Other Places 1: Shortcuts (6 page)

It was more than a little weird that Lisa hadn't been by at all. It probably meant he was supposed to open again the next day as well. It would have been harder for him, with only twelve hours between the two things, but really what else did he have to do? On the way out he waved to Edom, if that was his name, and headed out. He had a pack of Ramen left after all.

The walk home was cold, but fast, and he was back in his own place before he really had a chance to get too chilly. This time there had been no Vampires waiting at least. Troy was gone and while he could have played a game, or watched one of the three channels they got, not having cable or a good antennae, he opted for sleep instead. On his bed was a pile of folded clothing and a note telling him to pick what he wanted.

It was nice stuff too. Troy was being really generous, but then, he always was.

He cleared it off and hung it all up, not wanting it to wrinkle, and did the same with the clothing he'd worn that day, in case it needed special handling or care. The Ramen had hit the spot and he felt sleepy. It was a good feeling, knowing that he was pulling his own weight again.

In the morning he didn't see Troy at all, but that happened sometimes, especially if he brought home a lady. Most of the time he didn't see them when that happened. This time was no exception, the sounds from his roommate's room making it clear that she was a screamer. Zack felt slightly jealous for a moment, since it had been far too long since he'd convinced a woman to do that with
him
, but that would change soon. Mirror Him thought so anyway.

"It's all percentages. Think about it, you met zero girls for three months and got zero pussy. Now you've met two in two days. Three if you count that old lady. If one in every hundred women or so is willing to sleep with you, why... you should be getting some this year for sure."

As pep talks went it wasn't that great of one, but coming from M.H. it was practically like the guy was singing his praises. Zack shook his head and left quietly, dressed in Troy's clothing, today in a red cotton blend button front shirt, black slacks and a sharp looking black tie, along with the same dress shoes from the day before. His old jacket went over that.

It had snowed a little, the road gray, not being totally covered yet, a few flakes falling slowly from above, hitting him in the face. It was refreshing. He could have dodged them all, seeing their pattern, since it wasn't too thick for that kind of thing yet. Zack just walked though, his footprints just appearing in the parking lot after he stepped through. No one would notice, most likely. Or, if they did, they wouldn't care. Footprints just appearing out of nowhere didn't catch attention, because people couldn't explain it.

It took a lot less time to get the store open and ready that day, since it was about as clean as scrubbing would make it. That just meant he got to spend the morning marking all the candles on the bottom with the correct price. He found the ordering catalog and just followed the suggested retail price in there. It was what he'd charged the men the day before. It was a big job, even given the fairly small space. They had plenty of little stickers for it at least, just sitting under the counter. No one came in or interrupted him all day, and he was finished by four. Then he found the little baskets that people were supposed to use for shopping, actually wicker ones, which were classy looking, compared to the plastic and metal ones most places had. He sat those out and carefully penned a little sign that said, "For Your Shopping Convenience" and taped it over them.

Then, noticing the mall start to get busy again, he waited, wondering if anyone ever even bought the place as a store at all.

It was what he was thinking when the woman walked in. She was about forty and looked well enough dressed. A bit casual, wearing running shoes and blue jeans. It wasn't anyone he'd seen before. For a second he wondered if an actual customer had come in, so he smiled at her.

"Hi! Can I help you find anything? We have baskets by the door, and if you don't see anything you like, we have some ordering catalogues, so don't be afraid to let me know."

She froze and then shook her head, but did smile.

"Is Lisa in? She told me to meet her here at five, I'm a bit late..." A hand came out along with a firm handshake. "Deidre. Her girlfriend? I don't know if she mentioned me?"

Zack shook his head.

"I can guarantee that in the fifteen lines she's spoken to me, she has definitely
not
mentioned anyone in particular. Not even herself, except to give her name. Now I know more about her by far, meeting you. Nice to meet you by the way. Please stay and talk to me. I'd bribe you, but I have no money. Want a candle? I can get you a candle..." It was rushed and slightly manic, but it got a laugh.

"Heh, she did mention that the store part of things was a little slow. You do good work though, I don't think this place has ever looked this good before." She hesitated for a while then made a bit of a face. "I'm a Wiccan, but that's a religious thing for me. I don't really have much by the way of power. I do the spells, but they normally don't work, you know?"

He nodded.

"Mage family myself, I even learned the basics when I was a kid, but, well, I was kidnapped, and have over a year of missing time. Whatever happened to me locked that up pretty solidly. I can do a few odd things, but I'm not a real Mage. Good at noticing some things most don't. About the same as you really, I'd guess. Except the part where
you
have a girlfriend and I don't. That sort of means you win, I think." He stopped, not wanting to inundate the poor woman with the long, and mostly boring, tale of how he was a failure in magic.

Instead of pity the woman gave him a look that seemed to be peaceful.

"Well, magic is nice, but as far as I can tell, it tends to make just as many problems as it solves. That's what I use to comfort myself when Lisa whips out a spell that does incredible things and I'm in the background chanting to the goddess, uselessly."

It was an interesting topic, and he would have continued on in the same vein if a very exhausted looking Lisa hadn't walked through the door just then. There was a stagger to her steps, and a single bruise on her right cheek. It wasn't deep or dark in particular, just enough that it was visible with all the store lights on.

"Hey..." She was wearing the same clothing as she had been a few days before, though there were smudges in places, especially at the knees. Whatever drugs had been keeping her going were wearing off it seemed, since she could barely stand, and fell into one of his new end-cap displays.

Deidre got to her fast, her arms going around her, acting as if it wasn't half hug. That was silly, since she'd introduced herself as her girlfriend.

