to lighten the mood. While the movie had been well made, it was not quite accurate in its portrayal. Leave it to Damaris to pick out the discrepancies.
The road curved and we found ourselves facing an alley. I headed down it, “short-cut!”

“To what?” Imari looked skeptical, “our deaths?”

“Uncle Mike’s!” Damaris said as she started for the lighted street on the other side. I threw a piece of popcorn at Kuri as I took off down the sidewalk.

I’m not really sure what happened next. My shoe must have caught something, but the world heaved under my feet. You know what it looks like when someone shakes out a sheet or table cloth? That is what the world seemed to do and I was right in the middle of it. I saw myself falling and the pavement raised up to meet my face…