The three of them were foul, crude and all-round distasteful. I kind of liked them. They reminded me of most of my clients. It felt a bit like home.
In unison, all three heads perked up as if they were listening to something I couldn't hear.
“Billy?”
“Got it, Bobby.” Billy was now staring down at his watch.
“What's going on?” I asked and got a finger signaling to give them a minute.
And then suddenly, Bobby dropped his arm and Billy and Buddy cursed.
“What happened?” I asked again.
“Some chick was just talking about how her trip couldn't be postponed again. She knocked on wood before the minute was up,” Billy explained.
“That knock on wood thing really works?”
“Yeah. You get a minute to use it. Cuts off the signal to us,” Bobby said.
“People use it less and less, lately.” Buddy's eyes had an evil glint as he smiled mischievously.
Across the room, Murphy went on an epic sneezing rant, which I wouldn't have thought twice about except for the Jinxes’ reaction.
“Cover your mouth, you degenerate!” Buddy screamed.
“What do you think tissues are for, old man!” Billy chimed in.
Bobby looked at his two cohorts and me, and then uttered, “Who does something like that? What an animal.”
The other two grunted and huffed, agreeing with him, then turned their attention back to me again.
“You know, no one talks to you ‘cause you're a transfer. Fate keeps telling everyone you'll either leave soon or die, so it's not worth getting chummy, but we don't care what the rest of these dweebs do. We're trendsetters, not followers.”
I heard the office door shut and turned to see Fate walking in behind the caterer.
“Yeah, gotta go.” And just like that, the Jinxes took off to the other side of the office.
After laying out the food, the caterer made one last trip in, carrying a cake in the shape of a cat paw, which she put off to the side.
I got up and grabbed a tuna sub and a can of Diet Coke. I made a quick glance at the cake that read “Happy 1,000 Anniversary Kitty” before returning to my seat.
A thousand years? Hell no! Literally, I'd tell them to send me to hell before I sat here for a thousand years.
I looked around the place, pretending to read the newspaper, as I sat and ate alone. The air conditioning kicked on, sending a draft my way, letting me know Crow must have taken off his shoes again. He liked to go barefoot about the office and the odor from his shoes alone could bring a grown man to his knees.
I couldn't eat for the smell. I put my tuna sandwich down, scraping my arm on the edge of the broken table in the process.
One of Kitty's black cats jumped up on the table, looked at me, then the tuna.
“Knock yourself out.” I pushed the sub toward the cat, which meowed in reply and then dug in.
I sat back and thought about how I would not be able to exist like this for the next 1,000 years. I missed my life, my friends, having family. If I'd had a bad day at work before, I could call someone and talk it out afterward, instead of having to drown myself in Battlestar Gallactica reruns alone.
I worked in a dump full of weirdoes with no social graces, who treated me like I was the outcast. Thirty days of this was my max.
I tucked myself a little further back as I heard them laughing at some joke. Even Fate was laughing. I think it might have been him who made the joke. It was probably a hateful joke too, most likely at my expense.
I cringed. This place was turning me into one of those bitter people. The “secret haters” I used to call them. Didn't matter what happened in their lives, they were miserable. Now I felt like one of them.
Crow was lighting some candles on the cake as Kitty went over. The worst was I didn't know what to do as they gathered around the cake waiting for her to blow out the candles. I felt rude sitting here but they weren't looking to socialize.
The mutilated Happy Anniversary song over and the candles out, Murphy took a knife and started to cut the cake and dole it out to the group. I was looking down at my paper when I saw Murphy heading over with a piece of cake for me. It was such a simple gesture and yet it felt like the world to me.
I looked up and smiled at him as he covered the distance. And then there was Fate, stopping him with a hand on his arm.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Murphy looked at me, and then Fate, before he spoke in a hushed tone. “I feel bad.”
Fate's head was shaking and I couldn't understand what he said next but it didn't matter. They could keep their cake.
Fate's back still toward me, I got up and walked over to them.
“It's for her own good,” Fate said.
I should've kept walking but I didn't.
“What's for my own good?”
“That you realize you don't belong.” He didn't flinch as he spoke but stared at me and I matched it with my own venomous gaze.
“Whatever. Keep your cake.”
Murphy opened his mouth but shut it quickly when Fate gave him a small shove.
It was noon, five hours before quitting time, but I didn't care. I grabbed the keys to my Honda off the empty desk and headed out.
I tried to keep my gaze averted as I made my way to the door but it didn't help.
“Fate, I think you made her cry,” I heard Murphy say.
“Let her go,” he replied.
Chapter Nine
I'd stopped on my way out of the lobby and searched the board. There had to be another option for getting out of this mess besides Harold. That's how I ended up here. The plaque on the door read “Grief Counseling.” Who else could it be?
I grabbed the doorknob and then paused. If this was the reaper – the real deal as in death in a dingy robe with a sickle – did I really want to meet him...or her...it?
Why not? He couldn't look too much worse than Crow did. I had nothing but time on my hands and all I did was sit around that office all day. I'd just say hello and introduce myself as someone new in the building. When you thought about it, I was really just being neighborly.
And while we were getting acquainted, if by some chance the subject came up about me looking for an early exit from this particular situation, what harm was done? If he could hurry me along out of my contract a little quicker, I certainly wouldn't snub my nose at the offer.
I turned the doorknob and pushed in to the reception area. No one was there, but at least it didn't look dark and scary the way I'd feared. I guess I was being judgmental, assuming it would be all spiders and cobwebs. It looked similar to our own waiting area. Just like our place, there was a door on the far wall that led to the back.
“Hello?”
I was just about to knock on the interior door when it opened.
The room was black, without a glimmer of light escaping.
“Come in,” a deep male voice said from somewhere within all that darkness.
Sometimes judgment calls are more accurate than you hoped.
I came here uninvited. I couldn't go running now. I wanted out, after all. What if this was my way back into the system? I refused to be a sissy.
I took a step in and the lights shot on all of a sudden. A slender man who appeared to be in his sixties with thinning white hair sat behind an antique wood desk. The walls were lined on either side with leather bound books.
Yep, I'm judgmental.
“Sorry about that. I had a headache and the lights were bothering my eyes.” The deep voice that had bid me entry now sounded quite high and nasally.
“Did you take anything?” Did ibuprofen work on the reaper? This man couldn't possibly be death, sitting here all calm and nonthreatening in his three piece suit.
“Yes, but over the counters never work well for me.”
Did Death just tell me Advil didn't help his head? This had to be an assistant.
“Have a seat. I'd heard we had someone new in the building.”
Death seemed so friendly. Weird that he'd have the best manners of any of them so far.
“It's nice to meet you. I'm Cam...Karma.”