GLISTENING
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Chapter One, setting the mood
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*front desk and waiting room for Dr. Prescott, specialist in...whatever brings in the most patients with proper private insurance...quantity over quality*
*retail customer service ultra friendly voice* "Thank you so much for calling in, I've adjusted your appointment to next Tuesday at ten, I hope you have a great rest of your day!"
*click*
*internal* "...and if you don't call back again today, I'll have a great rest of my own damned day..."
That's the third reschedule for Mrs. Williams. Today. Marcia lost count sometime last week and while she was annoyed at making the changes in both the new and old databases because heaven forbid they just use one and migrate the data from the other, she was thankful she wouldn't ever have to see her again. She tossed her headset back onto the desk where it circled around the base of the monitor and got stuck against the power button for the third time that morning. With near robotic precision, the frustrated move sent her screen into blackness, and the clatter caused a couple heads to turn in the waiting room. Actually, the clatter had nothing to do with it. Marcia's exclamation of, "well, shit..." was entirely to blame.
It would be a simple move to extract the headset from around the bottom of the display and press the power button to bring everything back to normal. However, this morning had other ideas, and the cord happened to be caught under a cup of cold but not quite yet bitter coffee. The simple move simply sent the sludgy contents directly onto the soft fabric of Marcia's lap, causing a completely different set of exclamations to build up within her throat. Exclamations that would probably cause strokes among the waiting room fodder and thankfully they never made it past her pursed lips as she stood up to visit the restroom and dry up the offending puddle.
*internal* "...this is not how I wanted to spend my last day in this hellhole..."
After drying off her skirt and thanking herself for going easy on the milk and sugar this time so it wouldn't be too noticeable, she thought about what awaited her after the last time she ever would have to clock out of the system and walk to the uneven parking lot to her car. Of course there was driving to the daycare center to pick up Sarah and take her back home to start another weekend of top volume cartoons, bowls of cereal, and endless piles of laundry. There's always the trips to mother's that sometimes freed up an evening for debauchery with her best friend Stacey. And if memory served her right, this would be the first month with no car payment for the buzzy little Cobalt she had bought three years before. Her new job started Monday morning bright and early and she wouldn't have the free mornings she was accustomed to. But that's not at all what had her excited to finish out this day and get out of there for good. Instead she had her adventure folded in half and tucked into her bra, one sticky note. It was purple and had only a few words on it.
*note* Rack City Fitness, south side, 9pm
She knew where, she knew when, she definitely knew who, and she had a pretty good idea of what. But...she didn't really know exactly what and that was part of the excitement. Finding out would be half the fun and...well, the other half would follow. Feeling presentable again after running her fingers through her hair all the way down to her shoulders and a little bit past, Marcia returned to the front desk. She was intent on catching up her work before leaving no matter how many people tried to stop her. She greeted yet another patient who didn't think they knew whether their insurance would cover this visit or not, and could we hurry it up a little because Matlock comes on at two, and by the way, that Uber driver that dropped me off, his car smelled like a pig farm, isn't there something YOU could do about that?
Minutes ticked away, learning about every pain, every itch, and even some of the dizziness of the patients before her. Her fingers fluttered across the keyboard, half worn nails clicking against every key, pounding out codes and addresses and long-winded descriptions of misery. Slowly but surely the hour hand of the wall clock melted down towards the six where she could finally escape and figure out what to do for the next four hours before her adventure for the night could begin. As she turned in her time card and said her goodbyes to the stuffy office staff one last time, she turned towards the door and walked out into the parking lot, free at last. Muscle memory took her to the southwest corner of the lot where her car was. That's when she saw it.
She almost didn't notice as she walked up to the car's door, but there it was, jiggling slightly with the breeze, tucked under the driver's side windshield wiper and almost loose enough to fly away. Another purple sticky note. She unlocked the car, put her purse on the passenger seat, and took the note into the car with her to read. She instinctively gasped as she read what it said.
*note* we can both wear all black, it'll hide any evidence