“ORDER FOR JONES!” A worker sporting a red cap and apron announced out from behind their counter at Patcheez, placing a brown paper bag down with grease seeping through its bottom. Every corner of the dining area was silent; a person walking in would first be able to make out the buzz of a fly before any semblance of social interaction from other humans. All ten tables in the restaurant were perfectly wiped and shining and showing no signs of being occupied by guests for at least another day. This was 10:20 on a Wednesday.
“That’s me…” Jones, a man who must have been in his late nineties, said as he walked, ever so slowly to pick up the bag. “Thank you…” He waved goodbye as he traveled to the door with his order.
He reached for the handle, but it was held open for him by a young woman, wearing the same red cap and apron.
“Thank you, Ms.!” He scooted past her.
“You’re welcome,” Azura said.
The woman at the counter heard her voice, and called to her from her station, “Where have you been? I’ve been covering for you!”
“Sorry Triss I was held up. I’ve got the cash register covered; you can take a break.”
She smiled and went to the back of the building while Azura began to get set up at the register, before Azura hollered back, “Hey is Mack coming in today?”
“Nah he’s doing something. You need him?”
Azura tightened her lips. “No. Don’t worry about it.”
“Hey Azura!” the young cook greeted her from the kitchen.
“Hi Nick.”
It was 12:30.
Azura made sure the cash register was covered, and walked through the kitchen to access a silver metal door hiding in the back of the building. One shove, and she was out in the back alley, sharing air with the dumpster that hadn’t been emptied since Thursday. There was a single gray step under the door that she sat on as she put her wrist to her mouth, with her watch dialing Mack’s number.
“Azura?”
“Hi Mack, how are you?” she spoke into the watch.
A slight pause existed whenever she stopped speaking, as she waited for the audio to reach his end. “Oh, I’m good. I’m at the lake with my family right now. Why you calling, everything going alright there?”
“Yes, everything’s good, I’m sorry to be calling while you’re with your family I just wanted to discuss something with you, do you think you have a few minutes?”
“Uh… yeah… I guess I can talk for a sec, what’s up?”
“I was hoping to talk about the possibility of a pay raise?”
“A pay raise?” he said to himself.
“Unless of course you think this would be better suited to talk about in person.”
“No no, you can keep going.”
“Well, I feel like I have been very consistent with my work for the past year, and I have been picking up more shifts than usual in the last month, along with helping to situate the new hires. My rent was also raised recently so… I think at this point in my career at the restaurant, a salary increase would be appropriate.”
“Well… yeah I mean you have been with us a while, I can definitely see where you’re coming from… sure yeah I think we could look into giving you a bump.”
“Wonderful, thank you so much… we’ll look into it?”
“Sure, I mean we could figure something out right now, if you want.”
“That would be perfect, yes let’s do that.”
“Okay, well, usually what I’ll do is ask you first: how much you were thinking?”
“Well… given the time that I put in here, and the wages of other similarly employed workers in the area… I was thinking five percent?”
“Five percent…?”
“Yes, would five percent be possible?”
“Hm…”
When the call ended, she yanked the door open and let it slam shut as she trudged to the break room. Though the dumpster remained outside, she couldn’t help but feel the stench of garbage stuck inside the building’s walls. Supposed to be a place separate from the stress of the job, she found even the break room was unable to provide her a sanctity of mind, as within seconds of pulling out a chair, a cracking teenage voice pierced her ears.
“Hey Azura?” Nick stood in the doorway, like a child waiting for his parent.
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“What do you need Nick?” Azura’s words barely escaped her tightened .
“Well I started the grill, but I have a feeling it might be like not the right temperature? Maybe too high?”
“I’m sure the temperature is fine Nick.” Azura said, just an inch away from losing all control of her temperament.
“Yeah it might be, but I was thinking maybe you could just change the temperature for me? I think it’s better that way so I don’t do it wrong.”
“OH MY GOD!” She was pushed past the remaining inch. Her chair made an obnoxious SCREECH as she forcefully pushed it back to stand up. She stomped over to Nick, looking like she was about to hit him, but stormed right past and into the kitchen, where to Nick shyly followed her.
“Look at me do it!” she yelled at the boy, and pressed her finger on the green touchscreen that hid below the left side of the grill, which didn’t currently have anything cooking on it. The screen turned red, and a circular temperature scale appeared, to which she slid her finger around on until it read 450˚.
“Were you watching?”
“Y-yeah―”
“Can you do that? Are you capable of sliding your finger on the temperature gauge, answer me YES or NO.”
He looked at her terrified, and barely answered, “Yes.”
“Okay so next time you want to change the temperature on the grill what will you do? Are you going to stare at the grill and hope it changes?”
“No…”
“Are you going to come and ask me to do it?”
“No.”
“Are you going to put on your big boy pants, press your finger right here and TURN the TEMPERATURE GAUGE?”
“Yes I’ll turn the gauge,” the boy whimpered.
Azura scowled at him, making entirely sure that he understood.