Mirror Him explained it, getting it before Zack could.

"One of them is in the closet. I'm betting it's Lisa, since her friend looks like she could be the poster child for bull dykes... Wait, is that an offensive term yet? It's so hard to keep on top of these things anymore."

It
was
a crude way for him to put it, but there seemed to be some truth to it. That or Deidre was a stalker that was just claiming that Lisa was her girlfriend. His boss kept looking at him and pushing her away, trying to be subtle about it.

"Sorry I abandoned you, Zack. I'm surprised that you're still here to tell the truth. Most people would have walked out at five when I didn't show and never came back. Thanks." She looked around blearily and smiled. "God. This place looks like a store for once. Did anything... out of the ordinary come up?"

It took a second to get what she meant and he nodded which got her to give him a funny look.

"Yes. While you were gone I staged a coup and named myself assistant-manager. Or at least I'm doing it right
now
. I mean, how are you supposed to know the difference, right? I also unilaterally decided that we're having Christmas decorations, I need funds for that. Plus I'm giving myself a raise. Twice what I used to make, whatever that was." He was playing, but meant it at the same time. She nodded at each statement.

"Alright. Sounds totally fair. So nothing else?"

He could have probably hedged but she'd find out eventually. It was always better to be honest and get things out of the way. Hopefully Lisa would be as reasonable as Bob from the phone had been.

"Yes, a Mage named Hiram Stone came in to claim asylum, I used the guild rules to settle that problem for him, he'd ripped-off his partner in a criminal endeavor, a shifter named Cyrus? Then I threatened to cut off Hiram's hand and extorted five thousand dollars from him as an arbitrage fee. It's under the till. He complained to the guild, but I actually do have the law on my side. Um, Bob Millhouse called to see about that? He said he'd be in soon. His wife has been really sick. We should make sure they have everything they need. Offer to go clean their house, or shop for them. That has to be really hard."

Lisa started blinking really fast then and stumbled around the counter to look in the till. Zack pantomimed lifting it so she could find the funds. Those got pulled out, which had her making a troubled face.

"You got
Hiram Stone
to part with money? Bonds too?
How
?"

That just got a smile and a shrug. It hadn't been hard enough for him to worry over really.

"I think it was the fact that he thought I might really take all he had on him and still cut off his hand. That's actually about it. Well, I got him and Cyrus to buy some candles. The rest of the time I spent working on the store."

It sounded boring, but that was work in most places. You put in your time and tried to make yourself useful enough they didn't fire you.

Lisa stumbled to the back her girlfriend following, looking concerned. A few minutes later she came back, her eyes looking glassy. There was a frown on Deidre's face though.

His boss handed him an envelope and waved at the door.

"I can take the rest of the night. You go home and use that to get the decorations you want. I can set the sound system in my office to play Seasonal tunes. Is it too early for that?" Freshly drugged or not, she was still unsteady.

Zack shook his head.

"Um, unless you have other work to do here, that I can't, why don't
you
go home and I'll get more hours in, while you go and get some sleep. You look like crap. Drugging yourself this much isn't good for you." He held up his right hand, just in time for her to scowl at him.

"
Excuse me
?"

He nodded.

"Sure, I mean, of course I will. I get
why
you're doing it, but you have someone to do the dirty work for you now...
and
mark time. I need the money and you need the sleep, so you see how this works out? You drop dead and I'm probably out of a job. True, I might also be for saying this, but I
did
mention I can only tell the truth, right?" He thought that he had, but honestly that was escaping him at the moment. If not there could be trouble. People generally didn't like to hear bad things said about themselves like that.

Deidre looked at him as if he were a saint though, beaming.

"See? Zack is good here. Everything seems fine. There was a problem and he
totally
owned it. Besides you have that other thing to deal with and he's right honey, you have to sleep soon. Let's go home." She sounded like she was begging at the end. It wasn't a pleasant thing to hear.

Between the two of them he kind of liked Deidre better so far. She seemed sane and stable, as well as kind. That counted for a lot in life, at least if you were smart. It took nearly ten more minutes of assurances and
then
Lisa promised that she'd be in first thing in the morning, so he could sleep in. Her girlfriend rolled her eyes, which he took as a sign not to trust the words.

"No need. I get plenty of sleep. I'll open and you can bring me lunch? I've been starving all day, but I couldn't leave." He didn't want to complain about it, since he didn't have any food at home waiting for him either. Whining about things you couldn't change didn't help anything.

Lisa blinked again.

"Oh, you can just call down to the food court and they'll bring you whatever you want. They're actually a lot better than you'd think. We have an account, so you don't even have to pay for it yourself. Have friends in, whatever you want." She shook her head, trying to get the cobwebs out. "This isn't a real store, it's technically an embassy. All the places here are. Built on a nexus, since that's the tradition, so that no single group can control them all."

That made sense. Smiling he started looking for the number for the free food. When he mentioned it, Lisa laughed and got him a large blue binder from her office.

"This has almost all the numbers of anyone important at all to my job. The food court is on the first page. This is actually Bob's book. You're right about getting with him. I've just been so slammed."

He believed her, but whatever it was she did, it hadn't crossed his path overly yet. If she was going days without sleep to keep up on it, well that meant it must be decently pressing. More so than a fake candle shop, that was clear.

Deidre smiled at him and looked grateful, walking out with a small tinkle as the chimes rang. It only took a few minutes for the food to be called in, and twenty minutes after that a very short man with a friendly smile brought a Styrofoam container filled with egg rolls, fried rice and beef strips.