Work? “Like work work?” I asked.

Kush responded merrily, like he had gotten a good night’s sleep. “Yup. Like work. What you do to pay rent.”

“In what way?” I asked confounded.

“The magical way.”

Not helpful. Felix said. And for once, I agreed.

“Well, unfortunately, I have the day off and—” I was about to say before the unfortunate happened.

“Oh, do you, now?” Kush coyly remarked like he knew something that I did not.

Suddenly, my phone rang. Good to know that service still exists in the under-reality, Felix purred.

For a moment, I just held the vibrating phone in my hand. I was unsure of what to do.

“Answer it,” Kush said, “and say ‘yes.’”

Grunting, I did as I was told and hit the answer key.

“Hello,” I said speaking clearly into the phone, “Marcus.”

“Oh, hey, Marcus. Listen, we had a couple of call outs and was wondering if you wanted a bit of overtime?” the voice on the other end, some supervisor, said.

Reluctantly, I said yes and hung up.

“Now what?” I asked Kush. “I have to be at work.”

“Exactly. And while at work, I will teach you magic.”

~ ~ ~

Kush led me to my job site— something I was thankful for since I had no freaking clue on how to get out of this fucking sentient building that was bigger on the inside than the out.

But once at work? I wasn’t too happy. Not because it was an awful day— no, I was only shopping for orders. I was unhappy because I was at work. And this Kush guy dressed in the most elaborate and strange garb known to man was shadowing me on every item I picked.

“Do you always pick what the customer wants?” he asked me in complete earnest.

No, sometimes you give them an enema when they want apples, Felix remarked.

I rolled my eyes but telepathically responded back, “Sure. Not like it matters. Ends in the same place.”

But to Kush I said, “Yes. I wouldn’t be a very good To Go shopper if I refused the orders of my customers.”

“Solvent point. I was just curious whether their demands as consumers were second fiddle to yours as a worker,” Kush responded.

“Why would my concerns even matter? I am a strung above a shopper. An expediter. My concerns matter as much to management as that of a mouse to a snake.”

“I see. So labor is still alienated.”

Huh? What the hell is he on?

Under-reality drugs? Worker’s power? Who knows. I stopped following mortal concerns a long time ago. When I awakened to my own people’s suffering I dedicated myself to— Felix was going on but I interrupted: Booooring! See how that feels?

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

A sharp pain in my shoulders confirmed that Felix found it unamusing. I still smirked.

“But yeah . . . alienated. Sure. Any reason why you are asking so many questions about my job?” I asked Kush.

“In fact, there is a reason. I must know a lot about how your place of employment to understand where your process will head when you begin to learn magic. It is not a one-to-one methodology when it comes to magical learning.”

Obviously, this intrigued me a lot. Magic? Felix tried to explain it to me once before but I remembered nothing of it. It was as though the words refused to cement into my mind and were all nonsense syllables. Maybe now an explanation would stick?

Don’t count on it, Felix said. I think you’re just stupid.

I continued my tour— my shopping of the order segments I took, and staged all of my bags into the proper departmental zones: shelves for center store items, the fridge for cold and dairy, and freezer for those sweet treats and neat meats. Refreshing my tablet, just to make sure no tags had been left unscanned into the proper zone, I hit the ‘end tour’ button and was returned to the order segment select screen.

Looking back, I saw Kush a few feet away from me. He seemed entranced by a promotional poster for some energy drink. To his credit, the promotion was dynamic and featured shiny, holographic colors.

Managing Kush had been a problem when not shopping. I could only inform some random stranger of the processes of my job so often before my own supervisors wondered why I was teaching this rando the ins and outs of To Go. When I expedited, I had to hide Kush in a very public area; a very impossible task in most circumstances. I did, though, luck out in having mostly shopping to do on today, what was supposed to be my day off.

“I’m taking a fifteen!” I said to a co-worker who simply waved his hand in acknowledgment.

Normally, when I took my breaks, I went into the break room, but seeing as how I needed some air— especially after spending hours upon hours unleashing frequency triggers to do my shopping, the partially dimensional world still throwing me for a loop, I instead went outside to find some air. I found myself by the wooden picnic tables before too long.

Outside near the back of the store, Kush and I could talk in private. I don’t know why but I had expected Kush to be invisible to the every day crowd. But no, he was nowhere near invisible.

We sat on a bench, which from my perspective, seemed almost as though I were leaning on a bench, since the angles were strange; I could see down and confirm that I was, yes, sitting, but with the whole world almost leaning in toward me and my peripheral vision limited, it was a strange sight. In Cosmic Mode, meanwhile, it was nearly idyllic.

“I have observed you well,” said Kush, talking highly of himself. “And I think you will make a great addition to the team.”

“Thanks!” I said with a bit too much genuine earnest. “So, magic time?”

“Magic time. Do you know anything about magic? Other than what the glorified mutant there on your shoulders has said?”

Felix hissed but then returned to cleaning himself, almost as though the hiss were a joke shared amongst friends.

“No,” I said, “and on top of that, anything Felix said just slipped from my mind. Like it was impossible for it to stay.”

“That’s because magic is forbidden knowledge. Mortals and those ignorant of the under-reality are not supposed to know of magic. It is irrelevant to their lives, so, like a color incapable of being seen by the human retina, the knowledge of magic slips as well. It is actually interesting that you were unable to retain knowledge of it. I supposed your mind was still acclimating.”

For a moment, a twinge of fear shot through me— what if it was impossible for me to learn magic? What if I were a mistake? How would I join this underworld then? But, I guess that question was pointless since, surely, it would mean that my life would return back to normal; that things would go back to my boring, work-a-day 9-5 job . . .

“Very likely. It was not even a week ago that I learned about all of this, after all.”

“Ah, verily? Good to know. For some reason, I thought you were an older addition to the under-reality. But, no. You are brand new. Good . . . good,” and as Kush said these things his train of thought seemed to trail off until nothing remained. He jotted something into the air with his finger, as though he were taking notes on an invisible clipboard that was always in front of him, and then resumed the talk.

“Nope. Brand new. What is the first step in using magic?” I asked, excited like a little kid to know the secrets of witchcraft.

“The first step? My good sir, you have already taken the first step. For, anyone who wants to perform the arcane must be a master of of the time-intensive process known as labor!”

“Labor? I asked, genuinely confused.

“Yes. If you want to learn magic, you need a full time job!”