Chasing Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page B

still glares at me when
he sees me. Fuck him though: silly, cashiering motherfucker. I
laugh a to myself before I realize I’m doing it.
    Oh well, everyone lets out an unexplained,
sinister, little chuckle once in while right? At least I’m not
ducking invisible shadows. Which reminds me of the one I saw in the
history section. Damn, Ashley made me forget it until just now.
I’ll have to think about that on the ride home. It was so much more
real than the others have ever been. I wonder if it’s time to check
myself into an asylum. I know I won’t though, no matter how
justified. I will wait for the cops to come cart my ass away like
any other self respecting lunatic. I’m hungry and I really need a
cigarette.
    ***
    Want to get to know your co-workers the fast
way? Have your hair dyed three different colors. I am cringing
inwardly and trying for some posture that is neither conceited nor
mouse-like. It’s below forty degrees tonight. Usually colder
weather thins the heard when it comes to smokers, but tonight
almost everyone who can stand to smoke is smoking. They've all come
out to continue to gawk at me. Fin insisted I wear my hair down
tonight in order to better display her handiwork. The hair is
basically blonde with light pinky-red stripes. Then there are the
two streaks of baby blue located just above and in front of my
ears. If I were to tie the top half of my hair back the blue would
show, but with the hair down it just suggests itself under there. I
am not entirely sure how I feel about this. Inwardly I cannot refer
to it as my hair, it’s the hair. At least it'll make
Halloween easy; Rainbow Bright it is.
    Betty, the co-worker who always likes me,
smiles. "You did good Cassandra." She puts the emphasis on 'san'.
"Fixed up my baby."
    I smile too. I'm not sure what I ever did to
get on Betty's good list. I'm more than a little afraid that it's
all a misunderstanding, but that never stops me from basking in the
unwavering acceptance of Betty's superior personality.
    "Thank you, Miss Betty." Fin says. "You can
call me Fin though, Doug started that and I like it."
    "Ha! Bull shit little girl." Betty says.
"Did your mother call you Fin?" When Betty says fin it sounds like
a kind of slug. I laugh. This is great. Fin rolls her eyes. Betty
continues, "And what happens when you dump that boy, Doug." Betty
snorts. "Stupid ass name if you ask me, which I realize you didn't, but that doesn't matter."
    I laugh some more, giggle actually, like a
kid.
    "You shut up." Fin says to me. "Or I'll turn
you back into a frog. Meegan calls me Fin." She says to
Betty.
    "Hmm." Betty takes a very effeminate drag off
her cigarette and squints at me.
    I just laugh again. With this hair it’s really
all I can do.
    At this moment Kathy comes to the door. "Breaks
over ladies and gentlemen." Her high voice is trying hard to sound
friendly.
    "Yes Ma'am." Betty calls back, and with her as
our leader, we all file back into Flagship.
    Kathy is our supervisor tonight as Super Al
must, by law, be allowed some nights off. When we've all gotten
through the door she locks it and says, "Hold on everybody, we're
having a staff meeting. Everyone please head up to the cafe so we
can get started."
    ***
    At the meeting I take my spot next to Fin and
Doug. Conceptually, one would imagine that the purpose of holding a
staff meeting in the cafe is so that everyone can sit. This is not
so. All the chairs are up on the tables, waiting for the cleaning
crew who comes in at five to mop the floors. Taking them down would
only mean putting them back up again, so we all stand around in a
semi-circle facing Kathy. Funny, there never seems to be any call
for a staff meeting when Super Al is here.
    Kathy clears her throat and smoothes the front
of her tight fitting, red, angora sweater. She is wearing it over
khaki colored pants and brown sensible shoes. Kathy's boobs are
each roughly the size of her head. When she feels like she has our
attention, Kathy begins to