“Get it together next time.” She stormed back to the breakroom.
Nick played with the temperature, scale, and moved to check on his burgers on the other side of the grill, which were now burnt completely black. At the front counter, Triss greeted a customer, “Hi, welcome to Patcheez, what can I get started for you?”
Warm soapy water ran down Azura’s hand, lit by the glow of an irksome yellow hue coming from above her as she scrubbed dishes in her kitchen sink. One after the other she washed brown sauce and other gunk off her plates leaving them with a shining white texture that she could look at herself through. It was just her in the apartment, her and the sound water splashing down from the faucet to the glass below.
She had started wiping down the glasses when she heard the click of the front door, and Soteria’s subsequent entrance, wrapped in an attire of a fitted blue button up shirt and a black skirt that touched her knees. Though she only had the light from the kitchen to illuminate her, Azura could still make out the same bags lying under Soteria’s eyes.
“Hey,” Soteria greeted her, as she took off her flats by the door.
“Hi.” Azura continued to scrub out the glasses.
Soteria looked at her pained expression, and part of that pain was reflected to her, turning her already tired mind into one that was also tackled by the weight of concern.
“Hey Ren shot me a message couple hours ago,” she mentioned to Azura, “he said he tried some of the barbecue at the hospital? Not bad, says he. Might have to go back.”
“Hm. Believe it when I see it.”
“Ain’t that right.” She smirked. “He also said he’s probably gonna be heading home tomorrow.”
Azura sat with it for a moment. “That’s good.”
“Yeah, I thought so too. Can’t be cooped up with those lights for too long before you end up needing a room for yourself, huh.”
Azura put the cleaned glasses into the drying rack and wiped off her hands with a towel, giving no mindfulness to Soteria’s comment.
Soteria leaned against the breakfast bar. Azura walked to the couch to sit down and stare at the wall.
Soteria chimed, “Remember Alec, right? So we were talking about ordering pizza for us working late, and we call a place and they say they can get us the pizza cut into six slices or eight slices, so I ask him how many slices he thinks we should do, and he goes, Better make it six, I don’t think we could eat eight.”
“What?” Azura said, confused by the story.
Soteria stood in silence. “Want to put on some music?”
“Sotie,” Azura looked at her with understanding eyes. “I’m good.”
“Yeah. Got it.”
She got up and walked down the hallway, and Azura could hear the door to her room open, along with some distant rustling. Seconds later, Soteria came back into the living room and sat by Azura, setting a solid blue and gold gift-wrapped box onto the floor right by their feet. Azura looked at it, but Soteria just kept her eyes on the wall. She then turned her head to face Azura.
“Oh this? This is nothing don’t even worry about it,” she teased Azura’s silence.
She was able to give the faintest smile to Soteria. “You got me a gift?”
Soteria playfully shrugged and raised her eyebrows. “I dunno, maybe. You want a gift?”
Azura gently picked up the box, placed it on her lap, and gave the gold bow a light tug. It elegantly came undone, and she tore away the remaining wrapping paper, revealing inside was a small cardboard box. She opened it, then raised her hand to her mouth. Secured in the cardboard was a sleek, beautiful metal glove, coated in a pristine silver shell on the back, and having a durable black photomesh covering the palm. She looked at Soteria, with eyes half saying, how on earth did you get this, and half saying, why on earth did you think I deserved to get this?
Soteria gave a sly smirk, knowing she did well. “So, what’s that look mean?”
Azura let out a shocked breath. “It… it means thank you!”
“Yeah. Was saving this one for the big two-zero, but, figured now was a good time. That thing should run better than your watch, has twice the memory, and y’know, bigger screen, so easier to use.”
“Isn’t it supposed to come in a different box?” Azura questioned, as the shock gave out for just a moment.
“Yeah… it was,” Soteria answered, “but I had to add a few personal touches to it before it was ready for you. You should find a setting on there labeled disarmed. Change that to armed, and if somebody is ever giving you any trouble, you give them a nice shove.” She pointed her finger at Azura. “Zap.”
Azura’s eyes widened. “You gave me a taser.”
“Could call it that,” Soteria said nonchalantly. “You gonna try it on?”
She carefully slid the metal onto her hand. The inside had a soft padding that made it fit more comfortably than what it looked like, and the cooling system made it feel like she was sticking her hand in a refrigerator. She spun it around to face her, and the photomesh activated, displaying a neon blue holographic screen just a few millimeters above her hand.
Soteria smiled. “Fits like a glove.”
By the nights end, she had already gotten her computer’s data loaded onto the glove, allowing her access to her applications and files at her fingertips.
As she lied in bed on her side, swiping through different pages, from her photos, to bank account, she landed on her contacts. She scrolled down through the names of her recent contacts, satisfied to see them all translated so cleanly onto her new device.
Johnny Macdonald
Soteria
Frey Kemi
Ren Kenson
Bear
…She scrolled up with a small nudge of the screen.
Frey Kemi
She rolled on her back and stared at the ceiling.