chapter twenty one
1032 Words
I heard the sound of the doorbell pierce through the silence in the kitchen. Laura was in the kitchen busy wrestling with the lump of dough the size , so it was my turn to wait on the customer I washed my hands and tried to brush away some of the flour that'd caked all over my apron before I walked by the lobby .
It was the ginger sasquatch again with two of his equally furry buddies in two ."welcome back" I said leaning on the door to ease the weight out of my feet.
"How can I help you?"
"Three dozen ginger please." Big foot grunted . He and his friends were crowding around the counter with ravenous looks on their face. One was eyeing the muffins in the display case
"Anything else " I said looking at the one eyeing the muffins on the display case. He was staring at the bunch of the apple nut muffins I had made the day before.
"I'll get one of those ." He said pointing at the muffins.
"Sure, I'll have that right up." I said as I turned back to pull three cookie boxes out from under the corner. When I turned back around to place the cookies back in place . Mr Bettle had his hand cupped around his eyes so he could see inside the front window . He had a streak of dirt on his cheek. I ignored him and went back to pulling the cookies out of the display case. "Here you are" I set the three boxes on the counter together with big foots friend's muffin.
"Thanks." The ginger handed me two bills. A one hundred dollar one and a twenty dollar one. "Keep the change, the cookies are worth it."
"Really, the order was a little over one hundred dollars." This too , the guy who was ordered the muffin pulled out a wad of bills and stuffed it in the tip jar.
''You guys rock. Send every single person you know in here.''
''Oh , we will .'' the ginger said before he left.
Mr Beetle turned around when they left and watched them walk across the parking lot toward their cares. Big foot stopped when he opened his door and looked at hm.
Mr Beetle gave him finger and ran off.
''Again?''Laura waled out of th kitchen .''Does he come every day you'r here alone?''
''Not every day but sometimes .''
''Look .''Laura pointed out the window .Mr Beetle walked back into the lot and bent over to pick up a cigarrette butt.He bit the end, pulled out the filter with his teeth and lit it.
''Oooh , that's wrong .''We both laughed.
''See ?Youre gonna have to get rid of him.''
''So long as he doesn't start licking all of our food, I'm sure it'll be okay.''
''Why does he keep running after the guys who come in here? it's like he's trying to guard you or something Maya , this man is dangerous .He's creeping me out , and I dont feel comfortable coming in here when he's around .And I know you don't want to hear it, but youre doing quite well without him.I thing it's time to get rid of him''
''I dont want a scene , and I don't thing it's that big of a deal.Plenty of businesses have homeless people who walk around the lot. This is downtown, after all.''
''Fine .''She gave up and walked back into the kitchen.
I stayed and waited through the lunch rush .Mr Bettle stayed throughout the entire thing, watching each customer as they passed the shop.I paid close attention to their reactions .Many didn't seem to care. It was like I told Laura .This was downtown .A certain element was expected , but there were some who seemed pertubed .One lady took a glance at him and started running out to her car.
''See?'' Laura came out of the kitchen when she left .''He's scaring people away.''
I sighed , and let my head fall back.''All right.....''
Laura c****d her head and looked at me.''All right, what?''
''Go lock the door and turn the sign around.''
''Really?''Her eyes went wide , and she ran out to go lock the door,.
The second she got close,Mr Beetle ran at the door. She lunged forward and locked it.He grabbed a handful of rocks and threw it straight at the front window.My heart stopped. If that thing shattered , it would cost me thousands of dollars to replace it .Thankfully, the rocks were small, bounced off and fell down to the ground.
''What are you going to do about that ?''Laura asked .
''Watch him carefully .if he does that again , call the police.''
''How come it took this long for you to come around.?''
I've been around the entire time. I've just never had a good reason to call the police on him.Coming in every day isn't a crime.'
''Property damage is''
Laura was mad at me for the rest of the night, stomping around, giving me the cold shoulde , I tried explaining to her why I'd waited so long to take action against Mr. Beetle-it would caused a scene-but she didn't want to hear it, and the more I thought about it, the more i understood why. She felt vulnereable .He cpuld walk in whenever he wanted to and do whatever he wanted to her, and here'd be nothing she cold do to stop him.
That night, I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing .I reached around blindly and grabed it.''Hello?''
''Maya...''
It was Laura .''What's going on?
What time is it?''
''Three-thirty .''
''What are you doing calling me this late?You've got to work in the morning .''
''I can't .I've been up all night puking.''Her voice was quiet, meek. she was afraid .I never let her get away with faking sick.
''Laura...''
''No.I mea it.I've been puking up ice chips for the past hour .''
''Tell me what's wrong ?''I knew what was wrong .She was supposed to work at the shope alone tommorrow .Mr Beetle had freaked her out more that I realised.
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