The Part Time People (4 page)

“Did you see him again?” Joe asked.

“Yes, last Saturday. He was waiting in the subway. He knew when I was going to be there, like I always am, you know?”

“Did he say anything to you?” Joe sounded concerned.

“No, he just kind of smirked the way he always does, like he was saying, ‘I know where you are and I can find you anytime I want.’ I swear I don't know what to do.”

“You should call the cops again. He's not supposed to do that.”

Gwen sighed, “They can't do anything. It's a free country, remember what he said? ‘I can go anywhere I god damned please and there isn't anything that anyone can do about it’ And he's right. The cops can't do a thing.”

“What about David?” Joe asked, “How is he?”

“Okay so far.” Gwen said, “I mean he hardly says a thing and he looks like he’s scared to death of everything, but maybe he's just shy, you know, he's just a kid. But I will tell you, Joe, if he turns out to be another Martin, I am going to quit this job, and you won't be able to stop me this time.”

“I don't think I'd try.” Joe said, “You have every right to want to quit. Imagine that guy following you around like that. I wish I'd never laid my eyes on him.”

"I wish you’d never hired him.” Gwen said. "That's the problem from the start. You shouldn't hire these lunatics."

"Sometimes I think DeBarrie's is a magnet for them, I can’t control who decides to turn in an application." Joe sounded upset.

David made it through the day all right, but he had the next few days off and he wanted to stay out of sight. Joe had given him an advance and David found a room in a small hotel near the city park. He had a window view but he always kept his blinds shut. He had bought a couple of mystery books and enough food to let him stay inside his room until Thursday afternoon. Things were going too well, and he didn't want to mess it up in any way. He knew that if he went outside and took a long walk in the sun, he'd look around too much, he'd see too much, and he wanted to keep his balance intact. He knew himself too well. He knew how he would act in every circumstance. If anyone came up to him and asked him any question, he'd begin to stutter and he wouldn’t be able to stop.

He felt better when he was inside. It hadn't always been like this for him. Over the past few years he had changed in many ways. But it wasn’t his fault, he was always watching out for him. Someday he hoped that it would end, and he figured that he would slowly turn back into who he was before. He was counting on that happening, but he was having trouble remembering what he used to feel like. If it didn't end, he thought, he would just have to make it through. It's just a matter of learning what to do and where to go, and what to avoid. Adaptation is the key, he thought, survival of the fittest. It was only a matter of practice, learning, and remembering.

He stayed inside his room and passed the days. His books were surprising, and he didn't get too lonely. His solitude was only briefly interrupted by the occupants of the room next door. That was better than he'd expected. Usually there were people and machines everywhere making noise all the time. Wherever he was staying, wherever he went, whatever he did. Total silence was essential, David thought, at least for several hours a day. He avoided any activity and every place where noise was likely to occur. It was Thursday almost all too soon. He had gotten very comfortable in the room, and he didn't want to leave. But he knew that he could only pay for it by going to work, and so he had no choice.

He put it off as long as possible, it wasn't until three forty five that he left the room and went outside. He was confronted immediately with the world in all its motion, all its sound. The last few days of contentment were erased. David tensed up quickly, and had to shout his thoughts to make them heard.

“It's okay,” he told himself, “It’s going to be all right. It only takes a little time to readjust. As soon as I get to the store I know that I'll be ready.” He tried to walk as calmly as he could, breathing deeply as he did, reciting his litany to himself.

“Ugghh, ugghh” A little old man was vomiting into the sewer across the street from David. He was wearing a thick overcoat even though it was ninety two degrees outside. The man looked up, and stared right at David. He seemed to be scowling too.

It could be him, David thought, but he shook his head. No, not today, he told himself, it's just too soon, too soon. Why doesn't he leave me alone for just a little while. It probably isn't him, he thought, of course it's not. I've never seen that man before. He's just a wino, that's all he is, he isn't really one of them. But even though the man walked off the other way and was soon out of sight, David held onto the image of the man in his thick trench coat. He started to compare him to all the others he had seen. It can't be him, he thought, he's not the one. David lost himself in his thoughts. He forgot to say hello when he walked into work, and Gwen thought that was strange, because although he never said too much, he always said hello. It was the only word he seemed to know.

David blinked and seemed to realize where he was. He knew that he should just relax, breathe, and go to work. He stood by the counter and stared through the glass at the expensive pens. Mike came up behind him and said,

“Howdy Dave, how's it going.”

That was enough to break the spell.

David turned around and even smiled. “Hi Mike, never better.” And then he was almost okay.

The old man was forgotten, the job was still there after all. A few times in his room alone, he thought the job had been a dream. The store, the room he was in, his own fabrication. He was just making it up as he went along. To avoid him. But the job was real all right, and just the thing he needed most.

He took over for Gwen on the register and worked as well as he had ever done. He didn't make any mistakes, and he wasn't nervous. He was courteous and pleasant to everyone who came up to him. He didn't mind their questions, and if he didn't know the answer, he didn't hesitate to call for Mike or Gwen. It was like a brand new day he thought. Usually when he got to feeling exuberant like that he checked himself, told himself to take it easy, and not get carried away, but this time he couldn't help himself, because it felt so good. I don't see why it can't go on like this, he thought. This is just the way it ought to be. Maybe it's all over and I didn't even know it.

Even Joe noticed, when he came out from the office, preparing to go home, that something had changed in David. He said to Gwen later that night that didn't it seem like David was going to be all right, even though maybe his application had been weird, and maybe he did seem strange at first. Gwen had to agree that David seemed more normal that day than any of the other part time people they had ever had. And Mike said, like I told you Joe, the kid's okay, and he's going to work out fine.

When Mike said that, there was no question anymore. Joe’s mind was made up. Joe felt good, I finally made the right decision after all, he thought. He thought he might never have to hire another person again. Oh God, if only this keeps up, he thought, it would be so good.

David had been fine all right, all the way till seven, just as chipper as a man could be. He'd even talked to Gwen a bit about himself. He said he was from Michigan, but he didn't remember it at all. He said he'd had a lot of jobs before, but none so good as this. He told Gwen all about the room he had, how quiet it was, how much he liked to be there. She didn't urge him on. In fact she didn't want to hear all that. She was relieved a bit to find that he was actually someone with a voice, a life, a past, but she was still too much aware of Martin, and the other part-timers.

Things got bad when an old nut walked into the store. He was a usual, had been coming around for years. He just went up and down the block on a regular rotation, stopped in once a month or so to yell out, ‘Where's the light, has anybody seen the light?’ and then he'd laugh like he was going to burst before he went on to the next part of his act. Gwen even had a name for him. She called him Santa Claus, but David had never seen him before, and she had never seen someone react the way David did to poor old drunken Santa. First he turned all white. Then he froze, as if his limbs were locked in place. After Santa left, David never recovered. He stuttered whenever he began to talk, and soon he gave up talking all together.

Gwen tried to cheer him up. “Oh, that's just old Santa Claus. He’s harmless, just a drunk, he comes in all the time, been coming around for years. Everybody knows him. Sometimes I even give him a buck or two.” But all her talk did nothing to change the dead expression on David’s face. He didn't say goodbye when it was time to leave. She watched him walk out like a corpse. Oh Christ, she thought, he is another one after all. Well, maybe there's a logical explanation. Maybe I'll get it out of him on Monday. She didn't want to have to worry about him now. Martin was still around. She had enough to deal with already.

Later on, after she'd locked up and was about to leave, she made her mind up that she'd give him one more week. If he was weird again next Thursday, she would definitely do something about it. "God damn." she said, ”What is it with these part time people anyway?”

CHAPTER FOUR

David had only one day to recover after Thursday night. It was not enough time. He walked back to the hotel as fast as possible, intending to stay there until Saturday. But he'd forgotten, in his haste, to get prepared. He had no food to eat, no book to read, nothing to do. Thursday night that didn't seem like a problem, His nerves kept him going. I have to get myself together, he thought, that's the most important thing. He didn't know if the man Gwen called Santa Claus was a sign of trouble or not. It had happened before.

Six months ago, at the liquor store, one of them came in to buy some rum. The bastard didn't have any money, so he told his awful jokes and hoped to make a friend of him. And if David was his friend, the guy must have thought, maybe he'd give him something off the shelf for free. David had just stood there, shaking the whole time, and listened to those stories the man told about the girls. The ones around the corner, how he was friends with them and if you needed any introduction well just ask that's all you have to do, and he went on to describe a few of them, what they liked, what they were good for, how much they usually charged but you don't have to worry about that, not with my connections. Then the old man laughed deeply, which caused him to erupt into a nasty coughing fit. He knew he should have thrown the guy out right there, but he couldn't move. And when Jerry, his boss came out of the stockroom he looked over at David in the strangest way, and then said,

“Come on now Ivan, time to go.” And the drunk had left without a fuss. “So what's the matter with you?” Jerry said, “It's only Ivan. Next time you tell him go right off, he'll go, the man's a lush, he's easy.”

David nodded but didn’t say anything.

Only later it dawned on him that Ivan was the sign, and he should have known that it was time to go. But I stayed, he thought, because I told myself I wouldn't run away again.

“I can't have someone who just gives my money away.” Jerry’s words resonated inside David’s head, from the night of the robbery. David had done the only thing he could but the man didn't come for money, no, David knew that he'd been sent, that he was out to get him, David was relieved he'd made it through alive. Now this Santa Claus might be another sign. I should stay away from there, he thought. He knows where I am now. He always finds out soon enough.

He woke up hungry on Friday but the thought of going out barely entered David’s mind. He was too busy thinking about Santa, maybe he was just a drunk. It was a possibility. David lay in bed and told himself that everything was going to be all right as he watched the light fade from behind the blinds.

On Saturday his stomach forced him out of bed early and he went to a diner next to the hotel. He sat at the bar, and ordered two plates, for takeout. The waitress looked at him a little funny. David ignored her. He ate his two breakfasts on his bench in the park. He started to feel better. He walked to work, enjoying the warm morning sun, and got there much too early. He had to wait around out front for Gwen to show, and when she finally did he could tell right off that she wasn't glad to see him. He was cheerful though.

“Good morning“ he said, “how are you?”

“Hi.” Gwen walked right by him, opened the door and went inside. He followed her into the store and waited by the front while she got the money and the lights.

“Listen,” she said, “I've got some work to do, so I'm just going to leave you here up front, okay?”

“No problem,” David said, and he sincerely meant it.

After awhile David figured out that Gwen was weird about the other night, because of how he changed when Santa Claus came in. He felt he really should explain the situation to her. They'd been getting along so well. He'd even begun to talk about himself, and was going to ask about her too if this job lasted long enough. He still felt that it could work out fine as long as he was left alone by drunks and crazy people.

Every time Gwen came up to the register or just passed by, David started to talk to her. But she ignored him and went off without a pause, without a word in reply. Finally she couldn't avoid him anymore, because she had to cover for his lunch hour, which meant she had to go up there and tell him he could go. But he wasn't hungry yet. He wanted to talk, not eat.